Travel Log - 10/11/2011 - Sutro Baths, Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA

This route runs a circle around Golden Gate Park. Starting with the Muni, the N line goes out to Ocean Beach, also called Outer Richmond by Burrito Justice [1]. This is a long, dense block of streets filled with apartment block after apartment block. Once the N line reaches the end, it is a short walk across Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, and you are on sandy dunes on the San Francisco beach!

I walked north from that point, along the western edge of Golden Gate Park. The park ends at the highway, which is where the beach begins. Continuing north past the park, there are yet more apartments, more densely packed neighborhoods, and more beach. The ground rapidly rises into large hills, continuing north, and forms a 20 meter cliff, on top of which sits the Cliff House. Out in the water, but close to the beach, are huge rocks - Seal Rocks - and the entire landscape starts to get very rocky. The sea crashes and foams, and it smells strongly of the sea.

I entered the Sutro Baths by way of the north side of the Cliff House, just after the sun had been snuffed and well before the moon had come out to turn the light back on. The place was creepy - the first sight of it was surreal, like looking at the setting for some Salvador Dali painting. Dusk, everything with a purple tinge, and here were these huge manmade swamps from decades ago yawning on the hillside.

(some gnarly pictures go here)

I climbed back up to the Cliff House by way of a trail that went around back of the Sutro Baths. I continued up the hill until I got to the Seal Rock Inn and 48th Avenue, where I caught the 38L bus (Geary Street Limited). This route basically traverses the entire San Francisco peninsula along Geary Street, terminating around Embercadero station. This is a really nice way to get to (again, deferring to Burrito Justice for names of neighborhoods) Lincoln Park and Sea Cliff. Going north would likely yield some truly fantastic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, and is a day trip I am planning to take soon.

I was able to ride the Geary Street bus to Van Ness, at Van Ness Plaza a few blocks north of City Hall. The Van Ness bus led me south of Market, where the bus moved from Van Ness to Mission. The Van Ness/Mission bus route traverses the Mission via Mission.

This led me to the Mission district right around dinner time, and I ate at Taqueria Cancun, home of some mega yummy monster burritos and tacos, gooey cheesy quesadillas, and chips and salsa too. It was amazing. I wolfed.

After that, I walked around looking for a place where I could get a cup of joe and read from my book. I went to Rodger's Coffee: closed. Mission Creek: closed. Muddy Waters: closed. Four Barrel Coffee: closed. Seems to be a deficiency all over. Coffee in Upper Haight: terrible. Mocha from Progressive Grounds in Bernal Heights was good. Nobody makes coffee the same way. At least I have one drink: a Turkish coffee, made with cardamom, with cream and sugar, from Rodger's coffee.

After the fruitless search for a coffee shop, I opted to spend the trip home reading instead.

How to get to Ocean Beach: Take the BART SFO-bound train to Embarcadero Transfer to the Muni N line Take the N line to the end Go north How to get from Ocean Beach to Mission: Take the 38L (L = Limited, express bus with fewer stops along the way) This costs $2 (use Muni credit) Transfer to Van Ness (free to transfer within 90 minutes of using the Muni credit)