The Best Places in San Francisco to Walk in the Fog
Hello, Karl, my old Friend
San Francisco looks different under the fog. Streets yawn endlessly; lights disappearing into nothingness. Cliffs and mountains no longer open onto sprawling views of the city’s splendor but instead seem perched at the edge of reality. Beaches lose their people and become fuzzy. I don’t mean to sound dramatic, but the closest thing I’ve ever felt to the presence of God is staring into the fog and feeling something stare back. If you’re a San Franciscan, you know what I’m talking about.
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We are in the throes of what we San Franciscans affectionately refer to as “Fogust.” More extreme fogbanks blanket the whole city in a dreamlike mist, but more often they’ll hover a few hundred feet above sea level, leaving the city’s lower neighborhoods untouched and settling in the city’s mountainous center. It’s not uncommon for the Castro, Mission, or Noe Valley to stay sunny while Forest Hill and Ingleside are ensconced in mist, so for those seeking the fog, the best bet is to climb.
Here, we present a list of the places to walk alongside the city’s most beloved weather phenomenon. If it’s fog and not sun you seek, read on.
1. Brooks Park
The hump of rock known as Brooks Park straddles the ridge between Ingleside and Oceanview near the southern border of the city. There’s no easy way to climb these exhausting hills, but the dense fog the park attracts, coupled with the eerie charm of these isolated neighborhoods that are rarely explored except by locals, make for a beautiful and bone-chilling experience. When you look into a clouded gray expanse and know it’s Daly City, you really get a sense of how vast and unknowable the world is. Entrances to the park are located on Vernon, Arch, and Ramsell streets, and from there you can walk east down Shields Street to Ashton and Lakeview Mini Park, a smaller but no less dramatic outcropping of rock a few blocks down.
2. Golden Gate Heights
The Golden Gate Heights neighborhood rises out of the divide between the Sunset and Forest Hill, and it’s almost always foggy. The area is home to a few scattered, rocky outcroppings that reveal San Francisco’s geologic substrata. Grandview Park, crowned with Monterey cypresses and known to locals as Turtle Hill, is the southernmost of these. But make your way down 14th Avenue and you’ll find the underrated Golden Gate Heights Park, a hilltop dune with a lovely meadow, a playground, and plenty of places to sit and rest.
3. Interior Greenbelt
Located on the eastern slope of Mount Sutro, the Interior Greenbelt is sandwiched between Cole Valley and the University of California, SF. The invasive eucalyptus forest that blanketed Mount Sutro fascinated me for years before I discovered how to access it through the Interior Greenbelt. You can enter the woods along Stanyan Street in Cole Valley and Clarendon Street near Forest Knolls, but my favorite point of access is Medical Center Way, which snakes behind UCSF and offers a fantastic view of that gargantuan complex before winding up, and up, and up. There’s a fantastic network of trails within the Interior Greenbelt — but note, they’re quite narrow, so social distancing may be difficult. Obviously wear a mask. This is another reason I like to go around dusk, when there are few walkers or bikers, and make my way back down to the Sunset before it gets dark.
4. Land’s End
I live within sight of Lincoln Park Golf Course in the southeastern corner of Land’s End, and if I see fog in the trees, it’s a safe bet it’ll be foggy in the rest of the city’s most windswept and desolate corner. I recommend starting at Lincoln Park Playground by 33rd Avenue and Clement, walking to the Palace of Legion of Honor, and making your way to the end of El Camino del Mar for a shortcut along the Coastal Trail to Fort Miley and Sutro Baths. (My longtime dream of ending one of these walks with a meal at Louis’ Restaurant will sadly never come true.)
5. Mount Davidson
Towering 928 feet above sea level, just a few feet higher than Twin Peaks, Mount Davidson marks the highest point in the city. Entrances to the mountain’s many trails can be found on Juanita Way and Lansdale Avenue. Usually, Mount Davidson offers awe-inspiring views of the city, but in the fog, it’s like a forest from a fairytale, the 103-foot cross that marks the summit perpetually looming overhead. The side streets that girdle it in the Miraloma and Sherwood Forest neighborhoods are no less fun to explore, cowering as they do in the shadow of the great mountain.
6. Quintara Street
The most altitudinous street in the Sunset bears the full brunt of the high fogs that blow inland from the ocean, and the cool breezes that typify the Outer Avenues are at their briniest and most refreshing here. Start at 19th Avenue and pass by the Sunset Reservoir, which provides amazing views of the Pacific Ocean and the Avenues — even when it’s foggy, and those neighborhoods manifest as an endless grid of tiny lights.
7. Rob Hill Campground
I envy those from other parts of the city who view the Avenues as out-of-the-way. I was born and raised in the Richmond district and would love to explore it for the first time again, experiencing it in the full bloom of its mystery. The Presidio is one of the most mysterious spots in the city, dotted with moldering batteries and disused buildings. (It’s federal land, so stoners should be warned that smoking weed there carries steeper penalties than elsewhere in the city — technically up to six months in jail, though most people get away with fines of a few hundred dollars.) Rob Hill Campground is located at the Presidio’s highest point. Enter at 15th Avenue and Lake Street, take Battery Caulfield Road past the hulking Presidio Landmark apartment building, and walk up about three-quarters of a mile until you reach Washington Boulevard. Then, it’s into the woods.
8. Sutro Tower
If you can’t see Sutro Tower, you know it’s a truly foggy day. The best way to access it is through Clarendon Avenue, which also leads to the Interior Greenbelt through UCSF’s Aldea Housing. The tower seems to hide in the trees, and if it’s foggy enough, you’d be forgiven for missing its 977-foot form until you get close enough that it glints impressively out of the mist. It’s a marvel how this massive construction can hide itself so well.
