It has a water element, a meandering-path element, and a mysterious clubhouse/rumpus room/community…read morecenter element. There are dogs. It's close to honest-to-goodness houseboats. It's close to a library. It's the perfect place to walk, jog, lie on the grass, and people-watch. Did I mention there are dogs? I'm not normally one to recommend spending too much money, but you could do much worse than picking up overpriced sandwiches, chips, and drinks from nearby Gus's, walking to Mission Creek Park, and making a picnic out of it. There's no readily apparent--wink, wink--easy parking nearby, but lucky for you, there's plenty of public-transit access. There are many things I hate about Mission Bay as a new neighborhood, but its park game is right up there with the best of San Francisco neighborhoods. Now if only the esplanade area (north of Mission Creek Channel, between 3rd & 4th Streets) were part of this park, it would be perfect.

I love walking around here and looking at the houseboats. There are about 20 houseboats, and it…read morelooks so quaint. The park itself is very grassy and nice to sit and chill and read or just people watch. Lots of people bring their dogs here. I love being around water and the calmness it brings. It's a nice break from the classic tourist SF waterfront. For a walk it's about 1.5 miles for a loop up to the ballpark and back to the houseboats. I don't like this much as a loop since it's a little industrial for a bit when going under the freeway area, so I tend to just walk through the park across the bridge and back. For something longer, you can add China Basin Park and the Bay Trail to Crane Cove Park. This is better for someone that lives around here or already doing something in the area. Parking on Channel can get very expensive on a meter if there is a game going on at nearby Oracle Park. For a list of more SF hikes and walks: https://bit.ly/43PhQtL

Great viewing point for the new Oakland Bay Bridge East span. Interesting historic placard…read moredescribing Bay Bridge construction. Small green space for a picnic after a hike up the three mile span. There are even some public bathrooms.

Took the Portola trail with the dog. Path was well maintained and relaxing with lots of birdsong…read more There are benches, a playground, field, picnic area and water stations prior to the trails.

You can explore the great outdoors and indoors in San Francisco at different parks around the city…read more What if I told you there is a place which has an outdoor pickle ball court, basketball gym, and indoor climbing, and a baseball field all within less than a half block of each other. What if I also told you it was the location were the first dynamite factory in America. You would have seen lots of different dynamite fire at this location in 1868. Today this place is located in the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco and it's called Glen Canyon Park and Recreation. On a Spring stroll you can enjoy the sun in San Francisco and go out for a jog and hike and also walk the dog at Glen Canyon Park. This place feels as you stepped into nature inside a forest and canyon outside San Francisco. This place looks far from the scenery around the Civic Center. You will also find a community painted mural which reflects the Glen Canyon Park habitat like the animals and birds designed by animated television series Bob Burgers artist Sirron Norris. There are no amusement parks in San Francisco but you can be amused at the different local parks the city has by living that park life. Make " sometime "to go on a stroll to Glen Park Canyon you will see flowers the color of lemon and grass the color of "lime" don't be sour in SF you can book online for some "pickleball time" or an indoor rock wall "climb" Hike around the canyon and get view of some birdies like the owls and the coyotes and" Sutro Tower" Glen Canyon Park a former site in 1868 of a place which they built dynamite with blasting "fire power" now you can do some rock wall climbing for "$15 an hour"and go outside and see the purple and yellow "flower"

Hidden but not hidden. A tiny parked tucked away in the heart of San Francisco with an incredible…read moreview of San Francisco's skyline. If you're not fit, you're not gonna make it here. Just like most places in the city, you'll get here by walking up steep hills and million steps. This park as a few benches facing the city. Best time to visit are sunny days. Grab a coffee, get some food and enjoy the scenic view from this park

Current frontrunner for favorite small SF park. Tiered, 4 or 5 levels?, and so well designed. Seems…read morelike it stays less busy. Leads with a flat area and benches near the entrance. Winding pathways and a variety of stairs through the middle as well alongside gorgeous, colorful flowers and trees. Great city views up top, including sweeping views of Alcatraz Island and smaller cities/islands. Staircase on either side for easy access. So jealous of the folks living in those picturesque apts! Most importantly, I saw someone post a pic of the resident parrots on Instagram today that apparently live there -- bummed they didn't make an appearance for us but aw.. I'm so happy to know they have such a gorgeous home. I then went down a rabbithole and discovered that a SF resident named Mark Bittner had frequently interacted with them, wrote about them, and made a film about them with a woman who he eventually married. All thanks to birdz. An excerpt from Wiki: "He is the author of The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, the book which accompanies the film The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill... Bittner spent 14 years on the streets of San Francisco after his dream of becoming a professional musician fell apart. After many years of doing odd jobs while maintaining a The Dharma Bums-type lifestyle, he found a flock of naturalized parrots (mostly cherry-headed conures aka red-masked parakeets) in the area of Telegraph Hill. His book, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, and the documentary of the same name, by Judy Irving, describe that encounter and the relationship he formed with the birds. In 2006, Judy married Mark Bittner after the two fell in love during the filming of Parrots." Come here and fall in love. with the parrots, a human, or just the view.

Max is an excellent instructor - he has good conceptual frameworks for climbing safety, but he also…read moreknows how to explain the gray areas at the edges of the textbook knowledge. You will cover a staggering amount of ground in the one day anchors and rescue workshop, with plenty of time for hands on drills and feedback. Highly recommended, there's a reason that (at the time of this writing) 100% of the reviews are 5 stars.

I took the Level I Anchor and Rescue Skills workshop this weekend. Max is an awesome instructor! I…read morehad some experience building climbing anchors in the past, but it was entirely based on what I thought were best practices, with little understanding of the science or principles behind it. Max starts from first principles, with instruction about the forces that occur on an anchor during a fall. You learn about why kN ratings on gear are important, and how the correct / incorrect use of gear can make a huge difference on the strength of the anchor. This isn't a course about memorizing how to build a set of anchors, but instead teaches you how to assess the overall attributes of any given anchor (e.g. how much force can it safely handle? how redundant is it?) From those principles, it makes it much easier to confidently build a safe anchor. Planning on coming back for more courses.

This is one of my favorite parks (although I have quite a few) in the city. It also offers a fair…read moreamount of climbing - watch your step as there is loose gravel here & there. The panoramic views make it worth the effort. The Franciscan chert is truly magnificent

Took my little one here to play and hike months ago. The view is lovely here, but lots of active…read morecoyotes warning signs all over the mountain when we visited. Also some areas here are very steep and I don't recommend coming here when it's raining as the area can get very slippery. The dog run area is okay. Lots of room for the little one to run around, but I probably won't bring him back because it's out of the way for us, and for the other concerns I listed above.

Billy Goat Hill is one of the most beautiful hidden gems of San Francisco that I have come across…read moreto date. It gave me and the girls a great opportunity to do some light hiking during our trip as tourists while enjoying the gorgeous view on a crisp and sunny morning as the day we visited. First we walked to Canyon Market and got ourselves some hot drinks and breakfast to go before walking up to the hill. We knew about the swing being there but they had taken it out before we got there; I'm sure it posed as a hazard for people. Regardless, I could not stop taking pictures of the skyline. The blue sky overlapped by the grey clouds on a January morning...the endless array of buildings in all shapes and lengths...greenery...it's just a magical view. I especially loved the addition of the stairs that leads you up and down the hill and makes it easier for folks. Even walking to the hill through the residential streets was a real treat with the view of all the beautiful houses in their ornate colors and designs. I'll never get tired of the views here. PARKING I think we parked on one of the residential streets

Billy Goat Hill would be a definite five stars in most other US cities, but I can't go passing out…read morefive-star San Francisco-park reviews like candy, and the swing no longer exists and/or works, and the swing was/would be what got this review to five stars. But Billy Goat Hill, man. It's difficult to overestimate just how surprising it is as a San Francisco park. It's not overbuilt, overthought, or annoying. Do you know how much of San Francisco is all three of those things? And especially some of its parks? No, the hill is just that: a hillside that was spared from construction, probably because of the complicated nest of streets and elevations at its lower, northern end. The best way to appreciate it is to come in the afternoon. If you really want to unspoil the surprise, drive east on Addison Street past Walter Haas park. Turn right on Everson Street and then left on Beacon Street. Right after the houses end on the north side of Beacon Street, park your car. The view of downtown is amazing. Give yourself a little bit of time up on the street before you go down the path and stairs. After that initial stunning view, the rest of the park can feel anticlimactic. It's not really maintained as a green-grass park; it's just a more-or-less feral hillside with some iconic trees, some rocky ground, and wooden box steps and handrails that have seen better days. The path goes down the hill to Laidley Street. It's fairly steep, so if you're bringing someone with mobility issues, they should either not go all the way down, or you should drive and pick them up--which is its own issue because although it's only down the hill, it is impossible to drive to the bottom of the park without going three or four times the distance. From where you parked on Beacon Street, continue west and turn right at Diamond Street. Then turn right again onto 29th Street. Turn right on Castro Street, and when it dead-ends at the park, turn left onto 30th Street. The path at the bottom of the park ends near the weird intersection of 30th & Laidley Streets. Oh, and that "dead end" of Castro Street isn't really where it ends--after a long gap, it reappears in Glen Park for a little more than a block between Bemis and Chenery Streets, where it ends for good. It gets really windy up here, and there are no real places to sit, so it's more of a short-hike park than a hanging-out park. Still, it can be serene to just sit in your car and take in the view, which never gets old. Another fun part is looking almost due east from the promontory and seeing Bernal Hill also standing out beautifully and boldly in the city. I'm sure you can see Billy Goat Hill from Bernal Hill as well. I've been many times on beautiful, fog-free days, and I've never had trouble finding street parking right on Beacon Street. There's regular street sweeping, of course, but I'm really surprised it's not more crowded with cars.

Used to live a block away from this open space and we loved it! Great views in a great neighborhood.read more

Beautiful wild open space preserve with amazing views of the city. It's the perfect place to walk…read moreyour dog, and there are a few benches scattered around too. It's a sprawling area with small paths intersecting through, so best for if you're wearing sturdy shoes.