Once a sewage outlet, this has got to be the most isolated little park in the city. Just two acres, it's at the eastern end of 25th Street on the edge of Dogpatch surrounded by abandoned warehouses and a MUNI maintenance yard. Moreover, it's nowhere near any of the encroaching gentrification. That may be good or bad depending on your perspective. Good luck finding it. RELATED - Exploring Dogpatch? Here's a collection of places I've visited and reviewed: https://bit.ly/2LXfohU read more

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How do you rate a place you didn't even know existed before you stumbled upon it? When I turned down the dead street which, surprisingly, led to this park, I was simply looking for a secluded, neglected, dumping ground to shamefully devour two, yes two, McDonald's breakfast sandwiches. I felt a dead end by the docks was an appropriate location to mainline 1000 calories of emotional suppressants disguised as "food". Imagine my surprise when I happened upon hope, instead of the despair I sought. Damnit, the last thing I wanted to do was feel feelings. I looked for an escape but my car decided to park itself right next to a trail head and before I knew it I was out of my car, McDonald's in hand, and headed for a picnic table with a view of the San Francisco Bay. I sat down, looked around, and thought baa da da da daaa, I'm lovin' it. There was another picnic table, I could see, even closer to water. I gathered my suppressants and moved to that table. I took one bite of my Sausage McMuffin with Egg and thought, I miss my dog, he would love this. But I left him at home because he's such a spoiled little whiny bitch ass Chihuahua. He's always like, "Feed me! Walk me! Pick up my poop!" And just like that, I was starting to feel all the feelings. I ate the rest of my sandwich while exploring the small park. Between the two picnic tables and the ugly, but functional, bicycle parked next to a makeshift lean-to, I'd seen everything the park had to offer. Oh, I did stumble upon a ring of stones encircling a dirt-etched, blood splattered pentagram, but that's hardly worth mentioning. I mean, if I had a nickel for every one of my failed attempts at evocation...right? Anyhooo, ain't much to satisfy a hiker or even a walker, here. The park is better suited for letting your dog off-leash (forbidden) while you smoke a doobie. Please be a responsible pothead and scoop your dog's poop before calling your mom for a ride home, stoner. The fact that a park exists there at all is a testament to the power of the unexpected beauty of where we are lucky enough to spend our days. I was looking for an isolated dead to stuff my McFeelings down, but instead, eating just one sandwich left enough room for feeling feelings, and I now have another great place to dump a body. Baa da da da daaa... read more

Postcard from 2007. Every street in this town has its own soundtrack. On some streets, it's the electronic chirp of car alarms being armed and disarmed all night long. On other streets, it's the pop and sizzle of a bus' trolley pole as it skips across the catenary wires; or the burr of the steel cable spinning just beneath the street on the cable car routes. On Illinois St., it's the metallic chime of a short length of steel chain that some guy is using to lock a fence gate. I'd been living in San Francisco for a few months before I discovered Illinois Street and the old warehouses along the waterfront at the bottom of Potrero Hill. I'm surprised to find it, the way this town always surprises me by squeezing so much urban variety onto one little peninsula. There's a beach town in the Sunset District; and at least two Chinatowns (the famous one, and the other one on Clement St. in the Richmond); and a Little Saigon superimposed on Skid Row. Then there's Dogpatch, this old port district where yellow school buses converted into mobile homes are parked along the curb. I'm told there aren't as many school buses as there used to be. Even Illinois St. is being gentrified like every other street in this city. At Illinois and 24th there's a sign pointing toward Warm Water Cove Park. I guess you can call it a park, the way you can call a dump a 'sanitary landfill,' or the broom closet I'm living in a 'bedroom.' There's a bench and some grass and a couple shady looking palm trees. But the real attraction is the graffiti. It's everywhere. On the trash cans and the street lights and scrawled across the sidewalk. It's probably even in the air: a haze of atomized spray paint that tags your lungs every time you take a breath. Next to the park is a little inlet-- Warm Water Cove-- though I doubt the water is warm, and if it is, I don't want to know why. I take stock of the place: this shabby park and the little finger of the bay poking into it, the way you poke at something with a stick to see if it's still alive. Today, the place feels secret and overlooked and I wonder when it won't be anymore. read more

Called "Toxic Beach" due to being a pile of gravel and trash. Local gathering space for shows. Other than that it's not really a good looking spot but it's a great part of the Bay Area music scene read more

Nasty and gross and exploding with riotous color, it was the best park in SF. Fed on toxins, the plants were pitiful drooping things; the only thriving flora were the traces left by the graffiti artists. The best sight was the MUNI graveyard across the mouth of the inlet, even more intensely cultivated by the graffiti gardeners than the famous wall. Sheltered between two enormous warehouses were one hundred antique trains and buses arranged in neat rows, every inch of them bursting with color - a nursery of rusting industrial flowers grown on a monumental scale. Over years, the garden subsided as MUNI gradually emptied the lot. To be standing at the edge of Warm Water Cove, balanced upon some jutting concrete slab, was to know the compelling beauty of an industrial wasteland, a veritable ecology. But here's a fantastic ray of hope: A few years ago I came across a ranger who was making careful observations of the thick, oily water at the large pipe opening. She was looking for salmon. Apparently every year a handful of salmon return and swim up those pipes to spawn, the remnant of the original population that once traveled up the particular creek now traced by the city drainage pipe. How cool is that? read more

Back in the day, I used to to go punk shows here when my friends were playing, and it would be ghetto, running off generators, playing in the rain sometimes. I have amazing memories of this place. I haven't been back in a few years, but it sounds as if it's been cleaned up a bit which is sad. Not only is this a great place to come for some solitude ( I lived up on potrero hill and would walk down here for some "alone" time whenever I'd get into an argument with my parents) but the walk to get here is impressive. Lots of defunct factories and a muni graveyard to boot. I've taken some amazing photographs around here. read more

We'd grabbed a couple of sandwiches and were looking for a place where we could eat at a table and look at water without crowds. All of these were met at Warm Water Cove. A couple of guys fishing, a couple of probably homeless people but it was clean and pleasant. read more

A great little hidden spot I stumbled upon while riding through industrial SF. Overgrown grass and a few benches nestled among the ship yards along the bay. Don't drink the water! Quite a grimy park but I found it quite peaceful. Watch out for needles and broken glass, friends. read more

Warm Water Cove (aka Tire Beach) goes way back in SF lore. In the eighties and nineties there used to be impromptu punk rock shows in this park. Graffiti has always been it's signature (and good graffiti at that), and the view of the tires at low tide is both awe inspiring and refreshing (where else can you go in SF and see a vast display of tires sinking in bay muck?) It also used to be a great place to build a bonfire with pallets collected from the local streets and drink beer without bothering anyone (and without being bothered by the police). It's been a homeless camp of sorts over the years, and on one lucky day I saw the homeless church bus parked there filled with people singing hymns and banging tambourines. Recently I went to Tire Beach only to find all the graffiti painted over by the city, the walkways repaved with asphalt, and wood chips heaped on top of what used to be dirt and weeds. And the place was crawling with cops, some undercover and some not. They said they were doing 24-hour surveillance. I heard from a friend that not too long before there had been a murder in the park (which seems to coincide with the city's focus on "cleaning up" the park). But at least the tires are still there at low tide. read more

Also known as Tire Beach to some, the dirty, dangerous wonder of Warm Water Cove is not for everyone, but if you are adventerous (and armed) then you might find a trip to Warm Water Cove, well, "interesting". Home of the homeless, refuge for druggies and canvas for the artist all in one. There are huge cement cupie dolls, buried up to their eyes. There is the MUNI graveyeard across the cove, every inch covered in graffiti. There just might even be a body floating the muck that collects in the cove, next to the occasional sea lion who doesn't know better. One thing is for sure, this park is not like anything else within the city limits, and that might either be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it. read more

Warm Water Cove Park - Parks Near Me - San Francisco, California

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Used to go here back in 03-04 for the punk shows. My sister who was into the scene lived in SF at the time, she took me to a bunch of them down here. Good times. Sucks to hear they painted the graffiti... P.S. After looking at the photos of the people I know more than 5 of them HOLY WOW lololol read more

Confirmed. This has been completed: http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2013/09/11/from_toxic_beach_to_warm_water_cove_in_the_dogpatch.php Whether the water is warm or not is another story. Was too busy enjoying the peaceful ambiance and water soundtrack to care. It's a small park where you might be sitting on a smooth rock instead of a bench. Just consider it a way to get closer to the water and validate we live in the best city ever. read more

Don't ever change, Warm Water. Oops, too late. That's what we get for allowing one woman walking her dog to become "uncomfortable" with all the "defacement" in a public "park." Ceci n'est pas un park. Here's an idea, Random Whiner Who Caused This Place to be Whitewashed: if you want to move into a yuppie dorm (that was built by exploiting a legal loophole originally created to give artists live/work spaces) please expect that converting portions of an INDUSTRIAL district will necessarily leave *some places* not well-suited for Ikea merchandise. Some of those places have been around for a long time and give the neighborhood a certain feel, and their unique existence is largely an accident. A lot of people enjoy these rarities, while not too many people enjoy fewer parking spaces or forgotten dog feces or ridiculous noise complaints from people who moved into an INDUSTRIAL district (which is what you bring to the table). Simply an observation: YOU are the trespasser, while the true owners are the people who spraypainted this derelict patch of waterfront land. Perhaps the reason you're uncomfortable is that you don't belong. Should you choose to complain about Warmwater, save yourself the trouble and just skip to the part where you move away... douchebags. read more

Too bad I missed the punk shows that used to be here. Someone, let's do a reunion. I find myself here every year or so when I take my periodic bike survey of this neighborhood. I think 99% of folks will even miss the turnoff to this place, and of those that do find it, another 50% will be put off by the parking scene out front of a mix of beat vehicles, houseless camps and tons of weeds stand. But if you venture further you will find a random part of San Francisco that resembles the down and out times of yesterdecades. It's not the most beautiful park but it could be a diamond in the rough. I would say bike is one of the best ways to explore this park because as you get down to the water, you can veer right and continue to the next set of piers over, via a dirt road. You'll definitely run into some interesting characters down here, but everyone seems harmless enough. read more

ah, this will always be "tire beach" to me. i've gone to really good shows and barbeques here. cool views, always seems to be sunny and a really cool area to ride bikes around. last time i was here i walked over behind this cement structure to pee and i found a dead skunk spooning a bottle of jameson. i love homebums with a sense of humor. read more

Warm Water Cove Park - dead skunk in a passionate embrace with an empty bottle of jameson. - Parks Near Me - San Francisco, California

well... if the last time you went to this spot was before 2007 then the next time you go back you will be in for a big suprise. "tire beach" has become something totally different. the place has the feeling of an insane asylum with everything painted grey. DHL bought the big building across the inlet and i hear that muni is building a yard for its light rail cars only a block away. years ago "tire beach" had flavor. its walls completely decorated and you'd never know what type of characters you would find here. today its a very bland spot that doesnt really offer me any reason to go there. the industrial vibe remains of course but i havent even heard of any punk shows going down there as of recent. im sure many people will love that the spot is all cleaned up but i for one am not. it had a vibe of "pure freedom" before and now its just like everywhere else. RIP tire beach read more

They got rid of all the graffiti before I could get down there and photograph it all. Sometimes I hate this city so goddamn much.

The graffiti is still gone and the water is probably still polluted. However, this is still one of my favorite hang out spots, especially if there's a day party. Dirty beats, friendly faces, cute doggies, warm weather, and scenic views of the East Bay - what could be better? read more

(AKA Toxic Beach) I came here a few times to hang out with some friends and I have admit this is an odd beach..located off of 3rd street in Protrero Hill this is a pretty chill spot to enjoy some beautiful views. yes it is in industrial area but I think it gives this location character...You couldn't tell from the entrance of the park that your so close to the water....Overall over the years I guess they've cleaned this location up and you can tell...I will come back and check out again in the near future read more