The far western edge of San Francisco is the part of the city most visitors never reach and a great many residents use every weekend. Lands End is a stretch of coastal trail on the headland where the Pacific meets the Golden Gate, running roughly three and a half miles through cypress woods above the water, past the ruins of a Victorian swimming complex, a stone labyrinth built on a bluff, and some of the best views of the bridge available from anywhere on foot. It is part of the national recreation area, which means — as with almost everything in it — there is no admission charge of any kind.
Free trail, free parking, and a route with several optional detours that most people miss. Ask Karpo what the fog is doing and which end to start from today.
The route, and how long it actually takes
The full coastal trail runs about three and a half miles. Done as an out-and-back to the main viewpoints it is closer to 2.9 miles, which is an hour and a half at a wandering pace.
It is not a difficult walk — mostly flat with a few stair sections — but it is a genuine trail rather than a paved path, and it is uneven in places. Proper shoes make a real difference.
The eastern end runs toward the Golden Gate and the western end drops toward the Sutro Baths ruins and the Cliff House site. Most people start at the western end because that is where the car park is.
Because it is an out-and-back rather than a loop, you can turn round at any point without having committed to anything. That makes it unusually good with children or with people of mixed enthusiasm.
It also connects to more than itself. The trail links at its eastern end toward the Presidio and Baker Beach, which means a determined walker can string together several hours of coastline without repeating a step, and at its western end it drops to Ocean Beach and four flat miles of sand.
The Sutro Baths ruins
At the western end sit the remains of what was once an enormous Victorian bathhouse complex — a glass-roofed building holding several saltwater pools fed by the tide, opened in the 1890s and destroyed by fire decades later.
What survives is the concrete footprint: rectangular flooded basins, walls, steps and a tunnel through the rock to the sea. It is one of the strangest and most atmospheric places in San Francisco, and it is completely open to walk into.
The tunnel is worth doing. It cuts through the headland to an opening above the water where the surf comes in loudly, and it is dark, wet and slightly alarming in a way that is entirely the point.
Take care on the ruins themselves. The concrete is slippery when wet, which in this part of the city is most of the time, and the sea below is not a swimming proposition under any circumstances.
The labyrinth almost nobody finds
A short detour off the main trail drops down to a bluff above the water where a stone labyrinth sits on the headland, built by the artist Eduardo Aguilera as a shrine to peace, love and enlightenment.
It is not signposted prominently and the path down to it is easy to walk past. That is why, on a trail that can be busy, it is frequently empty.
It has been rebuilt several times after vandalism and weather, largely by volunteers. Walking it takes about five minutes and the view from it — straight out at the bridge and the headlands — is the best on the whole route.
This is the single most rewarding detour on the trail and the one most people miss entirely.
Parking, facilities and the practical constraints
There is a free car park at the western end, and additional free four-hour parking in the adjacent Fort Miley lot. Both fill quickly at weekends, particularly on the rare clear days.
The only restrooms on the route are at the Lands End Lookout visitor centre at the southwestern end. They run 9am to 5:30pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 7:30pm at weekends. There is nothing else along the trail.
There is no food on the trail either. The visitor centre has limited options and the surrounding Outer Richmond has plenty, but it is a walk away.
Public transit reaches the western end via several Muni bus lines, which is the low-stress option on a Saturday when the car parks are full by ten.
When to go, and what the fog does
This is the foggiest corner of a foggy city. On a summer morning the trail can be entirely inside cloud, with visibility of thirty metres and no view of anything.
That is not necessarily a bad walk — cypress woods in fog are genuinely atmospheric — but it is a completely different one from the version with a bridge view, and it is worth knowing which you are getting.
Late afternoon is generally the clearest window in summer, as the marine layer burns back. Autumn is reliably the clearest season in San Francisco overall.
Sunset from the western end is the single best time to be here, and the car park empties as people leave rather than filling.
One more consideration: this is the only stretch of San Francisco coastline where you can walk for over an hour without crossing a road, and the sound of the city disappears within a few minutes of the trailhead. That is the actual reason people come back rather than the views, which the postcards have already sold you.
Practical notes
The trail is in the Outer Richmond at the northwestern corner of San Francisco, within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Free to enter, open daily.
Wear layers. The temperature difference between the sheltered woods and the exposed headland is substantial, and the wind off the Pacific is constant.
Dogs are permitted on leash on most of the route. The trail surface is not suitable for pushchairs or wheelchairs beyond the paved sections near the visitor centre.
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know whether the fog will lift before sunset, whether the car park is full, and how to combine the trail with the Outer Richmond afterwards? Ask Karpo to check conditions and plan the walk.
