Barbary Coast Trail, San Francisco

For my husband's birthday this year, we decided to go to San Francisco, which is about a 5 hour drive from where we live.  Unfortunately, we only had enough time to spend a day and a half in the city because Jeff needed to be back to start a new job.  But fortunately, that gave us enough time to see a lot of stuff, mainly due to the fact that we walked the Barbary Coast Trail.

The "trail" is actually a walking tour of San Francisco that starts in downtown and winds its way through the city, finally ending at Fisherman's Wharf.  It's about 4 miles, depending on how many alternate routes and detours you take.  The trail was promoted by the San Francisco Historical Society, so its main purpose is to take you through historic neighborhoods, which was A-OK with me.

Phase I: Getting to the Trail

Whenever Jeff and I visit big cities, we generally ditch our car and take public transportation.  We stayed in Oakland where hotel prices were about half what they were anywhere else in the Bay Area. Oakland has kind of sketchy reputation but we didn't think it was that bad.  The biggest benefit of staying in Oakland, however, aside from the cheap hotel prices, was that we were less than 2 blocks from a BART station.  Bay Area Regional Transit is a train/subway system that runs all over the Bay Area.  So for, $3.50 we had a stress-free, 20 minute ride into San Francisco AND we didn't have to worry about parking.  The downtown San Francisco BART station is right at the beginning of the trail, so we arrived exactly at our jumping off spot.  If you were to drive to San Francisco, there is also a parking garage right at the start of the trail.

Phase II: Navigating the Trail

The trail starts right in downtown San Francisco near Powell Street. The Historical Society has placed 180 large bronze medallions at every intersection of the route.  Each medallion is stamped with Barbary Coast Trail and includes arrows to point the way.  We carried a map of the route and I'm glad we did.  There was a lot of construction going on in downtown and a few of the medallions were either removed or covered up, so we ended up taking a couple of unintentional detours.  There is also an app you can download that will guide you along and also provides interesting information on the history of San Francisco.  We didn't have any kind of guide, just the print-out of the map but we had an amazing time anyway.  I spent the entire day oohing and awing constantly.

One of the bronze medallions.  They're about 1 ft. in diameter, so quite noticeable.

Phase III: The Trail

Wow.  I think I said "wow" about 20,000 times during the walk.  In the past when Jeff and I have come to San Francisco, we've driven, which was a huge mistake.  Generally what happens is that we bicker the whole time.  I'm driving and he's navigating and we're both pretty lost and frustrated with all the one-way streets and odd intersections. We spend the whole time looking at maps and trying to figure out where we are and where we're going.  But when you walk through San Francisco, you have time to pause and look at stuff, pop into stores, take photographs, and generally just toodle along at your own pace.  The Barbary Coast Trail is THE way to do this.  The route takes you down streets and through alleys that you probably wouldn't normally go down.  You get to see hidden treasures along the way like little parks and neighborhoods most non-residents don't know about.

The trail starts in downtown San Francisco (although you could totally do it in the opposite direction too).  Downtown is all about famous stores and giant skyscrapers.  Nordstrom's, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's.  Amazing luxury hotels in historic buildings. Street performers.  When we were there, they were setting up a huge Christmas Tree in Union Square.  

The start of the trail.

After strolling through downtown for a while, you end up in Chinatown.  We were there on a Friday so the hordes of tourists that are generally in Chinatown were noticeably absent.  Usually I like to go into some of the stores to see what treasures can be found but I didn't want to have to carry any purchases while we were walking.  Instead, we just gawked at everything.

The Dragon Gate leading into Chinatown.

I like the old YMCA sign on the left.  On the right is s church made of clinker brick.

We saw these benches with Chinese zodiac signs in a little side street.  There were others with different animals too.

The trail took us down this alley, which seemed more authentic than the touristy bits of Chinatown.

I really liked this building.  I like the little apartment that was tacked on the top.

Trail food, Barbary Coast Trail style.  This was in a little dim sum restaurant.

These men were watching a hot game of either Go or Mahjong, I'm not sure which.

After Chinatown, the trail took us through the oldest part of town.  There are a few buildings left from the 1850s.  The crazy thing is that those buildings used to be on the waterfront but are now about 15 blocks inland.  The San Francisco Bay has been filled tremendously to accommodate growth of the city.

This was an interesting building.  The bottom part, made of brick, is the original 1850 US Mint in San Francisco.
Right over the top of it is a modern skyscraper.

The famous Transamerica Building next to buildings from the 1870s.

I was trying to center the building for this shot but I couldn't make it work.

The old Transamerica Building.

Next, we got to see an Italian neighborhood that I never knew existed.  It looks like it's become a pretty hip part of town.  In this section, we also got to start climbing Telegraph Hill.  We chose to take the detour to Coit Tower, which was a hefty climb but totally worth it for the views.

Italian neighborhood.

I'd been trying for a while to get a complete shot of the Transamerica Building.
I finally did as I crossed a street.  I love the copper colored building to the right.

Cool trees in Washington Park.

A typical Telegraph Hill neighborhood looking down on a Catholic church.

Coit Tower up a steeeep hill.

Just a shot to show how steep the hills are.

When we got to the top of Telegraph Hill at Coit Tower, we took a break.  We definitely needed it!  The hill has really nice views of the bay and San Francisco.  You can go up in Coit Tower but there was a long line, so we didn't go up.

Looking toward the Golden Gate Bridge from Telegraph Hill.

This sign was warning that coyotes had been spotted on Telegraph Hill!

Green Tea Kit Kats that we scored in Chinatown. 

The wrapper, mostly in Chinese. I thought the Kit Kats were just OK.  They tasted mostly like white chocolate.

After we clambered back down Telegraph Hill - OOF!!  We ended up at Fisherman's Wharf.  This was probably my least favorite part of the trail simply because it's so touristy.  But we enjoyed the views of Alcatraz and the Maritime Park was really nice.  The trail follows Embarcadero for quite a ways and then ends up on the waterfront right at a Cable Car stop.  We were pretty wore out and foot-sore by this point, so it was nice to ride the cable car back to downtown.  I've never ridden the cable car, so it was pretty exciting.  I know it's a very touristy thing to do but it was actually really cool and fun.  Plus it felt good to finally sit down after pounding the pavement for 4 hours.

A historic street car on Embarcadero.

Alcatraz from Fisherman's Wharf.  That dark blip to the left of Alcatraz is a Chinese Junk.

This was a railway arch leading to the shipyard.

Ghirardelli chocolate factory.

This was an interesting complex of buildings that was a bathhouse and swimming area in the 1920s.

Our chariot.

Wow.  The cable cars go up some super steep hills.

Going down a super steep hill in the cable car.

According to my Fitbit, we walked nearly 8 miles but I think the Fitbit was occasionally confused.
In the end, it took us about 4 hours to complete the Barbary Coast Trail.  You could easily make it a full day with shopping and gawking.  I highly recommend this walk through San Francisco, it was one of the funnest things I've done in a long time.