Introduction:
What? : A small
beautiful beach viewing the Golden Gate Bridge.
Where? : Located in Golden
Gate National Recreation Area, Marin Headlands section (north of San
Francisco), you need to park near the popular Battery Spencer viewing point and
take the 1 mile hike to the beach below.
Google Map Link
Due note 1: Battery
Spencer viewing points is always crowded and you may find it difficult to find
parking space in the small parking lot. Most of the parking is being done on
Conzelman Rd roadside, it is the one-way, so you need to come from within the
park (use the north main park entrance road).
Due note 2: Don’t plan on
swimming, the ocean water is cold and dangerous !
Due note 3: There is also a
campsite here, and they let you take your car down the road, check at the park
website for reservation information:
https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/232491
My thoughts: This is a
beautiful small beach nested below the towering cliffs. The view of the Golden
Gate Bridge from this location is breathtaking and it worth the 1-mile hike
(uphill on your way back to the car).
When I visit
here during early May trip I manage to see Gray Whale entering the San
Francisco bay, I manage to get only few pictures…
The visit:
The beach is
nested in a sheltered cove with rocky bluffs on either side.
A one-mile hike
from the parking to the beach below will be using clearly marked un-paved road that
will take you down.
Today, the cove
is forested by planted large eucalyptus, pine, and Monterey cypress. The steep cliffs
and the local trees around the cove provide shelter from the bay winds of the
Golden Gate. The beach is covered with small green and dark-red pebbles.
This beach
provides one-of-a-kind panoramic view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San
Francisco Bay as you look east. This is especially beautiful at sunset where
the sun color all in yellow and red colors.
A large
abundant coastal defense site, Battery Kirby, is located just at the beach.
This was part
of the Harbor Defense of San Francisco; Battery Kirby was a concrete gun
battery with two 12" guns. The army use this location starting from 1898 until
1934, when it
was placed in an abandoned status as obsolete.
At the beach
you can see the small brick tunnel draining Kirby Cove canyon creek through
Battery Kirby, this drainage tunnel reminds me the Lord of The Rings Helms Deep
drainage tunnel…
www:
https://www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/kirby.htm
Map:
https://www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/upload/map_MAHE_150429web.pdf
Pictures:
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