Raise your hand if you’ve been to Golden Gate Park’s Conservatory of Flowers. Or if you’ve entered the park from the Panhandle. Or enjoyed a stroll, run, or bike ride down the car-free JFK Promenade. There should be a lot of hands up right now.
The eastern end of one of the world’s most popular parks is no secret. But you can still get off the beaten path — or find one you might not have known before — and catch all the famous highlights.
This adventure centers around the Oak Woodlands Natural Area, a patchwork strung together by the Phil Arnold Trail, a one-ish mile meandering dirt path named after a longtime city employee and open space advocate.
Following its dips and curves, you’ll feel at times like you’re out in the country, shaded by mossy oaks. Other times, you’ll catch glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge or the restored glint of the St. Ignatius Church spires.
And if you go soon, you’ll encounter a dizzying palette of spring wildflower colors. You might even find something that this lifelong Golden Gate Park explorer had never seen before.
All in all, you can turn the Oak Woodland stroll into a two or three mile loop and leave no stone, leaf, or petal of the park’s northeast corner unturned. The best place to start is at the park’s headquarters.
Rare redwood
You’ve probably passed by McLaren Lodge hundreds of times. The chunky stone facade (or, if you insist, “Richardson Romanesque”) invites a peek inside. It also houses a new tiny museum that requires an appointment.
But we’re here to get out, not stay in. Our first stop is a real marvel, just west of the lodge: a redwood tree once considered extinct.
The dawn redwood was discovered growing in remote China in the 1940s. San Francisco has a few specimens, including this one. Go now, and it’ll be green and lush, but in other seasons it’s rust-red or bare. Repeat after me in your best Monty Python voice: It’s not dead, it’s just deciduous! (Unlike our local evergreen redwoods, that is.)
Walk west along JFK another minute or so. At Conservatory Drive East, the first intersection, look for the start of the Phil Arnold Trail. It climbs quickly behind the lodge and you’ll cross a paved path. Just beyond, a spur trail beckons with a staircase, a nice way to keep up your cardio.
At the top, a flat cul-de-sac feels like the highest point in the park. It’s not (this is), but it still offers a vantage point into the hospital tower across the street.
Horse play
Head back down the stairs and turn north again. A few steps later, you’ll come to what looks like a quarry with a slab floor and horseshoe pits on each side. The New Deal-era pits were abandoned for years, practically buried, then excavated and restored nearly 20 years ago. The site’s still weedy, with a fence falling down; I’ve glimpsed the pits dozens of times but never seen a horseshoe player — sorry, pitcher.
On my recent visit, a park gardener was waiting for volunteers to show up for a cleanup day. “Have you seen the sculpture?” he asked me.
Uh, no.
Turns out the site once had a pitchers’ clubhouse and decorative sculptures. The clubhouse burned down in the 1980s, and the horse sculpture crumbled from age and vandalism. But another one – a ’shoe pitchin’ chap in a jaunty cap — is still there if you know where to look.
If you’ve got the urge, the pits are open. Bring your own horseshoes, BBQ grill, beer and wine, but no kegs, please.
Continue north on the main trail; when you cross more paved paths that lead out to Fulton Street, stick to the dirt to earn an eyeful of rewards. As the trail turns west, the bridge towers loom above the low-slung Richmond District skyline, and a break in the trees feeds sunlight to a profusion of poppies, sticky monkeyflower, purple lupine, and bouquets of other native flowers.
The path crosses Arguello Boulevard and dips down toward Fulton. This is my favorite section: a five or 10 minute immersion in lush oak forest, swaying moss, and a dell full of bird song. If a fire truck siren doesn’t break the spell, you could imagine yourself exploring a rolling Sonoma hillside.
The path emerges at a small pavilion that hosts parties, chess games, and on most early mornings, local seniors warming up with tai chi and other exercises. One more short stretch of the Phil Arnold Trail, parallel to Fulton, brings you to the halfway point of our loop.
Eight wheels
Did you bring your skates? If not, no worries. The music at the Skatin’ Place bumps so hard, you’ll want to move even without wheels on your feet. Or just people-watch: San Francisco doesn’t get better than this.
Take a minute to give thanks to David Miles, the city’s ‘Godfather of Skate,’ who helped turn this spot from a longtime informal rink to a sanctified (and muraled) spot. You might be able to thank him in person; look for the guy in the fuzzy top hat.
Time to loop back. Tear yourself away from the Skatin’ Place and walk to JFK Promenade. To the left, a paved path heads uphill — you’ll see an Oak Woodlands sign and map — and into a clearing that’s so damn bucolic, you’ll want to call your friends and tell them to drop everything and bring picnic baskets, stat. This is Bunny Meadow.
It’s gotten a bit more in demand lately. You might be able to hang out, but beware the party permits on weekends.
The crown jewel
Pass through Bunny Meadow, cross Conservatory Drive West (now closed to cars, look both ways for bikes!), and behold the jewel of the park. Like Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, the Conservatory of Flowers deserves all the guidebook mentions and tourist selfies. It’s breathtaking for visitors and residents alike, the oldest building (1879) of its kind in North America.
Catch the water lilies, orchids, or occasional butterfly exhibit; or just be thankful it’s still standing after 100 mph winds shattered much of the glass in 1995. There was talk of a tear-down, but a visit from then First Lady Hillary Clinton served as a fundraising kickstarter, and it reopened in 2003.
Pop into the Conservatory if you like. When you emerge, turn left along the front. If your timing is right, you’ll see a rainbow of pom-poms in a plot of earth encircled by a driveway. This is the Dahlia Garden.
On my recent scamper, volunteer gardeners were just getting the season started. Come back in July or August, they told me.
No worries — at the far end of the dahlia plot, a paved path to the left leads to the Fuschia Dell and Camellia Gardens, a lovely consolation if you’ve missed the dahlia blooms.
Like Bunny Meadow, the Fuschia Dell has a tucked-away charm, plus off-pavement paths to follow up to a small ridge of redwoods.
Keep heading west, find Conservatory Drive East (again, watch for bikes), and follow it down to JFK. On your right in Peacock Meadow, you’ll likely see some very fit volleyball players. Around the holidays, an art installation takes over. A few more steps, and you’re back where you started.
You’ve only walked a couple miles or so, but hopefully you feel like you’ve been a world away without leaving this one corner of — dare I say it — the greatest park in the world.
Ready for refreshment? The west end of Haight Street has bites galore, including pizza, tapas, coffee and donuts, and Asian and Puerto Rican food — all within two blocks. No-nonsense drinks are pouring at Murio’s Trophy Room. You can also head north to the Inner Richmond and Balboa Street for a world of options including Korean, wings, or Russian comfort at Cinderella Bakery. To dive into drinks only, the neighborhood mainstay is O’Keeffe’s.
How to get here
JFK Promenade, the Conservatory of Flowers, and the rest of northeast Golden Gate Park is easily reachable via the 5 Fulton, 33 Stanyan, 7 Haight-Noriega, and 44 O’Shaughnessy buses. If you’re biking from the east, take the Wiggle route to the Panhandle. If you’re driving, the garage under the de Young Museum and Academy of Sciences might be your best bet.
