The Great Highway
The Great Highway
Sunday, 29 November 2009
A great day, almost no wind and 59 degrees at 10 am. Our starting point was Sloat Boulevard and the Great Highway. There is a sidewalk on the inland side of the road, and a sandy trail on the beach side. Our destination is the Cliff House, about 3 miles away.
Most of our walk was along Ocean Beach , a part of the Golden Gate National Park.
Here is what the ocean side of the trail looks like. The view is toward Point Reyes, about 30 miles away.
A tanker can be seen heading out to sea on the right of the photo.
The 49 Mile Drive has an official sign that sports a seagull. We have not seen one of them yet. But we did see this prominent sign about a protected bird, the Snowy Plover.
Here is a map of our walk. You can blow it up or look at the satellite view.
Between Noriega Street and Lincoln Way we walked along the inland side of the Great Highway on a paved path. We could not see the ocean from this side of the road, but Mount Tamalpais stood out.
At Lincoln Way we crossed back to the ocean side of the road. This is one of the corners of Golden Gate Park.
This is the Dutch Windmill, more than a century old. It pumped water used to irrigate the park.
The small blue sign is to guide people away from the beach in case of a tsunami warning.
Are these the endangered snowy plovers?
The Cliff House is on the right. The not quite world famous Giant Camera is on the overlook. Seals and pelicans are on the rocks.
The large seals managed to get high up on the rock.
This is all that is left of Sutro Baths. At the bottom of the linked page is a description of the famous baths, well worth a look.
The Golden Gate Bridge is around the corner, to the right. Marin County is across the Strait.
This picture was taken at the Cliff House.
Here is another map showing the 49 mile walk, so far. We’ve covered 7.6 miles.
We walked a block uphill, and caught the Municipal Railway’s 18 bus back to Sloat Boulevard. Below is the view from the Cliff House.
This leg of the 49 mile journey is flat and straight, right up the Great Highway. It was a sunny day, good for the views and taking pictures. 59 degrees when we started and about 68 degrees when we reached the Cliff House.
