A mystical walk through history
In one of the city’s golden ages, in the late 1890s, Lands End was a Coney Island-like paradise of baths, booths, rinks, parks, a museum—and a seven-story chateau, which later became known as the Cliff House, perched precariously on the basalt bluffs above the ocean. Every weekend, people came to see the attractions, driving horse-drawn wagons over the sand dunes, or arriving on the nickel-a-ticket steam train that ran from California Street out through the Sea Cliff District.
It was all the brainchild of Adolph Sutro, the charismatic German who made his fortune with a state-of-the-art drainage tunnel that allowed miners deeper access to the Comstock Lode in the Sierras. Eventually, Sutro sold out and settled in San Francisco, where he built his estate above the Cliff House (see p. 204).
Info
Address 608 Point Lobos Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94121, www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/landsend.htm | Public Transport Bus: 38, 38L (48th Ave & Point Lobos Ave stop) | Tip For a longer hike, start from Sea Cliff, just below the Legion of Honor.
There’s a magnificent stroll through Lands End that begins across from Sutro Park, above the ruins of the baths and also the "Octagon House," which for years served as a lookout station. Using a system of telescopes and flags to indicate the kind of ship that was approaching, word was relayed from Lands End to the Presidio to Telegraph Hill, to the stevedores and taxi drivers waiting at the docks.
This walk, with its unforgettable views of the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge, follows the route below the hospital and ends beneath the Legion of Honor. Halfway along you’ll notice a sign for Eagle’s Point, and a stairway winding down through the cypress trees to the beach. Partway down the stairs, there’s a path leading to a wide precipice with a stone labyrinth. It was built in 2004 by local artist Eduardo Aguilera, whose work is tied to the theme of “peace, love and enlightenment.” The site is particularly popular during equinoxes and solstices, which is in keeping with the fact that Lands End is partly a mystical place, and was once home to the indigenous Yelamu Ohlone people.
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