Walking San Francisco

Glen Canyon’s miles of wildflower-strewn trails and riverbanks seem far away from the city.

San Francisco’s urban continuity is frequently broken by hills topped by rock outcrops and mounds of soil yielding auburn grasses. In the case of Glen Canyon, the city gives way to a deep impression—a gash, really—where Islais Creek supports a rich riparian environment of arroyo willow, elderberry, blackberry, horsetail, monkeyflower, and eucalyptus.

The canyon is filled with birdsong and the dull jackhammering of woodpeckers. Red-tailed hawks are likely to swoop overhead, a harmless snake may cross your path, and a coyote may blend into the scenery while sunning itself on the canyon’s grassy slopes. A rare example of native coastal scrub survives along the park’s western slope. Making liberal allowances for the nonnative plants and the hush of unseen traffic on O’Shaughnessy Boulevard, a hiker in the rugged canyon might imagine San Francisco during the city’s somnolent Californio days. Combine this with the hamletlike feel of the Glen Park neighborhood, and you’ve got a perfect urban walking blend. Grab some picnic fixin’s in town and head for the canyon.

Walk Description

Our walk begins and ends in the pleasant Glen Park neighborhood, replete with mom-and-pop storefronts inviting window shopping and strolling. If you’re coming via BART, the Glen Park station is at the corner of Diamond and Bosworth Streets. Follow Diamond Street north through the intersection of Chenery Street to find

Canyon Market, a fabulous grocery that sells all manner of sandwiches and salads to create a picnic. Heading left on Chenery, the warm and inviting Rick and Nada Malouf have been running the

Cheese Boutique since 1993, and it is fantastique. They will let you sample cheeses and craft a sandwich on the spot. Originally from Lebanon, the Maloufs also sell a homemade hummus that garners rave reviews.

Across the street,

Bird & Beckett Books and Records is one of the coolest independent book and record stores in San Francisco. Not content to just offer a great selection of new and used books, they also stock vinyl records and often play host to jazz bands and poetry readings. You may want to save this spot for after our walk, as once you head in, you’re sure not to want to leave. Instead, cross Chenery and follow your nose to the sweet and simple

Destination Baking Company at the corner of Castro Street, where pies, breads, and pastries are baked daily, and café tables beckon for a little crossword puzzle work over a cup of steaming coffee.

Departing the small retail strip, our walk now takes us up Castro Street and then almost immediately left on residential Surrey Street. Look for the small stairway between houses 24 and 30 on Surrey Street that will connect you with the utterly charming Penny Lane, a country road that was once a 19th-century carriageway. Follow the rutted dirt road past sweeps of bougainvillea to its end at Diamond Street.

Turn right on Diamond and continue uphill; then turn left on Sussex. Halfway up the block, look for Ohlone Way, another mostly unpaved lane that will lead you behind gardens and homes before coming out at Surrey Street. Turn right to follow Surrey Street to Chenery. Turn right again to reach Elk Street and the entrance to Glen Canyon Park. You’ve surely figured out that we haven’t taken the most direct route to the park but instead wound through the backcountry lanes that are such a unique treasure to this neighborhood.

Crossing into the park, you should have the playing fields on your left and the children’s playground on your right. Skirt the playground and head past the tennis courts on your right to the wide Gum Tree Girls Trail that follows Islais Creek and is named for three women in the 1960s who lobbied to keep a four-lane freeway from running through the park. Condescendingly nicknamed the Gum Tree Girls, owing to the blue gum eucalyptus that were slated for removal due to freeway construction, the women had the last word as they successfully kept their urban oasis green. Shortly after leaving the playground behind, you’ll come to a steep set of wooden stairs leading up to the right. Follow these to access the Coyote Crags Trail, following signs toward Christopher Playground. You’ll traverse slopes covered with bunch grasses and oat grasses (green after sustained rains, golden brown in the summer); rocky outcrops of crumbling chert; spreads of bramble, coyote brush, and poison oak; and clumps of trees. Down among the rock crevices hides a rare and shy native, the San Francisco alligator lizard. At dawn and dusk, it’s not unlikely to see a coyote.

Don’t follow the set of wooden stairs that end up at Christopher Playground, but instead stay straight to remain on Coyote Crag Trail. The trail eventually becomes a shaded path, completely closed in on either side by dense, low trees. This path ultimately rises to meet Portola Drive, so look for the sign pointing left to Islais Creek to return back down the canyon among the cool shade of the creekside trees. Brooks such as this once ran throughout San Francisco, each one filled in or diverted through culverts as natural terrain was converted to cityscape. Islais Creek is a rare, though not unique, survivor. It is fed primarily by natural springs within the canyon itself.

Past the boardwalk, the trail widens to accommodate service vehicles, and a nursery school appears in a dense eucalyptus grove to the right. The trail leads out of the canyon to some softball fields. Exit the park and turn right on Elk Street, then left on Chenery Street, which leads back to the neighborhood’s small shopping district. Here you can refortify yourself over a sturdy breakfast or lunch at

Tyger’s Coffee Shop, at the corner of Diamond and Chenery. A half block south on Diamond toward the BART station,

Gialina is sought after for its inventive takes on Neapolitan pizza.

Points of Interest

Canyon Market 2815 Diamond St.; 415-586-9999, canyonmarket.com

Cheese Boutique 660 Chenery St.; 415-333-3390, facebook.com/cheeseboutique

Bird & Beckett Books and Records 653 Chenery St.; 415-586-3733, birdbeckett.com

Destination Baking Company 598 Chenery St.; 415-469-0730, destinationbakingcompany.com

Tyger’s Coffee Shop 2798 Diamond St.; 415-239-4060 (no website)

Gialina 2842 Diamond St.; 415-239-8500, gialina.com