Rooted into locale, the Lands End Lookout is a remarkable urban encounter with the natural forces that still shape this region.

A state-of-the-art visitor's center will open this weekend at Lands end in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

The Parks Conservancy in partnership with the National Park Service engaged 34,484 volunteers who put in 513,884 hours in 2011 alone. That kind of work would cost $10.9 million on the open market.

Most of the more than one million tourists who visit the famous former prison annually never get to experience Alcatraz Island at night or see its spooky, decrepit hospital experiences unique only to the night tour.

Andy Goldsworthy plots the curves of new Presidio creation

A newly built trail and boardwalk on the southern edge of the Presidio is as much a window into San Francisco's maritime history as it is a path through restored sand dunes and coastal habitat.

May 2011 marks the 10th anniversary of the $34 million restoration of Crissy Field, a 1.3-mile stretch of shoreline between the new Crissy Field Center on the east and the Warming Hut on the west - one of the great vistas anywhere.

The flower beds that once served as colorful buffers for the notorious former prison site known as the Rock have been restored thanks to the efforts of the Alcatraz Historic Gardens Project.

Spotted owls are one of the most iconic threatened species in the West. But despite two decades of work to bring them back, their numbers are still declining. That may be due in part to a new threat - not from humans, but from other owls.

Spotted owls are one of the most iconic threatened species in the West. But their numbers are still declining that may be due in part to a new threat, not from humans, but from other owls.

Frank Dean, General Superintendent of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is the head man at the biggest urban park in the country.