Parks
Our Work
Parks are a place of recreation, healing, exploration, education, and wonder. Continue your park adventures even during shelter in place and find your next experience on Park Youth Exchange, where you can find dozens of virtual programming for students, families, and kids of all ages.
Parks
We get more mild winters here in the Golden Gate National Parks then some of our friends at parks like Yosemite or Yellowstone—but we certainly do have subtle seasonal changes to enjoy. Dramatic early sunsets behind the Golden Gate Bridge, a wintery palette of coastal vegetation, and the (very) occasional...
Parks
Picture a 3.5-mile stretch of white beach with few tourists and no highrises. It's just you and the waves and the seabirds at Ocean Beach, on the westernmost border of San Francisco, adjacent to Golden Gate Park. Scroll through our photo gallery of beloved beach.
National Geographic
Here’s how a desolate rock in the middle of San Francisco Bay became a tourist hotspot—and horticultural haven.
Parks
Alcatraz Island is the Bay Area's most unique daytrip. In fall 2020, boats were running at 20% capacity to allow for social distancing, giving people plenty of room to roam on the island. Here are photos that capture this unique time on the island, along with the history, gardens, and...
Article
In this article, we’ll get you set up with some tips to explore Alcatraz like a seasoned park ranger. Visit for those views, for the lush gardens, and the history that ties into present-day social justice movements. Here are some of our insider tips.
Parks
San Francisco
While visiting the biodiverse shorelines of the Presidio, you can’t get much closer to the Golden Gate Bridge than at Marshall’s Beach. This rugged stretch of sand and rocks is a favorite destination for photographers. Even clothing-optional sunbathers are known to frequent on warm days.
Our Work
Alcatraz Cruises has limited passenger capacity on ferries to the island to 20% and also enlisted enhanced safety measures on the dock and the boats to help reduce the potential spread of Covid-19. This is truly a special time to have this historic island almost entirely to yourself.
San Jose Mercury News
The move comes after the National Park Service, which owns Alcatraz, has been steadily reopening other national parks, including Yosemite, Muir Woods, Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Pinnacles and others, often with reduced visitation and closed visitor centers.
San Francisco Chronicle
Two peregrine falcons are doing what few creatures in history have decided to do — take up residence on Alcatraz by choice and start a family. The falcons enjoy the fabled prison site so much they built themselves a nest on the west side of the island — believed to...
