Stairways of SF: Yerba Buena Cove and Telegraph Hill
schmoo
Registered Users Posts: 8,468 Major grins
This Thanksgiving we weren't able to fly back to be with our familes, so we took advantage of the empty city and quiet streets to try something new.
Fellow Dgrinner and good friend aktse lent me a (very locally popular) book about staircases in San Francisco, just chock full of great local history and hidden paths. There are 27 hikes in the book but we just turned to the first page, made sure our batteries were charged, packed a few snacks, and off we went.
Love the Translink cards for getting around on the muni! (I guess this counts as a stairway)
Our starting point: 1st & Market
One thing I learned is that not all of San Francisco was above water 200 years ago. And how many businesspeople walk over this plaque every day and not realize that it's there?
Shell Corner:
130 Bush Street. The narrowest building in San Francisco. It is supposedly three steps from the front door to where you hit the back of the elevator.
Love the daytime fog
Leidesdorff Street isn't remarkable, but the incredibly prolific businessman it's named after makes me feel like a slacker.
And here are a bunch of shots of the Transamerica Pyramid:
It's very cool to read a plaque like this and realize that you would have been standing underwater 150-ish years ago:
This building in the FG was where they held the first Jewish services. Three Stars of David embellish the fire escapes:
Balance Street doesn't even look like a street. It looks like a dead end:
This forum is about dimly-lit back alleys, right? Here we go.
We emerged at the edge of Chinatown, and the first set of stairs:
The second set, Vallejo Stairs, was more scenic in a different way:
We ran into the wild parrots on the Calhoun steps, but that's more wildlife and not street. So skipping onwards...
The beautiful, famous Filbert steps:
Amazing houses, amazing greenery:
I'm very glad we were headed down and not up these steps! We had to cut the hike short but we caught the F train back home. I'm sure this view is familiar to many who have visited SF:
I have more photos and slightly better descriptions in the gallery here, but thanks for looking! Most of these shots were shoot-from-the-hip documentary for my own purposes, but feedback is always welcome.
Fellow Dgrinner and good friend aktse lent me a (very locally popular) book about staircases in San Francisco, just chock full of great local history and hidden paths. There are 27 hikes in the book but we just turned to the first page, made sure our batteries were charged, packed a few snacks, and off we went.
Love the Translink cards for getting around on the muni! (I guess this counts as a stairway)
Our starting point: 1st & Market
One thing I learned is that not all of San Francisco was above water 200 years ago. And how many businesspeople walk over this plaque every day and not realize that it's there?
Shell Corner:
130 Bush Street. The narrowest building in San Francisco. It is supposedly three steps from the front door to where you hit the back of the elevator.
Love the daytime fog
Leidesdorff Street isn't remarkable, but the incredibly prolific businessman it's named after makes me feel like a slacker.
And here are a bunch of shots of the Transamerica Pyramid:
It's very cool to read a plaque like this and realize that you would have been standing underwater 150-ish years ago:
This building in the FG was where they held the first Jewish services. Three Stars of David embellish the fire escapes:
Balance Street doesn't even look like a street. It looks like a dead end:
This forum is about dimly-lit back alleys, right? Here we go.
We emerged at the edge of Chinatown, and the first set of stairs:
The second set, Vallejo Stairs, was more scenic in a different way:
We ran into the wild parrots on the Calhoun steps, but that's more wildlife and not street. So skipping onwards...
The beautiful, famous Filbert steps:
Amazing houses, amazing greenery:
I'm very glad we were headed down and not up these steps! We had to cut the hike short but we caught the F train back home. I'm sure this view is familiar to many who have visited SF:
I have more photos and slightly better descriptions in the gallery here, but thanks for looking! Most of these shots were shoot-from-the-hip documentary for my own purposes, but feedback is always welcome.
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Comments
Cuong
www.ivarborst.nl & smugmug
I liked your "Leidesdorff Street" image even though I have never been there....
S F is a great walking city. My friend and I use to run DOWN some of these hills with stairs, but on the flat sidewalk (cuz it was fast, easy, and thrilling) and have to stop on the small flat curb at the bottom before we ran into the street.
Hope you had a great day!
i'd love to have done something like this for Baltimore, except I am pretty darned sure that the number of muggings and shootings would go up. :uhoh
You are nuts!
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Or the willingness of a Muni driver to actually stop for a pedestrian
Oh and no we didn't bring the dog although we totally should have. Maybe next time!
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
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Namaste.
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