{"id":388772,"date":"2026-07-07T03:13:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T03:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/388772\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T03:13:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T03:13:25","slug":"sfs-new-golden-gate-dozen-is-a-13-mile-trail-that-bags-12-national-park-sites-in-a-single-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/388772\/","title":{"rendered":"SF’s New ‘Golden Gate Dozen’ Is a 13-Mile Trail That Bags 12 National Park Sites in a Single Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

San Francisco just got a new trail: a roughly 13-mile route that starts at Crissy Field, hugs the bay, bends south along the entire oceanfront, and finishes out at Fort Funston, collecting a dozen national park sites on the way.<\/p>\n

It’s called the Golden Gate Dozen<\/a>, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy unveiled it ahead of Fourth of July weekend as a fresh way to hike, bike, or run to 12 national park destinations without ever leaving the city. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Working with the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Conservancy stitched the route together entirely from existing trails, sidewalks, and streets, so nothing new was paved; the parks were always here. The pitch is that most of us just never connected the dots between them.<\/p>\n

The Golden Gate Dozen borrows the same idea as the Crosstown Trails, those designated routes that thread SF neighborhoods together using stairways, paths, and sidewalks you already walk. This one just happens to link national park land the whole way.<\/p>\n

There is also, naturally, a mascot. The Conservancy went with a cartoon donut, and CEO Christine Lehnertz explained the branding logic to the Chronicle with the line of the year: “We didn’t want to be the dirty dozen.” A charismatic pastry it is.<\/p>\n

\"\"The 12 stops, in order<\/p>\n

Here’s everything you’ll tick off if you run the full route from north to south:<\/p>\n

Crissy Field. Start at the East Beach parking lot and take the mostly flat promenade through the marsh.Presidio Tunnel Tops. Swing by the Presidio Visitor Center, grab a layer for the inevitable wind, hit the food trucks, and soak up those wide-open bridge views.Fort Point. The free historic fort tucked directly under the bridge is packed with interactive exhibits and one very good photo angle. Detour to the Warming Hut for a Crissy Mocha if you need fuel.Golden Gate Bridge. No introduction required. Cross it, or just stop at the Welcome Plaza and keep moving.Baker Beach. Another postcard bridge view, plus the Sand Ladder down to the sand if you want to make it a beach day.The Presidio. You’ve technically been in it the whole time, so it counts; for the full experience, take the quick Lobos Creek Valley Trail detour through native dune habitat.China Beach. A quieter cove currently getting a makeover, with hidden views across to the Marin Headlands.Lands End. The Coastal Trail here traces the old railroad route to the “outerlands,” with Ohlone and civil-rights history waiting at the Lookout.Sutro Baths. The haunting ruins of the old saltwater swimming palace; a good place to pause before the home stretch.Sutro Heights. Adolph Sutro’s old public park, complete with lion statues (replicas of the originals, but we won’t tell) and the Parapet overlook.Ocean Beach. The long, flat, sunset-soaked payoff. Give the Snowy Plovers a wide berth.Fort Funston. You made it. Reward yourself on the bluffs with hang gliders overhead and a truly excellent volume of off-leash dogs.\"\"<\/p>\n

(BTW I seldom hear about China Beach, and it made me think of this)<\/p>\n

\"\"The logistics<\/p>\n

The full route runs about 13 miles; AllTrails clocks it at 12.7<\/a> as a point-to-point with roughly 870 feet of elevation gain, and pegs the walking time at around four and a half to five hours. It’s rated moderate, which in practice means it’s long rather than steep, with that brutal 5.7-mile Ocean Beach-to-Fort Funston finale doing most of the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n

You don’t have to do it all in one shot. The Conservancy is explicitly encouraging people to tackle it in chunks, dipping into a favorite stretch for an afternoon rather than committing to the whole cross-city march. And if you’d rather roll than walk, the entire thing is bikeable in a fraction of the time; cyclists hit all 12 sites, though you’ll swap the footpath through Lands End for a slightly inland detour past the Legion of Honor.<\/p>\n

\"\"Spotted this photo on One Trip Wonder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The reward: finish (or just show up and claim it) and you can snag a limited-edition Golden Gate Dozen sticker. Mention that you’re doing the trail to any Parks Conservancy staffer at the Presidio Visitor Center, the Warming Hut, or Lands End Lookout, and it’s yours.<\/p>\n

Getting there without a car: take the 30-Stockton, the 43-Masonic, or the Presidio GO shuttle up to the Presidio. From the Fort Funston finish, the 58-Lake Merced connects to Stonestown for the M-Ocean View, or you can double back to the Zoo and catch the L-Taraval.<\/p>\n

Accessibility: the Conservancy has mapped out options for visitors of all abilities. Many segments, including the Crissy Field Promenade, are wheelchair-accessible; beach wheelchairs are available on request at Crissy Field, Baker Beach, and Ocean Beach; and there are tactile maps for blind and low-vision visitors at Fort Point and Lands End.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Golden Gate Dozen just gives you a reason to string them into one very good, very foggy day. Complete it and you’ve earned the title the Conservancy is handing out: you’re officially a Dozen-er, I guess. Given the mascot, it’s like you bought a dirty dozen donuts in the morning and worked them off by the afternoon.<\/p>\n

The Bold Italic is a not-for-profit media organization, and we publish first-person perspectives about San Francisco and the Bay Area. We also cover local arts, nightlife, and tourism in the area. We operate under a fiscal sponsorship of a 501(c)(3).<\/p>\n

You can\u00a0become a paid subscriber<\/a>. Or\u00a0donate<\/a>. Or\u00a0learn more about us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We’re also writing about<\/p>\n

Mostly follow stories this week.<\/p>\n

The Castro’s Newest Burger Was Born From McDonald’s in Argentina<\/p>\n

Iggy’s Burgers, the family’s own Sonoma County smashburger brand, is now open<\/a> in the same room in Castro that was very recently an Argentinian steakhouse.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Castro\u2019s Newest Burger Was Born From McDonald\u2019s in Argentina<\/p>\n

Iggy\u2019s Burgers, the family\u2019s own Sonoma County smashburger brand, is now open in the same room in Castro that was very recently an Argentinian steakhouse.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A Vacant Chase Bank on Mission Street Is Becoming ‘Hidden Frequency,’ an Immersive Music Venue<\/p>\n

The old Chase Bank at 2500 Mission will reopen as\u00a0Hidden Frequency<\/a>, a small, immersive music venue built around a single listening room and a steady diet of electronic and experimental sound. It comes from Naz Khorram, who already runs Arcana, the wine bar and plant shop right next door at 2512 Mission.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A Vacant Chase Bank on Mission Street Is Becoming \u2018Hidden Frequency,\u2019 an Immersive Music Venue<\/p>\n

The old Chase Bank at 2500 Mission St. will reopen as Hidden Frequency, a small, immersive music venue built around a single listening room and a steady diet of electronic and experimental sound.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Paul Pelosi Faces Possible Hit-and-Run Charge After Yountville Crash<\/p>\n

Paul Pelosi struck a parked car in Yountville on Friday afternoon, and now he faces a possible hit-and-run charge for driving away afterward, sheriff’s deputies say. But let’s be clear: No one was injured. His blood alcohol level was tested at 0.00. He has accepted responsibility and offered to pay for the damage to the other car.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Paul Pelosi Faces Possible Hit-and-Run Charge After Yountville Crash<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear: No one was injured. Paul Pelosi\u2019s blood alcohol level was tested at 0.00. He has accepted responsibility and offered to pay for the damage to the other car.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Mill is closed indefinitely after a fire<\/p>\n

This one happened a bit ago but I don’t know that it ever hit our email newsletter. The Mill, the Divisadero Street caf\u00e9 and bakery that somehow came to stand for an entire era of San Francisco, is closed indefinitely after a fire ripped through the back of the building.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Mill is closed indefinitely after a fire<\/p>\n

The Mill opened in 2012 as a joint venture between Four Barrel Coffee and Josey Baker Bread. Then it accidentally became famous.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And I’m not sure we boosted our SF Giants coverage<\/p>\n

Boy did Facebook dig into it<\/a>. Of course. <\/p>\n

The truth is that if my employer told me to wear a MAGA hat as part of my job, I’d quit. That was my initial reaction to what happened this month with the SF Giants, when three of the team’s pitchers took the mound on Pride Night with their caps altered in protest. Then of course I read the comments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Responding to comments on the recent SF Giants controversy<\/p>\n

We celebrate straight love in nearly every song on the radio and at all 2,430 ballgames a year. After the Giants\u2019 Pride Night, the comments still wanted to know when heterosexuals get their parade.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At a Queer Democratic Breakfast, Lurie Finally Spelled It Out for the Giants<\/p>\n

The speech was, by most accounts, a polite one. Daniel Lurie had come to the Hyatt Regency on the Embarcadero for the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club’s annual fundraising breakfast, the kind of Pride Sunday ritual where the eggs are fine and the speeches are finer. Then, as Gazetteer SF reported, he said he wanted to “acknowledge something.”<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At a Queer Democratic Breakfast, Lurie Finally Spelled It Out for the Giants<\/p>\n

When you put the uniform on one of our teams in San Francisco, you represent something bigger than yourself.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s one of those things worth noting that, since flipping on a social media scheduler, we’ve hit 3 million views in a 30-day spread. And 2.3 million of those views are from Facebook. These numbers have dwarfed The Bold Italic website and newsletter. I’ve turned on monetization for Meta, and the ad dollars from that exceed ones made on thebolditalic.com<\/p>\n

\"\"People are also digging into our ice cream map<\/p>\n

If you’ve yet to see that, it’s now 110 spots in San Francisco, thanks to some very passionate commenters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

San Francisco is not an ice cream town the way a place with an actual summer is an ice cream town. We eat it anyway: in the fog, in a fleece. Then we get our four real days of heat in February and October, lose our collective minds, and eat ice cream<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From the deep archive<\/p>\n

I also get a chance to see what people are reading, and this delightful one<\/a> showed up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

BTW it anyone is itching for an update on the Daniel Lurie porn impersonator<\/a>, I checked in with that production team maybe a couple weeks ago, and they still haven’t found their Lurie. \ud83d\ude41\u00a0<\/p>\n

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