Did you know San Francisco just created a new hike this year? It’s called the San Francisco Crosstown Trail and takes you all across the city, connecting up some already-popular trails so you can hike a diagonal path across San Francisco!
This new hike just had its inaugural weekend on June 1st-2nd, 2019 and I had the pleasure of hiking part of it on June 2nd. Here’s what I thought of it!
What is the Crosstown Trail?
As mentioned above, the SF Crosstown Trail takes pedestrians and bicyclists across San Francisco on a diagonal from Southeast to Northwest—helping you to hit the best places in the city in one 16.5 mile fell swoop.
This trail connects open spaces, major trails, and even San Francisco neighborhoods on its nearly 17 mile stretch from Lands End to Candlestick Point. It connects areas such as Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, Forest Hill, Little Hollywood neighborhood, Baker Beach, Lincoln Park, and lots more!
While on this hike (if you opt to do the full trail) you’ll also get to explore many beautiful San Francisco trails including the California Coastal Trail, Philosopher’s Way, the San Francisco Bay Trail, and several others.
One of the cool things about this route is that it is divided into 5 sections. So if you can’t (or don’t want to) do the whole 16.5 miles then you can choose just a section or two to do instead. And each of these sections starts and ends near public transit connections to make it easily accessible by public transport! This is also nice, because once you’ve made it the 16.5 miles you’re unlikely to want to hike or bike another 16.5 miles to make it back to where you started.
So set out to see the entire trail, or choose a smaller section—it’s up to you! A lot of people from different outdoor groups spent a lot of time planning and preparing and making sure this trail was opened to the public, so you know that no matter what part of this trail you explore you will definitely enjoy it!
How to Hike the Crosstown Trail
Because the Crosstown Trail is so new, it can be a little difficult to navigate without signposting to help you. But never fear, because the kind folks who put this trail together also created beautiful maps and cue sheets to follow! You can download these ahead of time to make your life easier as you try to figure out the trail.
When I was in San Francisco on June 2nd, I only had time to hike one section of the trail. (I can’t wait to go back and hike more, though!) The section I chose was Section 5, because Lands End is beautiful and I wanted to hike through that area. So yes, I know this is starting at the “end” of the trail…but you can really hike this trail however you want so just choose a section and get started!
My route began at the Lands End Lookout Visitor Center. There is free parking here, in case you want to drive your car to this end of the trail, but keep in mind that you’ll either need to retrace your steps or take public transit or an Uber or something to get back to your car once you’re done hiking.
As you can see from the above picture…well, this was why I wanted to hike section 5 of the Crosstown Trail! This section has beautiful ocean views, lots of flowers in spring/summer, and later on some excellent views of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The trail through this section varies…meeting up with large, well-used trails like the California Coastal Trail, and then in other places becoming skinnier and less used. There are stairs in some areas, but it never becomes too strenuous.
At one point this section even goes through a fancy neighborhood and you get to see all the beautiful (and expensive!) houses. This is one of the links that connects trails near Lands End with trails through the Presidio/Lobos Creek Valley Trail.
When you make it to Baker Beach, things can get a little confusing (or at least they did for me and my hiking companions). But if you can just find your way to Lincoln Boulevard, then you’ll see this view across the street and you’ll know you’ve made it to the Lobos Creek Valley Trail, which is the next step on the route.
One of the things I loved was seeing all the native plants along this route, many of which were in bloom due to hiking in late spring as we head into summer. There were so many delicate blooms in light purples and reds and it was really just a gorgeous section of San Francisco to walk through!
So while most of this section threaded through beautiful nature areas and a short time spent in a ritzy neighborhood, the rest of the sections take you through the heart of San Francisco and link up with many other beautiful places throughout the city. Although I only had time to do this one section, I’m looking forward to heading back soon to explore the other four sections that San Francisco’s Crosstown Trail has to offer!
Have you hiked the Crosstown Trail? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!
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