Tunnel Tops
A 14-acre park built on top of the Presidio Parkway tunnels, with views of the Golden Gate Bridge, picnic areas, a playground, and food trucks. Opened July 2022; the Outpost Meadow expansion opened July 2025.
Activity Type: Park
San Francisco Botanical Garden
Fifty-five acres of plants from climates similar to San Francisco’s, inside Golden Gate Park. Free for SF residents with ID; free for everyone before 9am and on the second Tuesday of each month.
Hippie Hill
A grassy slope in the southeast corner of Golden Gate Park, gathering spot for the Haight-Ashbury counterculture since the late 1960s. Sunday drum circle, picnics, and 4/20 traditions.
Seward Street Slides
Two long concrete slides in Seward Mini Park, designed by 14-year-old Kim Clark in 1973. Free, open Tuesday through Sunday 10am to 5pm. Bring or grab cardboard.
Tenderloin National Forest
A narrow alley off Ellis Street transformed into a dense garden of redwoods, murals, and benches. Two minutes to walk through, and a genuine surprise in the Tenderloin.
Tree Fern Dell (Mescaline Grove)
A sunken hollow of towering tree ferns in Golden Gate Park, nicknamed Mescaline Grove since the 1960s. Dense canopy, prehistoric plants, and a two-minute walk that drops you into a rainforest.
Portals of the Past
Six Corinthian columns from the Towne Mansion (destroyed in the 1906 earthquake) installed at Lloyd Lake in Golden Gate Park in 1909. Best at dawn when the lake is still.
Golden Gate Park Bison Paddock
A herd of American bison has lived in Golden Gate Park since 1891. Small paddock in the western half of the park, free to see from the fence along JFK Drive.
Buena Vista Park Tombstones
San Francisco’s oldest park has 19th-century cemetery headstones built into its footpaths. Fragments of names and dates visible in the stone borders, repurposed when the city moved its dead to Colma.
Golden Gate Park Lawn Bowling Club
The oldest municipal lawn bowling club in the United States, operating in Golden Gate Park since 1901. Free lessons on weekends, no reservation needed. Three greens next to Robin Williams Meadow, with an Edwardian clubhouse from 1915.
