Most people walk into the Haight, photograph the street sign, and leave. This tour shows you what’s behind every block on the way through: where the Grateful Dead lived, where Janis Joplin walked, where Charles Manson recruited his Family, where bell-bottoms were invented, where the first free medical clinic in the country opened, and where Jimi Hendrix played from a flatbed truck in June 1967. The route ends at Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park, where the drum circle still meets every weekend.
Quick Walk or Deep Dive
The tour has two modes. Quick Walk is 24 stops along Haight Street and the immediate blocks on either side. It runs about a mile and a half, takes about an hour and a half at a steady pace, and ends at Hippie Hill. Deep Dive adds seven optional spur stops: the boarding house at 1090 Page where Big Brother and the Holding Company formed, the Jefferson Airplane mansion at 2400 Fulton, and the Westerfeld House at Fulton and Scott where Kenneth Anger, Anton LaVey, and the Family Dog all lived. With the spurs, plan on three to four hours and about three and a half miles.
Before You Go
Several stops on this tour are private homes. 710 Ashbury (Grateful Dead), 635 Ashbury (Joplin), 636 Cole (Manson), 1090 Page (Big Brother), 2400 Fulton (Jefferson Airplane), and the Spreckels Mansion are people’s residences. View them from the sidewalk. Keep your voice down. Do not knock, sit on the steps, or photograph anyone living there. Wear walking shoes. Bring layers regardless of the forecast: the Haight gets fog and the temperature can drop ten degrees when it rolls in.
Best Time to Walk
Late morning into early afternoon on a weekday. Weekends are crowded around the Haight and Ashbury intersection and Hippie Hill. June through August mornings are foggy and cold and don’t burn off until midday. October has the clearest weather. The drum circle on Hippie Hill is liveliest weekend afternoons.
Getting There
The tour starts at Buena Vista Park, at the corner of Haight and Lyon, one block east of Masonic. The 6 Haight/Parnassus and 7 Haight/Noriega Muni buses stop a block away. The N-Judah light rail stops at Cole and Carl, four blocks south. From downtown, allow about 25 minutes on Muni. Parking on Haight is metered and tight on weekends. Use a garage in Cole Valley or take transit.