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Exploring the Dragonfly Creek Trail
I have a confession to make: sometimes I get a bored with San Francisco. I thrive on novelty, and after writing Urban Trails San Francisco, I began to feel like I had seen all that the city had to...
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Two Great Hiking Loops From the Presidio Main Post
When I first moved to San Francisco in 2007, I didn't really know what to do in the Presidio. Since that time, this neighborhood and former military fort has become a lot more interesting. A new...
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2017 Goal: Climb Every Hill in San Francisco
In 2014, I made my it my new year's resolution to hike every trail in San Francisco. After exploring the city's trails and blogging about it, my experience turned into a book deal with Mountaineers...
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The Merced Heigts Park with Two Names: Lakeview and Ashton and Orizaba...
Name: Lakeview and Ashton Mini ParkNeighborhood: Merced HeightsElevation: 515 feet March 5, 2017In our quest to climb all the hills in San Francisco, Brett and I took a five-mile walk one-way walk to...
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Four Quick Steps For Identifying Poison Oak
It's that time of year again, and poison oak leaves are sprouting out all over the Bay Area. Getting poison oak is no fun, so if you don't know what poison oak looks like, today is your day to learn!...
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Hills of San Francisco - Mint Hill
Name: Mint HillNeighborhood: Duboce Triangle/Lower Haight Elevation: 150 feet The history of Mint Hill is the history of the San Francisco Mint...or mints...there have been three in San Francisco so...
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Exploring Oakland's Redwood Regional Park
Distance: 8.7 milesElevation: 1,627 feet Time: 3.5 hours Route: https://www.strava.com/activities/1012052562The wide Stream TrailYesterday, two friends, my dog Jodie, and I headed to Redwood Regional...
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Tomales Point Trail in Point Reyes: Elk, Sun, and Sand
The Fourth of July weekend was a great time to do a day trip outside my normal stomping grounds. My friend Alex was game for an adventure, so we decided to hit up the Tomales Point Trail in Point Reyes...
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Can you walk across an entire country? Yes, yes you can. Enter: Liechtenstein.
Every year, one of my goals is to leave the US and to visit a new country. In March 2017, I was still feeling the energy behind my new year's resolutions, and wanted to take care of this goal early in...
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Two Great Hikes Near Cavallo Point and Fort Baker
Last year, I went to a wedding reception at the Cavallo Point Lodge and my boyfriend and I decided to spend the night there. The morning after the reception, we wanted to take advantage of our location...
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Mt. Umunhum—Open to the Public at Last
At a book signing for Urban Trails San Francisco in early 2017, an attendee asked me if I had heard of Mt. Umunhum. Um...unhum? Um...no.I had done a fair bit of hiking in the Bay Area to research and...
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Urban Hiker SF's 2017 Holiday Gift Guide
The holidays can be fun—or stressful—if you're trying to pick out the perfect gift for a loved one. To make your job a little easier, we at Urban Hiker SF have compiled a list of gifts for your...
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Wildcat Canyon - Exploring the trails of the dog-friendly East Bay
Distance: 6.8 milesElevation Gain: 1,055 feetHigh Point: 1060 feetDifficulty: Moderate to ChallengingTime: 2 hours 45 minutesFitness: Walkers, hikers, runnersFamily Friendly: Parents with small...
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Tilden Regional Park - The Seaview and Big Springs Loop
Distance: 3.6 milesElevation Gain: 740 feet High Point: 1,630 feet Difficulty: Moderate Time: 1 hour 15 minutesFitness: Walkers, hikers, runners Family Friendly: Yes Dog Friendly: Yes, off-leash...
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Visiting San Francisco's SIX Mosaic Stairways
San Francisco is home to six beautiful mosaic stairways (see map here), but they were all inspired by one. The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps Project (2005)The16th Avenue Tiled Steps project began in early...
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Five (Plus) Books for People Who Live in and Love San Francisco
When I moved to San Francisco in 2007, my dad got me a copy of that year's San Zagat restaurant guide and a copy of Stairway Walks in San Francisco. These books became part of a growing collection of...
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Tilden Nature Area: Laurel Canyon Trail to Wildcat Peak
 Distance: 3.2 milesElevation Gain: 700 feetHigh Point: 1,180 feetDifficulty: Moderate Time: 2 hoursFitness: Walkers, hikersFamily Friendly: Yes, families who can’t hike too far can still visit the...
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Redwood Regional Park - West Ridge Trail, Stream Trail, East Ridge Trail
Distance: 3.5 milesElevation Gain: 690 feetHigh Point: 1,330 feetDifficulty: ModerateTime: 1 hour and 45 minutesFitness: Hikers, walkers, runners Family Friendly: Dog Friendly: Dogs are allowed under...
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Oakland Urban Wine Trail
Distance: 3.0 milesElevation Gain: 10 feetHigh Point: 30 feetDifficulty: EasyTime: 2 ½ hours including stops at wineriesFitness: Walkers, hikersFamily Friendly: Yes. The tasting rooms allow children in...
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Quarantine wanderings, i.e. getting reacquainted wtih your neighborhood...
It's been a LONG time since I posted. So long that in fact that since that last post, I have given birth to two babies: one human and one paperback. Being a mom has been wonderful, but I do feel like I...
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Play tourist in your own town: Go on a sea lion "hunt."
Lockdown day 1,000,000. Let's face it, it's going to be a long time before any of us go on a vacation with a plane, so I'm trying to get good at being a tourist in my own town. On the Sunday before...
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The Best Places to Take Photos of the Golden Gate Bridge: SF Edition
Whether you're a tourist, an SF noob, or an old-timer (like I'm becoming 😱), we all want the same thing: killer photos of the Golden Gate Bridge 🌉. After 13 years in this city (and 8 of them guiding...
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My Corona Quest: Documenting all of San Francisco's ~1000 public stairways.
In mid-March 2020, the coronavirus began spreading rapidly across the United States, and here in San Francisco we were the first city in the country to go into lockdown. We were supposed to stay at...
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Three hiking podcasts to check out now
I hike by myself...a lot...especially during COVID. While sometimes I like to just take in the surroundings, many times I like to listen to podcasts. Luckily for us there are a number of great hiking...
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The top 14 sights I visited and re-visited in 2022
December's always a good time to reflect on the past year and see how much you've learned, seen, and done. In this post, I'm sharing 14 places I visited or re-visited over the past year to motivate you...
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