In the Heights
OnAWalk with Kyle
This is the first in a new series - OnAWalk With… - where I ask friends, strangers, and anyone in-between to take me on a favorite walk of theirs. Send me a note at onawalking@gmail.com if you’re interested in taking me on a walk with you.
In a city of so many hills, it can be hard to pick a favorite. But I think Bernal might be mine. A big grassy hill, dotted with the occasional tree, topped by a communications tower. It’s a vibrant green in the winter, then speckled with colorful wildflowers in the spring before finally turning golden for the summer and fall. Contrary to popular belief, we do have seasons in San Francisco — you can track them by the changing colors of Bernal.
As much as I’ve enjoyed walking up Bernal over the years, I’ve never walked around it with someone who actually lives in Bernal Heights, so I was excited when a fellow alum from my college, Kyle, agreed to take me on a walk there. Last week, we went on the walk she often takes after work.
Because we were in Bernal Heights, we immediately began walking up hill and then up a flight of steps. There are staircases sprinkled all over San Francisco - shortcuts up the hills. They can be plain and scrappy (like the steps I wrote about in Potrero Hill, which probably don’t even qualify as steps) or filled with exquisite gardens or anything in between. Little unexpected pockets of beauty (and cardio workouts) sprinkled throughout this city.
The stairs took us out onto Prospect Avenue. I wondered if it was connected to an 1870s incident in which con artists “found” gold on Bernal Hill, starting a mini Gold Rush. Prospectors didn’t fare so well…
After half a block, we turned onto more steps, this time paired with a slide (more on that later). A short walk up a tiny street and then a final flight of stairs out of the residential part of the neighborhood and into the park at the top of Bernal Hill. These particular steps have become quite popular lately due to a family of Great Horned Owls that have taken up residence there (including fluffy little baby owls!). Kyle told me there are sometimes crowds of people on these steps, hoping to catch a glimpse of the owls. Unfortunately, no owl sightings for us that day.
Disappointed at the lack of owls, we pressed onwards, popping out of the trees and into the grassland. In less than half a mile of walking, we went from busy Mission Street through a densely populated neighborhood through a forest and up to an expansive park. That quick transition from city to nature is one of the things that makes Bernal special to Kyle and so many other San Franciscans.
We weren’t done with stairs and continued on up a flight of wooden stairs on the hillside. Kyle told me she takes anyone who’s visiting her on this walk because the views are so magnificent. I suspect every San Franciscan has a walk like that — mine is Ina Coolbrith Park — and I also suspect that 90% of those walks involved climbing up a big hill, much to the chagrin of those out of town guests.
But the views are worth the effort. Bernal was sunny that day, but the fog was rolling in across much of the city, covering all put the tip of Sutro Tower and spreading over the Golden Gate. We circled the top of the hill, getting views of the skyscrapers downtown and of the Bay and of the Oakland hills and down into the Mission. The wind was fierce, blowing off my hat more than once, causing me to chase after it like some silent movie slapstick comedy. For some inexplicable reason, I kept putting my hat back on after each time it blew off…Slow learner, I guess.
After circling the hill, we headed back down, taking a slightly different route to visit Coleridge Mini Park, a postage-stamp-sized park with incredible views of Twin Peaks. Then we were back to the slides I mentioned earlier. We decided to try our luck on them. Unfortunately, we were both wearing the wrong pants. My leggings were not the right kind of material; after some initial momentum, I had to awkwardly scootch myself the rest of the way down. Next time I’ll wear something swishier so that I can really fly from the heights.
