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San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Bay Area's best easy hike has shipwrecks, views and a secret beach
When the Chronicle's data team looked at 1.6 million reviews to find the Bay Area's best shorter, more accessible hikes — 5 miles or less, rated easy and moderate — Lands End Trail came out on top. It is not a controversial choice. Lands End Trail feels like the ending to a great story — a 3.5-mile loop through extreme northwest San Francisco but also an exclamation point of sights and sounds for all of the West Coast. The hike features unique views of the Golden Gate Bridge and perhaps the best sunset-watching in the city, emerging through a canopy of cypress trees to a series of elevated perches that scan the Pacific Ocean horizon. But there are surprises, too, including hidden shipwrecks, a ghostly natural soundtrack and a beach detour that feels like a secret hideout from the 1800s. With apologies to San Gregorio State Beach south of Half Moon Bay, Lands End Trail is the best place in the Bay Area to pretend like you're a pirate. Want to go on a guided history-filled hike of Lands End Trail with culture critic Peter Hartlaub and Total SF friends? Sign up here for the Total SF newsletter and look for details in next Thursday's edition. I arrive on a recent morning, feeling cursed. While most of my journey across the city was filled with sunshine, Lands End and the Golden Gate remain stubbornly socked in with fog. But the marine layer just adds to the melancholy and introspective atmosphere, while making the hike more of an audio experience. The route starts at a small stairway north of the massive parking lot, where you choose which direction to walk. Go counterclockwise, and you'll start on the more elevated and paved southern section that is less transportive and a better opening act. Head clockwise, and you'll see the most memorable sights first. I choose counterclockwise and immediately take the first of three wrong turns, but am met with a friendly jogger, who sets me right. 'Am I going to read about this?' he shouts, fading into the fog. This first part of the loop is more urban, passing by parking lots, the Legion of Honor Museum and several Lincoln Park golf holes, which I hear before I see — the 'thwock!' of a golf club followed by muttered profanity. A memorial for the U.S.S. San Francisco appears a quarter mile in, featuring part of the bridge from the Navy cruiser, which was the U.S. flagship in the Battle of Guadalcanal near the end of World War II. Then a wide wooden stairway curves up to the museum, where the statue 'El Cid Campeador' by sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington stands high on the hill, rearing up in the fog like a Washington Irving character. With Sea Cliff mansions in sight, take a hairpin turn and drop into comparative wilderness, with windswept trees, isolated paths and the Golden Gate Bridge, unveiled halfway through this hike like a magic trick. If fog has hidden the bridge and Marin Headlands from view, consider it an opportunity to focus on the hike's auditory charms. Foghorns in lower and higher registers seem to be in conversation with one another, and the crashing waves feel like they're syncing with your footsteps. Don't miss the best part of the hike, around the 2-mile mark, where a steep spur trail drops onto an isolated beach. This is where Lands End Trail pushes the harder side of 'moderate,' with some rocky climbs out. The bridge is on more postcards, but the descent into Mile Rock Beach is the trail's pinnacle, especially for locals who may not know it exists. Scattered logs and rocks are stacked in artistic towers on the quiet sand, framed by majestic offshore rock formations. The remains of Mile Rocks Lighthouse are visible about 200 yards in the distance. I climb back up and rejoin the trail, which follows the same path as a long-gone 1800s railway to the Cliff House and Sutro Heights. The occasional promontory with a bench offers a spot to rest and watch for shipwrecks at low tide. (The blocky engines of the Lyman Stewart and Frank Buck tankers are the most common sight.) Soon, I'm back in the 21st century near the trailhead — all the better if you timed your walk to one of the best places in the world to watch a sunset. The winding path drops into the ruins of Sutro Baths, Adolph Sutro's engineering marvel that was once a huge structure filled with indoor pools. Sutro Heights Park is up the hill for anyone who doesn't want the day of exploration to end. People used to come to Lands End at the finish of a very long journey across the U.S., taking a ferry from Oakland or Richmond to San Francisco, then that steam train for a slow rumble to the remarkable ocean views. How lucky that we get to experience this as part of a spontaneous morning.
San Francisco Chronicle
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
What is the best San Francisco TV show of all time?
From 'Nash Bridges' to 'Looking,' plenty of television shows have set their stories in San Francisco, using the city as a backdrop for police procedurals, fantasy dramas and classic sitcoms. Chronicle Culture Critic Peter Hartlaub recently rediscovered what he says is the best, the short-lived 'Midnight Caller,' which followed a cop-turned-late-night-radio-host as he offered talk therapy to the Bay Area over the air waves and solved a crime or two. Now, we're looking for Chronicle readers' picks. Choose your favorite scripted series set in San Francisco from the list below and tell us why it deserves the crown.
San Francisco Chronicle
30-04-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle wins top honors at Best of the West awards
The San Francisco Chronicle won some of the top awards at this year's Best of the West journalism awards, with judges recognizing the newsroom's visual storytelling and sharp commentary across several categories. The Best of the West competition draws hundreds of entries each year from newsrooms across the western U.S., and is judged by veteran journalists and editors from around the country. This year's field was especially competitive, with more than 800 entries across dozens of categories. The Chronicle earned top honors for ' Mass incarceration devastated S.F. Japantown. For the first time, we know how much,' which traced the consequences of the U.S. government's internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and showed, through data, visuals and interviews, how the forced removal still echoes through Japantown's modern housing patterns, economic disparities and community life. The piece — by culture critic Peter Hartlaub, data visualization developer Nami Sumida, photographer Lea Suzuki, illustrator John Blanchard and digital designer and developer Stephanie Zhu — won first place in both Social Justice Reporting and Online Presentation, with judges praising the immersive project as 'digital storytelling at its finest.' The judges lauded the Chronicle staff for its 'spectacular' use of historical census data and Japanese-language records, as well the digital presentation — which included archive and contemporary photography, animations, and a closing visual of a paper crane — calling it 'poetry, showing every little detail considered.' The Chronicle was also honored in commentary and business reporting. Editorial Page Editor Matthew Fleischer won first place for Editorial Writing for 'Endorsement: Breed is the safe choice for mayor. But if you think S.F. needs change, only one candidate fits. ' Judges called the piece thoughtful, persuasive and rich in reporting. They noted the editorial 'treats its readers as adults and makes a persuasive argument with context to spare.' Columnist Emily Hoeven took second place in General Interest Column Writing for a portfolio that dug into San Francisco's regulatory dysfunction, a dog attack on a public beach and an international custody dispute — stories that judges said were defined by their mix of investigative rigor and emotional clarity. And former Chronicle columnist Soleil Ho, known for blending cultural criticism with reporting, earned second place in Special Topic Column Writing for work exploring the challenges faced by San Francisco's restaurant industry, including the economics of tipping, and the unexpected environmental threat of invasive bullfrogs. The Chronicle's newsroom was also recognized for standout work in business journalism. Reporter Susie Neilson won third place in Business and Financial Reporting for her investigation into Stanford University's relationship with self-help mogul Tony Robbins, a story that pulled back the curtain on how academic prestige and personal branding can intersect in uncomfortable ways. Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Emilio Garcia-Ruiz said the awards highlight the power of local journalism done with ambition and care. 'These stories show the full range of what this newsroom can do — from dogged historical research to cutting-edge design to deeply personal, emotionally resonant storytelling,' he said. 'They're not just good journalism. They're journalism that serves the public and challenges the powerful.' The San Francisco Chronicle ( is the largest newspaper in Northern California and the second-largest on the West Coast. Acquired by Hearst in 2000, the San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 by Charles and Michael de Young and has been awarded six Pulitzer Prizes for journalistic excellence. Follow us on Twitter at @SFChronicle.
