Welcome to the Urban Hiker SF Blog!

The goal of this blog is to discuss urban hiking as a general concept and to help people discover the hidden hiking gems in San Francisco and beyond. I created the company Urban Hiker SF and spend a lot of my time hiking around the city. By writing about San Francisco's hidden stairways, parks, and hiking trails, I want to awaken your sense of adventure, so you can explore these sights with me - or on your own!

Mosaic Steps at 16th and Moraga

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The San Francisco Roundabout Trail - An urban hike fueled by determination, grit, and pain meds

On October 5, 2025, five of us met before dawn at the corner of John Muir Drive and Sklyine Boulevard. Our goal: Complete the new 38-mile Roundabout Trail . To walk the route in one day, we’d have to keep our bodies moving for over half a day with minimal stops, witnessing the sunrise, the full day, and the sunset. I’d walked up to 34 miles in a day on the NYC Shorewalkers Great Saunter , but 38-miles was terra incognita for me. Internalizing my learnings from the Great Saunter, I popped some “vitamin I” — or ibuprofen before we even started walking. Stats: Distance: 41.67 miles — 3 miles longer than predicted. Every extra step hurt. Steps: 81k steps — and I felt every single step beyond 60k. Time: 14 hours on the dot (6:30 am - 8:30 pm including all stops). Company: Started with 5, picked up 4 en route, and ended with 4 The Roundabout Trail is broken into five sections, and we decided to start somewhere in the middle of section 4 w...

Why Amtrak’s Coast Starlight between San Francisco and Los Angeles is a traveler’s delight

I love the magic of train travel. The soothing movement of the cars, the rhythmic sound of the wheels on the rails, watching the ever-changing landscapes flash by in front of your eyes, what’s not to love? This is exactly why I had a trip on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight train on my to-do list for so long. We finally got to experience this route for ourselves on a trip from the Bay Area to LA in February 2025. The Coast Starlight runs daily between Seattle and Los Angeles. There are six stops in Washington, six in Oregon, and a whopping eighteen in California. The full route takes 35 hours, and the Amtrak website asserts it’s “widely regarded as one of the most spectacular of all train routes.” For Bay Area travelers, there are three Amtrak stations to choose from: Emeryville, Oakland, and San Jose. Given traffic from San Francisco to the East Bay, and given the train timing, we opted to take Caltrain from 4th Street to San Jose’s Diridon Station. We knew we were going to...

Two Great Hikes Near Cavallo Point and Fort Baker

Links and images refreshed 7/30/2025 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 and get some exercise, so we decided to explore some local trails. I revisited these trails again recently and wanted to write about them so you can take advantage of them, too. Hike 1: Cavallo Point Loop 2.0 miles, 260 feet elevation gain Strava route to download or duplicate From outside the hotel’s main building (where the valet stand is) walk diagonally across the large lawn to reach the intersection of Murray Circle and Center Road. There you'll see a (small) trail sign for the Bay Trail. Head straight here onto Moore Road and then take your first left onto Sommerville Street. Start walking along Horseshoe Bay. When you reach the Presidio Yacht Club after about 0.1 mile, take a ...

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