Best view of the Golden Gate Bridge?

Sometimes, I avoid some of the Bay Area’s most beautiful spots because “only tourists go there”. I suppose its natural: I’ve grown up with postcard-pretty spots—such as the Marin Headlands—just a short drive from home, so I often take them for granted. And other times, I remember: they’re a big part of why I still live here.

Here I am on a Friday, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and looking up through the sunroof to a robin’s egg-blue sky behind the ocher-red thrust of the bridge’s North Tower. Pulling off at the Alexander Avenue exit, I bear right, then left onto Bunker Road heading through a cut in the mountain, and then right up into the Marin Headlands. Part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the headlands stretch north from the end of the Golden Gate Bridge and remain a vivid, gloriously beautiful reminder of the foresight of long-ago planners. And the best place for a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I drive the snakelike Bunker Road past greening hills edged by 360° views of a placid blue bay, stern, dark cliffs, and a white city; I say a silent prayer of thanks to San Francisco area citizens who campaigned to save the open space I'm standing on from developers so many years ago. If this were L.A…

Sure there are tourists up here: they’re dazzled by the views too, and happily snapping photos of each other like papparazzi going after Tom Cruise. But they don’t bother me. After they snap their pix, they’ll head for home. Me, I’m trying to decide what I want to do first here: explore old NIKE missle sites, roam historic Fort Barry and Fort Cronkhite, or trek out to the 150 year-old Point Bonita lighthouse. I end up hiking trails around sun-dappled Rodeo Lagoon and watching brown pelicans skim the waves. Of course, I don’t have to do it all today. I live here. I’ll be back.

Details: Contact the San Francisco CVB by clicking here, or call 415/331-1540.