All the reasons we love San Francisco's Golden Gate Park

San Francisco is a city of parks — 481 of them, to be exact — gorgeous pockets of urban green space that are our backyards, playgrounds, gyms and safe spaces. Every San Franciscan has a quality park within a 10-minute walk from home, and of these hundreds of urban oases, Golden Gate Park reigns supreme.

With more than 24 million visitors each year, Golden Gate Park easily ranks among the nation's most-visited urban parks, alongside icons like Central Park in New York, the National Mall in Washington and Lincoln Park in Chicago.

But we'll admit, with more than 1,000 can't-miss acres and history spanning more than a century, Golden Gate Park might seem a bit daunting for the uninitiated. With so much to explore and experience — biking, boating, hiking, waterfalls, museums, events and festivals, gardens, hidden gems — where do you even start? Let us help take some of the guesswork out of the city's crown jewel, and you'll find Golden Gate Park far more approachable than you might have thought.

With help from locals, we've put together a primer to help you know what to do in Golden Gate Park to make the most of your visit. From little-known facts and must-see sights, to trip-planning tips and local lore, we'll help you make the most of your first (or next) visit to this sprawling getaway within San Francisco.

Golden Gate Park is bigger than Central Park

The first thing to know about Golden Gate Park is that it's massive, with 1,017 acres of public grounds measuring three miles end to end. That makes the park roughly 200 acres larger than Central Park. Golden Gate Park is home to 680 forested acres, 130 acres of meadows, 15 miles of drives and 33 acres of lakes. And it’s free to visit. (Lest we get too cocky, the Trust for Public Land reports that, even with all that acreage, there are still more than 100 city parks in the U.S. that are larger than Golden Gate Park.)

Golden Gate Park's top attractions (including some offbeat local favorites)

Golden Gate Park has a Ferris wheel

If the London Eye has taught us anything, it's that nothing makes an urban park more impressive than a Ferris wheel. The Golden Gate Park Ferris wheel stands at the northern edge of the Music Concourse — the plaza sandwiched between the de Young Museum and the California Academy of Sciences. The SkyStar Observation Wheel, as it's officially known, was put up to commemorate Golden Gate Park's 150th anniversary in 2020, and visitors can take it for a spin through 2025.

The wheel features 36 fully enclosed, climate-controlled capsules, each seating six people. It whirls riders 15 stories up to let them enjoy birds-eye views from the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean and from downtown's gleaming skyscrapers all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. At 150 feet tall, the Golden Gate Park Ferris wheel is two feet taller than the de Young Museum's nearby Hamon observation tower, which can also offer you gasp-worthy views of the area without having to buy a ticket.

Find it: 1 Bowl Drive, San Francisco, CA 94121

An albino alligator named Claude lives at Golden Gate Park

You read that right: An albino alligator calls Golden Gate Park home. In the wild, baby Claude may have been someone's snack, but growing up under the watchful eye of the California Academy of Sciences, Claude became a local celebrity. Hatched in 1995, he's the star of Golden Gate Park's Steinhart Aquarium, a ghostly white 200-pound alligator and one of only dozens of albino gators on the planet.

Claude likely wouldn't have survived long in nature, due to his conspicuous lack of camouflage and poor eyesight that come with his albinism, but here in the swampy safety of the aquarium, he's living his best life. Claude spends most of his days posting up on his favorite heated rock, but lucky visitors may catch him wolfing down king crab — his favorite treat — tussling with handlers during weekly personal training sessions, or frolicking on a deep dive with the snapping turtles and koi with whom he shares his tank.

If all goes well, Claude will live to the ripe old age of 80.

Find Claude at: 55 Music Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA 94121

Golden Gate Park also has a herd of bison

Not only does an albino alligator live at Golden Gate Park, so do bison. Wild as it sounds, a herd of bison live on the park's western end and have for more than a century. Just west of Spreckels Lake, along John F. Kennedy Drive, you'll find the Bison Paddock. In the park's early days, a coterie of animals were on exhibit, including zebras, goats, elk and deer. Most have since relocated to the San Francisco Zoo, but the bison still roam.

By the time bison were introduced to Golden Gate Park, populations had been driven to the brink of extinction. Their meat and hides prompted years of greedy slaughter by European settlers. In an effort to boost the dwindling numbers, the first two bison arrived in 1891 from the Great Plains. Through this successful breeding program, the park's herd was 30 strong by the 1920s, and now, more than 500 calves have been born inside Golden Gate Park. 

When visiting the bison, don't expect tricks and daring displays. While charging bison can run up to 30 mph, these rarely do. The Golden Gate Park bison much prefer grazing, chilling and keeping to themselves — much like many park visitors — though it's quite a thrill if you can catch one munching grass near the fence.

Find the bison at: 1237 John F. Kennedy Drive, San Francisco, CA 94121

Golden Gate Park reportedly contains buried treasure — and lets you dig for it

For decades, treasure hunters have combed through Golden Gate Park hunting a fabled buried treasure that has eluded seekers for nearly half a century.

The sleuthing began in 1982, when a fantasy author named Byron Preiss published a graphic novel called "The Secret: A Treasure Hunt." In the book, Preiss hints at, in cryptic riddles, the location of jewels he himself buried in 12 cities across North America. "The Secret" contains 12 poems and 12 illustrations, and matching the proper verse to the correct illustration, the author teased, would give clues to each treasure's location.

Treasure hunters unanimously agree that one image-and-poem pairing points straight to Golden Gate Park, though theories abound as to where precisely in the park the treasure may lie. The park has a draft-style permitting system by which treasure hunters can make their case and score the chance to dig under the supervision of a park ranger.

If this all sounds too fantastical to be true, skeptics should know that three of Preiss' treasures have been found so far — the first in 1983 in Chicago, the second in 2004 in Cleveland and the most recent in 2019 in Boston. A purported Golden Gate Park discovery in 2019 turned out to be a hoax, meaning the remaining nine are still yet to be discovered.

Count it as yet another treasure the park holds right under our noses.

You can boat and fish some of Golden Gate Park’s 10 lakes 

If the water is your favorite field of play, you'll find plenty to enjoy. Stow Lake is a 12-acre, doughnut-shaped body of water that hosts rowboats, pedal boats and whisper-quiet electric motor boats that can be rented by the hour. To do some fishing, head to one of the three serene pools located just beyond the Bison Paddock, which are totally free to use. Stop by Angler’s Lodge, at 1232 John F. Kennedy Drive, to take a class from an expert member of the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club.

Golden Gate Park is a heaven for urban athletes 

Athletes of all sports know Golden Gate Park as the place to train while taking in the sights, sounds and fresh air. With Pacific breezes whipping in from the west and tranquil views from every sports field on site, there's no place quite like Golden Gate Park to watch, learn, practice or simply enjoy your favorite sport.

Golfers, whether they play with balls or discs, will find phenomenal courses on the grounds. Golden Gate Park Golf Course, on the west end of the park, is a nine-hole, par-three public course that rubs against the Pacific Ocean for views even tour pros would envy. It's ideal for beginners and weekend hackers, as greens fees are affordable and clubs are available for rental. Meanwhile, Golden Gate Park Disc Golf Course, on Marx Meadow Drive, is free to use. This wooded 18-hole course opened in 2007 and was funded and built by the San Francisco Disc Golf Club, whose volunteers maintain it.

If you'd rather fire arrows than drives, Golden Gate Park Archery Field is one of those gems that leaves you wondering how you never discovered it before. Located at the park's west end, at 47th Avenue and Fulton Street, the Archery Field is scattered with hay bales for shared use and is free for beginners and seasoned marksmen alike. The city's Rec and Park Department even offers lessons for all ages and abilities if you want to become the next Katniss Everdeen. Equipment can be rented nearby, but archers are urged to bring their own targets, bows and arrows.

You can play tennis on one of 16 courts at the century-old Lisa and Douglas Goldman Tennis Center, which underwent a $30-million renovation in 2021. That update included the addition of a dedicated pickleball court, lawn bowling and a new clubhouse. The tennis center is located toward the east side of the park.

For team sports, you'll find no shortage of places to play them around Golden Gate Park. On the western edge, Beach Chalet Athletic Fields host a wide range of sports, especially soccer, on four synthetic-turf fields that even have stadium lighting for nighttime play. On the southern edge, Big Rec Baseball Fields operates two spacious fields for recreational baseball action and can be reserved for practice. But Kezar Stadium is the most impressive field on the grounds, boasting 10,000 seats and playing host to everything from football to lacrosse to rugby, as well as runners on its eight-lane oval track.

Runners also flock to the Golden Gate Park Polo Field and Stadium, the largest recreation area in the park. Once used for horse racing and polo, it's now a destination for jogging, cycling, soccer matches and major events like the annual Outside Lands music festival. You can find it on the western-central side of the park, on John F. Kennedy Drive.

Skateboarders and roller skaters, meanwhile, will find a pair of dedicated spaces to use their wheels. The Sixth Avenue Skate Park, on the northern edge, is a beacon for roller skaters, roller bladers and their fans, especially on sunny Sundays. The Waller Street Skate Park, in the southeast corner of Golden Gate Park, has transformed a dead-end street near Kezar Pavilion into a dedicated spot for ollies, kickflips and other skateboarding tricks.

Where to eat in Golden Gate Park? Don't worry — there's plenty of food

Picnicking in Golden Gate Park is a must — that goes without saying — but if you find you're not feeling the PB&J you packed or you get a sudden sweet tooth that only soft serve will satisfy, you don't have to leave the park.

Here are a few of the best places to eat inside Golden Gate Park:

Annie's Hot Dogs — You can find five of these popular food-on-the-go spots throughout the park, including on the Music Concourse, along Spreckels Lake's south shore, near the SkyStar Observation Wheel, at the Conservatory of Flowers and by the Golden Gate Park Carousel.

Twirl and Dip Soft Serve — This mobile ice cream parlor serves scoops, sundaes, floats and fresh-fruit ice pops on the Music Concourse, behind the Spreckels Temple of Music.

Annakoot — This little red food truck on the Music Concourse gives picnics a spicy kick with its curries, samosas, naan and pakoras.

Tea House — This rustic spot inside the park's Japanese Tea Garden offers a meditative cup of tea and Japanese refreshments. It's nestled in the center of the garden among koi ponds and sculpted trees.

Stow Lake Boathouse — This waterside counter-service cafe provides burgers, wraps, paninis, baked goods, beer and wine on the shore of Golden Gate Park's largest lake. The pink popcorn is a San Francisco classic you owe it to yourself to try.

Beach Chalet and Park Chalet Beer Garden — Where Golden Gate Park meets the Pacific, the Beach Chalet and Park Chalet offer modern American cuisine with site-brewed beer, plus you'll find commanding ocean views and abundant free parking.

The history of Golden Gate Park 

Golden Gate Park used to be a barren wasteland

It's hard to believe, but before it was a sprawling greenbelt, Golden Gate Park was 1,000 windswept acres of rocky and sandy wilderness known in the 1800s as the Outside Lands. Civil engineer William Hammond Hall, a Maryland native, was the chosen architect of Golden Gate Park, who took on the enormous challenge of conjuring a forest from the wasteland in 1870.

Hall relied heavily on eucalyptus, Monterey cypress and Monterey pine — trees that thrive in Northern California's sandy soil — to tame the badlands. By 1875, historians believe 60,000 trees were flourishing in the once-hostile environment. Now, some estimates count as many as 130,000 trees in Golden Gate Park. To get water to the fledgling green space, a pair of Dutch-style windmills were built at the park's west end. They were replaced with a motor pump system in 1913, but the windmills still stand today near the Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden.

Some of the landmarks and sculptures at Golden Gate Park date back to an 1894 festival

If the assortment of public art inside Golden Gate Park seems a random hodgepodge — from sphinxes and Roman gladiators to Grecian temples and pagodas — it's because many are surviving vestiges of the the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894.

The fair was held to put San Francisco on the proverbial map, showing the city off in the way that the World's Columbian Exposition had done for Chicago the year before. The fairgrounds consisted of dazzling temporary structures on 160 acres in Golden Gate Park, creating the footprint of today's Music Concourse. Two million visitors came to see installations like the Japanese Village, Egyptian Building and Spreckels Temple of Music, cementing San Francisco's status as a world-class city and worthwhile tourist destination.

Though most structures were demolished shortly after the fair, some — like the Japanese Tea Garden and many of the statues you see today — were preserved as public art that has lasted more than 120 years.

Golden Gate Park is reckoning with America's racist roots

On the northern edge of the Music Concourse, visitors to the SkyStar Observation Wheel will notice an empty shrine sitting atop a massive pedestal. Bronze eagles and a flag-bearing goddess stand sentinel above, but within the shrine — nothing.

It once held a statue of Francis Scott Key, writer of "The Star-Spangled Banner," whom historians agree was a slaveholder and outspoken racist. Key, in his role as District Attorney of Washington, D.C., actively fought abolition in the 1830s. The statue of Key was toppled in 2020 on the heels of the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by Minneapolis police, as part of a movement that rippled through the country, forcing many public spaces to reexamine their historical monuments.

Now, surrounding the empty plinth on all sides stand 350 Black figures in five rings. Monumental Reckoning is the name of this new work created by Oakland artist Dana King. It represents the first Africans stolen from their homeland in Angola, 350 captives ferried in 1619 to lives of slavery in the New World. These ancestral sculptures encircle the vacant plinth that once honored a racist, shoulder-height bodies of vinyl tubing and black steel with braided hair and upturned faces. They stare down the reclaimed monument as if demanding accountability from the flag-bearing goddess cornered above.

Getting to Golden Gate Park and getting around

Is there parking? Well, yes, but it's tough to score

You can get to Golden Gate Park via public transit, bicycle, car or having a ride-hailing service drop you off, and most visitors will find the latter to be the quickest, easiest and most reliable method, especially considering you don't have to mess with parking.

Anyone driving to Golden Gate Park should be aware that while the park has more than 5,000 free parking spaces, they are tough to land during the weekends and special events. Complicating the quest for free parking is the fact that large portions of east- and westbound thoroughfares are permanently closed to vehicles. Street parking with time limits can be found on these and smaller streets within the park. You'll also find hundreds of paid spots in the garage underneath the de Young Museum and Music Concourse, as well as at Kezar Stadium, near the park's Stanyan Street entrance.

If you're traveling by bicycle, Golden Gate Park is chock-full of bike paths, bike lanes and bike parking. If you're taking public transit, use the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's online trip-planning tool to help you scope out the best route to the park from where you're departing.

Golden Gate Park operates a free shuttle service

If you're visiting on a weekend or major holiday and wondering where to park at Golden Gate Park, you can use the free lot at Ocean Beach and ride a free shuttle to and around the park, courtesy of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. The shuttle operates every 15 minutes on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Then, Monday through Friday, the shuttle operates every 25 minutes from 12 to 6 p.m. If you decide to park elsewhere inside Golden Gate Park, you can still hop on the shuttle during one of its many stops and hitch a ride to one of the many attractions on the grounds.

This story was edited by Hearst Newspapers Managing Editor Kristina Moy; you can contact her at kristina.moy@hearst.com.