Lands End trail winds its way around rocky cliffs above the ocean, moving through shady stands of cypress and eucalyptus and emerging on to spectacular views of the shore, headlands, and Golden Gate. A trip down the trail is also a journey through the history of Lands End, offering glimpses of the past at every turn. To learn more about the history of Lands End Trail, explore the following narratives: 
Art at Lands EndThe beauty and drama of the cliffs, beaches, and ocean vistas at Lands End has inspired artists in many different creative media. Painters, sculptors, film makers, sand sculptors, photographers, and musicians as wellas writers and poets have all found inspiration from the scenery at Lands End.The Golden Gate National Recreation Area archive contains prints of artwork with Lands End subjects produced as early as the 1870s. 
FogThe fog that rolls in at Lands End is a legendary and iconic element of the place. Romantic, mysterious, magical, dangerous, beautiful, frustrating, inspiring, subtle, and consuming. Fog is one of San Francisco’s most famous sights.Fog forms here when warm, moist air blows from the central Pacific Ocean over the cooler waters of the California Current, which flows just off the coast. It develops most often in the spring and summer months, but can occur at any time of year. There are few places in the city where the fog is as dramatic as at Lands End, blowing in fresh off the sea. It has inspired art, music, literature, and cinema for two centuries, and led to the invention of another local icon -- the foghorn. But fog has also been responsible for navigational failures that have led to tragic plane and ship accidents. The look, feel, and even sounds of Lands End can be completely altered by the fog. 
Lands End LabyrinthThis mystical artwork sits on a small plateau off of the Coastal Trail overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. The Labyrinth was built on the Vernal Equinox in 2004 by Eduardo Aguilera out of stones collected from the surrounding area. Aguilera has created labyrinths throughout the Bay Area.The Labyrinth is a place of meditation. Walking the Labyrinth is a journey towards serenity and clarity. It is constructed in the style of the seven-circuit Chartres labyrinth, built in the 13th century. Visitors who use the Lands End Labyrinth for meditation often leave a small token of thanks at its center. In addition to the countless solitary visitors who have walked the path of the Lands End Labyrinth, it has occassionally been the focus of public spectacles. For the 2004 Winter Solstice, Aguilera lit the Labyrinth with luminaries, and for the 2005 Spring Equinox the Labyrinth was set ablaze with flaming logs. 
Lands End/Mile Rocks BeachLands End Beach, also known as Mile Rocks Beach, is a section of rocky shore close to the Lands End promontory. It sits between the gun fortifications of Battery Lands End and the searchlight of Battery Buck.In the early 1900s a treacherous trail followed the Lands Ends bluffs and ran down to the beach. This path was reclaimed by the ocean long ago. Today visitors can get to the beach by descending a flight of 100 stairs off of the Lands End trail. It is a popular stop for hikers, who relish its spectacular views. 
LandslidesLands End has been shaped, changed, created, and destroyed by the forces of erosion for thousands of years. San Franciscans have been fighting a battle against these forces since the 1880s by building retaining walls, terracing gardens, irrigating strategically, asphalting, sand bagging, and a variety of other tactics.Landslides famously caused the demise of the #1 California streetcar line, Lands End Station, and El Camino del Mar. Small landslides and subtle erosion are constantly at work eating away at the remaining vestiges of Lands End including the remains of the Sutro Baths and Sutro Heights. The area’s unstable ground still causes hikers to become stranded - or even occasionally fall to their deaths. 
Mile Rocks LighthouseAt the mouth of San Francisco Bay are two rocks that appear and disappear above the waters with the swelling of the waves. These are the “Mile Rocks”. A three-tiered lighthouse was constructed atop the larger of the two in 1904 to guide the way through the Golden Gate.The lighthouse was built after the deadly wreck of the steam ship City of Rio de Janeiro in 1901 -- the worst shipwreck in San Francisco’s history. At the time, the lighthouse was hailed as one of America’s greatest engineering feats. For over 60 years it was manned by a team of four men who lived in cramped quarters for days at a time, isolated from the city while being within its view. In 1966, the US Coast Guard automated the lighthouse’s functions, and its distinctive top two tiers were replaced with a helipad. The truncated lighthouse with helipad can be seen today from points along the Lands End Coastal Trail and Point Bonita, a red and white striped tower among the waves. 
Point LobosLands End was once part of a large Mexican land grant known as Rancho Punta de Lobos. It was named for its many lobos marinos, meaning sea wolves or sea lions as we call them today.After California’s cessation from Mexico in 1848 the Rancho Punta de Lobos land became part of the City and County of San Francisco. The name Point Lobos survived, referring to the area’s westernmost promontory. This area was relatively remote from the city center and difficult to access, thereby earning its nickname the “Outside Lands”. By 1854, a potato farmer had settled in the area, but visits were made by only the most adventuresome. The area’s popularity for recreation was quickly recognized. In 1863 the construction began on the Cliff House and Point Lobos Road, which connected downtown San Francisco to Point Lobos. In the coming years Point Lobos would experience the development of the Sutro Baths, Sutro Heights, the Cliff House and the many other establishments that have come and gone in the Lands End area. 
Habitat RestorationPeople have been changing the Lands End landscape for well over a century. The construction of railway systems, Sutro Baths and Heights, El Camino Del Mar, Lincoln Park and Golf Course and the Legion of Honor have decimated the native plant species that once dominated the area for millenia prior to these 19th- and 20th-century developments.The Lands End Restoration project, led by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, focuses on protecting and restoring native habitats, controlling invasive plants, improving public safety, increasing biological diversity, reducing non-natural erosion, improving scenic viewpoints, and providing public education. This program has made great strides towards returning the health of the natural environment. Native plant and animal communities have been restored since work started in 2004. Progress continues today with the help of hundreds of Conservancy volunteers. For millenia native coastal scrub, coastal praire, riparian, and dune vegetation covered Lands End, providing a rich wildlife habitat and helping to prevent erosion on cliffs and dunes. Landscaping, grading, and construction activities over the last one hundred fifty years have impacted native plant communties, reducing their coverage areas and introducing new species. These non-native species compete with native Arroyo willow, seaside daisy, California poppy, dune grass, salt rush, coyote brush, and red alder - to name a few - and limit the habitat available for animal species that depend on native plant communities for survival. The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy has worked with many community volunteer groups to restore native plants and improve habitat health at Lands End. 
Sand DunesBefore the development of San Francisco’s Richmond and Sunset districts, the route to Lands End from downtown traversed an expanse of 100-foot high sand dunes. The dunes shifted continually in the relentless winds that blow in from the Pacific Ocean, often covering shrubs and even small buildings in their paths.The dunes were described by early visitors as windswept and desert-like, desolate and forbidding. Some were covered with dune scrub vegetation, such as mock heather, Chamisso’s lupine, deerweed, dandelion, knotweed, and cobweb thistle. These plants helped to stabilize the dunes in the face of driving winds. Firewood gathering by early residents depleted the scrub communities and intensified the shifting motions of the dunes. Though the dune landscape could be harsh and uninviting, residents described brilliant displays of seasonal widlflowers. The admiration of these was the purpose of many a happy family outing to the dunes -- at least when the fog was out! 
Sutro RailroadThe second rail line to serve the Lands End area was completed in 1896. The Railroad roughly paralleled the route of the steam-driven Ferries and Cliff House Railway, which had been running since 1888. However, the Sutro Railroad ran on electricity, a relatively new technology at the time. Former miner, entreprenuer, and future San Francisco mayor Adolph Sutro constructed his electric rail line to protest a fare increase on the Ferries and Cliff House line.In 1894, the Ferries and Cliff House Railway was bought by Southern Pacific, which immediately eliminated transfers on the line -- an act that effectively doubled the fare to the Cliff House from 5 cents to 10 cents for travellers from downtown. Sutro began construction of the Sutro Railroad the same year. Southern Pacific got the message, and by late 1894 the steam line fare had been rolled back to five cents round-trip. Sutro completed his electric railroad in 1895. In 1905 the Ferries and Cliff House Railway was electrified and renamed the #1 California streetcar, and operated simultaneously with the Sutro Railroad (later renamed #2 Clement) until 1949. The Sutro Railroad route approached Sutro Heights along Geary Street to 48th Avenue, where it turned north for a block and then entered a private right-of-way sloping down towards the Sutro Baths and terminating in a wood depot on Point Lobos Avenue near the Baths’ main entrance. Ferries and Cliff House Railway This steam train line ran around Lands End and was often referred to by locals as “The Cliff Line”. It was hailed as the most scenic railroad in the city, following the curves of the bluffs that look towards the Golden Gate and Marin Headlands. The railroad opened in 1888 after two years of construction by Adolph Sutro, who sold the franchise to the Powell Street Railroad Company the following year. The line’s inner terminus was near the corner of California Street and Presidio Avenue, and the outer terminus by the corner of 48th and Pt. Lobos avenues. Its “5-cent fare”, which included a free transfer to the connecting cable car line at California and Presidio, was an important feature of the railroad in its early days. This scheme made travel on the railroad affordable for people of all income levels. The steam train was converted to an electric streetcar line in 1905, and continued to run until 1949. The modern Coastal Trail follows the route of the railroad. 
WildlifeLands End is home to a diversity of wildlife including many rare and endgangered species. Yet the activities of humans over the past years have adversely affected many of these creatures by changing the ecosystems to which they are adapted.Many people hope that populations of Peregrine Falcon, California Quail, Great Blue Heron, California Red-Legged Frog, and Bumble Bee Scarab Beetle will increase in health and number as a result of Lands End plant community restoration. San Franciscans have championed in the study and preservation of wildlife since the 19th century, as demonstrated by well-known activitists such as John Muir and his San Fancisco-based Sierra Club. 
YelamuNative people have lived in the San Francisco Bay area for at least 10,000 years. Approximately fifty independent nations of Ohlone-speaking people occupied the California coastal area from San Francisco Bay to just south of Monterey Bay. Within the vast stretch of Ohlone territory, which extended eastward to the Diablo mountain range, several different but related languages where spoken. The Ohlone language once spoken on the San Francisco peninsula is today called Ramaytush.The inhabitants of the north end of the San Francisco peninsula from at least 500 to 1780 A.D. were known as the Yelamu, who lived in five known inland villages; Chutchui, Sitlintac, Amuctac, Tubsinte and Petlenuc. The Ohlone came to Lands End to hunt sea mammals and to gather shellfish, plants, and birds’ eggs. The Yelamu people and their traditional lifeways were devastated by the arrival of the Spanish. Many were forced to move to missions. Many Ohlone people still live in or near their traditional ancestral homelands today. While participating in contemporary society, they are actively involved in the preservation and revitalization of their native culture through restoration of native languages, protection of ancestral places, practice of traditional plant uses, story telling, dance, song, and basket weaving. 
Battery Lobos and Battery Lands EndAt the beginning of WW II, the US Army negotiated a lease with the City of San Francisco, Adolph Sutro’s heirs and other land holders. This placed 64.83 acres of coast along Lands End under Army control. The land was divided into two parcels: Point Lobos reservation north of the Sutro Baths and Lands End reservation north of Fort Miley.Temporary gun batteries were quickly erected at each reservation. Battery Lobos was in service by July 1943, and consisted of two US Navy deck guns bolted to two 20 foot diameter concrete plugs. There was no protection for the guns or gunners. Battery Lands End was in service by January 1944, consisting of two 90mm guns mounted on concrete plugs 120 feet apart. The guns were removed and salvaged after the war’s end. At Battery Lobos, one gun block and retaining wall are still in place, although sadly these remnants of defence on the homefront have been vandalized with spray paint. The block for the second gun may still be intact, covered by sand and ice plant. At Battery Lands End, both gun blocks are still visible at the tip of the Lands End promontory. 
RemnantsIn addition to the highly visible and iconic ruins of the Sutro Baths bathing tanks and several excavated archaeological deposits, isolated physical remnants of historic-period events and activities are scattered across Lands End.Many of these are visible along modern trails, including abandoned railroad grades, a railroad tunnel cut, road traces, gun mounts from dismantled Army batteries, landscaping, building pads, and the maritime navigation aid “Painted Rock”. 
TreesUntil the 1880s, the landscape at Lands End was mostly open scrub-covered dunes edged with beaches and rocky cliffs. The first known attempt to drastically alter it was made by Adolph Sutro in his development of Sutro Heights.In the 1880s Sutro planted cypress, eucalyptus, and pine trees to create canopies and windbreaks for his gardens. Many of these mature trees can still be seen at Sutro Heights. Landscaping associated with building El Camino del Mar in the 1920s included thousands of cypress and pine trees along the Lands End hillsides. More than 10,000 trees were planted in the area in the 1930s by the CWA and WPA as part of “restoration” projects. The non-native cypress trees that came to dominate the area have been monitored and maintained by National Park Service arborists who thin and sometimes remove selected trees to partially restore the natural landscape. Two Monterey Cypress trees were planted in the early 1920s at the Legion of Honor by distinguished WWI French military heros Marechal (Marshal) Ferdinand Foch and Marechal Joseph Joffre. Their visits to San Francisco were celebrated with receptions and parades that were the most elaborate events ever to welcome foreign political figures to the city. These trees and their accompaning plaques can be seen today on the east side of the Palace of the Legion of Honor. 
USS San Francisco MemorialThe USS San Francisco Memorial commemorates the 106 seamen killed and 131 wounded in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the most brutal close-quarters naval battle of WWII.In November1942 the cruiser USS San Francisco attacked a vastly superior Japanese force off the coast of Guadalcanal. The USS San Francisco took 45 direct hits and sustained heavy damage while sinking one Japanese ship and seriously damaging two others (including a battleship). Despite its poor condition the San Francisco safely made it back to port. The USS San Francisco Memorial is oriented toward Guadalcanal, and features a section of the ship’s bridge damaged in the battle. The shell-ridden bridge is a tangible reminder of the awful violence of that day. More information about the ship and its crew can be found at http://www.usssanfrancisco.org/index.htm. |
Last updated: May 13, 2022