Last updated: March 3, 2021
Place
17 - Enjoying Crissy Field
PANEL DESCRIPTION: Located on the western side of the Warming Hut, the kiosk is a four-sided metal structure with three interpretive panels.
VIEW FROM WAYSIDE: Facing west, you are directly across a small plaza from the bathrooms, located between two maintenance buildings. To your left is a wayside and giant globe painted to look like it's made of woodgrain. Past the globe is a two lane road. To the right is the bay, and Torpedo Wharf, an L-shaped pier. Behind you is the Warming Hut, a cafe and souvenir shop inside a converted army building with cream-colored siding and a red roof. Its entrance is to your right, along its northern-facing wall.
PANEL #1: Enjoying Crissy Field
DESCRIPTION OF PANEL: This panel has a map, text, and a list of regulations.
TEXT: The National Park Service invites you to enjoy all that Crissy Field, the Presidio and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area have to offer. Crissy Field has been designed to accommodate a variety of uses. For the safety and enjoyment of all visitors and the protection of national park resources, please obey park rules.
MAP DESCRIPTION: A map of the San Francisco Bay coastline, from the San Francisco side, that includes Marina Gate and Entry Grove to the east and stretches all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge to the west. Several areas within the parkland are labeled, including the Warming Hut to the west near Fort Point, then moving east: Golden Gate Promenade, the Tidal Marsh and East Beach.
TEXT: Please:
- Obey all posted regulations.
- Adhere to special regulations for the wildlife protection area.
- Note that bicycles are subject to all motor vehicle laws.
The following are prohibited:
- Glass bottles and containers
- Fires on beach
- Organized sports
- Camping
- Collecting plants and other natural objects
- Removing historic artifacts
- Feeding or disturbing wildlife
- Parking in unpaved areas except as designated.
PANEL #2: A Place of Renewal
DESCRIPTION OF PANEL: The panel faces north west. There are 3 colored illustrations at the bottom of the panel.
TEXT: The land known today as Crissy Field has undergone many changes. once a rich salt marsh and homeland of Ohlone people, it was later a landing site for Spanish and Russian explorers, a venue for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and a pioneering United States military airfield.
Along with the entire Presidio, Crissy Field was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962. With generous community support, Crissy Field has been transformed into a spectacular 100-acre shoreline park at the center of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
TEXT: Revitalizing Crissy Field. Sponsored by the National Park Service and its nonprofit support partner, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the revitalization of Crissy Field owes its success to community support and stewardship. The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund provided the lead gift for site restoration, and many other individuals and organizations from throughout the Bay Area generously contributed time and funding.
As part of the site restoration effort in 1998-2000, individuals and groups from schools, corporations and civic organizations planted more than 100,000 native plants to help restore natural habitat at Crissy Field. Community volunteers continue to play an important role in sustaining long-term stewardship of this national parkland.
DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATION #1: Pink sand verbena, a plant that also grows on a vine, with a vertical structure to its blossom. The blossom is pink and round like a sphere, the petals growing in more of a three-dimensional pattern. The green triangle-shaped leaves with rounded edges grow above and below the flower.
DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATION #2: There is an illustration of Indian paintbrush, a plant with teardrop-shaped leaves alternating their way up its stalk to a red blossom.
DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATION #3: There is a vertical plant with five small, round blue blossoms at the top of its stalk: silver bush lupine. Lower down on the stalk are five crinkly looking leaves, and at the very bottom, a dense section of smaller leaves growing close together.
CAPTION: Silky hairs on the silver bush lupine's leaves reflect heat and protect them from drying out. Capable of fixing nitrogen from the air, an advantage in nutrient-poor sand, these plants can live many decades.
PANEL #3: The Bounty of the Bay-Panel Description
DESCRIPTION OF PANEL: The panel faces north east. There are illustrations and a list of crabbing regulations.
TEXT: San Francisco Bay abounds with fish. Striped bass, sturgeon, surfperch, anchovy, flounder and herring, among others, depend on the bay's shallow waters for food or to spawn. Chinook salmon and steelhead require highly productive ocean waters for growth. These two species, now in dwindling numbers, migrate from the ocean through the bay to their upstream spawning grounds. Steelhead spawn several times, but adult salmon make this journey only once. They die after spawning, and their newly hatched offspring migrate downstream to the ocean. Each generation of salmon lives there for three to six years before repeating the cycle.
DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATION #1: A Chinook Salmon and Steelhead Trout are illustrated in a profile view. Steelhead have a more greenish coloring, while the Chinook are a darker blue. The mouths of Chinooks are slightly more pronounced, with a pointed, beak-like upper jaw.
CAPTION: These illustrations show differences in the jaws and gums of the similar steelhead and Chinook salmon. Should you catch a fish that looks like one of these, check these features. You must release steelhead, a threatened species.
DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATION #2: Illustrated depiction of 3 crabs. On the far left is a crab with a dark gray shell, and lighter gray pincers and legs. A Dungeness Crab, Cancer magister . Trapping Dungeness crabs is illegal. In the center is a red crab, Cancer productus . Its pincers are much larger than those of the Dungeness. The crab has a dark gray shell and pincers, and light purple legs. A brown rock crab, Cancer antennarius .
CAPTION: Please observe these crabbing rules:
- Crabs must be at least 4 inches across the widest part of the shell.
- The limit on crabs is 35 crabs per person per day.
- No Dungeness crabs may be taken. Born in the ocean, Dungeness crab larvae drift into the bay. The larvae transform into young crabs in food-rich shoreline areas. Since these crabs don't reach maturity until long after they return to the ocean, it is illegal to trap them in the bay.
DIRECTIONS TO NEXT WAYSIDE: The next wayside is directly to the left of the kiosk if you're facing west, about 8 feet.