Marshall's Beach

Marshall's Beach with the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

Quick Facts

Amenities

2 listed

Beach/Water Access, Scenic View/Photo Spot

Just beyond the northernmost rocky section of Baker Beach is Marshall's Beach, an isolated shoreline at the base of rising bluffs. The beach is accessed from the Batteries to Bluffs trail. It's an awesome place for birdwatching and has some of the most spectacular ground-level views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Marshall's is a clothing optional beach, and a great place to expose yourself to serpentinite and a mixture of other metamorphic geologic formations known as a mélange.

Bluff Geology

The blue-green serpentinite rock seen here is part of a mélange, a mish-mash of serpentinite, sandstone and soft mudstone deposits. The mélange likely formed when a variety of marine rocks slipped down into a deep-sea trench during giant earthquakes many tens of millions of years ago. The Batteries to Bluffs Trail crosses the toes of many of these landslide deposits.
 

Flume on the Bluff

Although a seemingly unstable location, in the 1850s a water flume was built on the bluffs of Marshall's Beach to supply water from Lobos Creek to Fort Mason. An engineering feat, the citizens of San Francisco proved their ingenuity and determination.