Parking anywhere in Golden Gate Park is difficult. Thousands of people from every town and city in California come to Golden Gate Park every day of every year and every one of them wants to park right in front of the door - because of grandma, or because of the baby stroller, or because of the bad knee or whatever the reason. Everybody is an exception in their own mind.
So, to keep everyone happy, there is one large undergound parking facility in Golden Gate Park located under the Music Concourse which is between the de Young Museum and the California Academy of Sciences. It is clean, safe, staffed and uses closed circuit surveillance everywhere. It is a large facility and you have a good chance of finding a place to park in this garage.
Music Concourse Parking details:
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Underground garage parking for cars and bicycles is available in the new Music Concourse Garage. Access to the north entrance of the Music Concourse Parking is from . Access to the south entrance is at inside the park.
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The Music Concourse Garage is open 7 days a week from 7:30 am to 10 p.m. year-round and parking in the garage is encouraged.
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Music Concourse Garage hours and rates:
Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m.-10 p.m. ($3.50/hour with a amximum possible charge of $25)
Weekends 7:30 a.m.-10 p.m. ($4.00/hour with a maximum possible charge of $28)
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Public Parking Garages in San Francisco
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Here is a list of them for you:
Ellis-O'Farrell Garage, 123 O'Farrell St.
Union Square Garage, 333 Post/Geary
Sutter-Stockton330 Stockton/Sutter
Four-Fifty Sutter Garage, 450 Sutter Street
St. Mary's Square Garage, 433 Kearny Street, SF
Vallejo Street Garage, Vallejo At Powell Street
Embarcadero Center Garages,
Moscone Center Garage, 255 3rd St./Howard St.
Museum Parc, Third & Folsom St. ..
Taking Public Transit to Golden Gate Park
.From a City-owned Public Parking Garage-
From City Hall/Civic Center
Take the Muni 5-Fulton electric trolley bus at McAllister and Van Ness Avenue.
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Market Street.-
Take Muni N-Judah lightrail from one of the undergound Muni Mtero stations at Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, Civic Center or Van Ness..
From the Ferry Building-
Take the Muni N-Judah lightrail from the undergound Embarcadero Muni Metro station at Market and Main Streets.
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From Fisherman's Wharf-
Take the Muni F-line electric streetcar trolley to Market Street. Transfer to the Muni N-Judah lightrail from the undergound Muni Metro Embarcadero station.
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From Union Square/Downtown-
Take the N-Judah from the underground Muni Metro station at Powell and Market Streets.
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From CalTrain Depot-
Take the N-Judah from 4th and King station.
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From BART-
Transfer from any downtown BART station (Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, or Civic Center) to the Muni N-Judah OR transfer from Glen Park station to Muni bus #44-O'Shaughnessy.
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N-Judah lightrail note:
Get off at 9th Avenue and Irving. Walk one block north on 9th Ave to Lincoln Way. Cross Lincoln Way and you will be entering Golden Gate Park. Follow the signs for a short and very pleasant walk to the Music Concourse. You will find the Academy of Sciences on one side of the Music Concourse and the de Young Museum on the other side. The Japanese Tea Garden is next to the de Young Museum. As you walk you will pass the entrance to the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum.
Some Wednesdays are free (and crowded)
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Admission to the Academy is free on the third Wednesday of every month. That's the good news. As you might imagine, it can get pretty crowded on Free Wednesdays.Keep that in mind before you plan your visit.
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Free Days for San Francisco Residents: If you live in San Francisco you need to know there are rotating days when admission is free for each San Francisco zip code. Learn more here. (must have proof of residence)
New Show at the Morrison Planetarium: Largest all-digital planetraium in the world. See the new show, "LIFE: A Cosmic Story" narrated by Jodie Foster.
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Other Remarkable Things to See at Golden Gate Park
Japanese Tea Garden
A complex of paths, ponds and a teahouse features native Japanese and Chinese plants. Also hidden throughout its five acres are beautiful sculptures and bridges. Makato Hagiwara, a Japanese master classical gardener with a deep appreciation for zen balance, took over the garden in 1895 and his family continued to develop and manage the garden until 1942. That was the year Japanese Americans were rounded-up and slammed into race-based "relocation camps".
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Makato Hagiwara also has a famous invention to his credit. He is said to have invented the fortune cookie at the teahouse inside the Japanese Tea Garden as a treat to serve guests along with green tea. I guess this means the fortune cookie is more properly Japanese and not Chinese. You can enjoy some of Mr. Hagiwara's original cookies and sip traditionally-brewed delightfully hot Japanese green tea in the teahouse to this day.
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The Japanese Tea Garden is located just east of Stow Lake, between JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. drives. It is next door to the de Young Museum. For Tea Garden admission info, call . Learn more about the Japanese Tea Garden.
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Conservatory of Flowers
Since 1879, locals and visitors have marveled at San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers, the oldest glass-and-wood Victorian greenhouse in the Western Hemisphere and home to more than 10,000 plants from around the globe. It was badly damaged by a 1995 storm and closed to the public for eight years, and is finally open again after a $25 million restoration.
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The plant life is spectacular. Located beneath the conservatory dome, the warmest and most humid section of the building, is the conservatory's prized century-old imperial philodendron. The east wing houses the Highland Tropics collection and aquatic plants display (including real lily pads that can hold the weight of a small child), while the west side is dedicated to seasonal flowering plants and educational exhibits (the first, all about plant pollination, features 800 live butterflies that will flit about among the visitors.) Signs are kept to a minimum so visitors can simply soak up the beauty.
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San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum
Begun in 1937 with WPA funds ( the WPA was part of President Roosevelt's Great Depression stimilus package) and charitable donations, this 70-acre horticultural extravaganza entices the senses with more than 6,000 plant species. The garden of fragrance -- with signs in Braille -- brings flowers alive with scent alone. The main entrance is on Ninth Avenue at Lincoln Way. Also accessible from the Japanese Tea Garden through the Friend's Gate. Free guided walks are given daily at 1:30 pm.
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de Young Museum
One of the great fine arts museums in the world. Founded in 1895, the de Young Museum has been an integral part of the cultural fabric of the City and a cherished destination for millions of residents and visitors to the region for over 100 years.
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The de Young houses one of the finest collections of American paintings in the United States. Strengthened by the acquisition of the Rockefeller Collection of American Art, the de Young's treasures include more than 1000 paintings that represent a spectrum of American art from colonial times through the twentieth century. Learn about the de Young Museum.
The current special show is a remarkable collection of Impressionist masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat, and so many others. Read about it here. These paintings are on loan from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.
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National AIDS Memorial Grove
The National AIDS Memorial Grove, located just behind the California Academy of Sciences in a particularly lush area of the Park, is a dedicated space in the national landscape where millions of Americans touched directly or indirectly by AIDS can gather to heal, hope, and remember. For all the promising prospects on the horizon, AIDS continues to invade our lives, violate our past, and rob us of our comfortable assumptions about the future. The sacred ground of this living memorial honors all who have confronted this tragic pandemic both those who have died and those who have shared their struggle, kept the vigils, and supported each other during the final hours. For many of us this is San Francisco's most scared place. It is a cathedral of nature.
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Lunch or Dinner at the Academy
If you visit the California Academy of Sciences you will have a number of surprisingly good choices for lunch and a celebrated restaurant for dinner.
Upstairs:The Academy Cafe offers a delightful menu in a casual, comfortable and relaxing setting. The outdoor patio dining is particularly popular unless it is a foggy day, which it often is. When you first enter you will walk into a huge Cafe filled with individual serving stations. At each station a server will slice, scoop, pour or cook whatever you wish. Stations include Bakery, Soup, Sandwiches, Slow Cooked, Noodles, Sizzle, Taco Man, Steamed, Rolls, Salad and, of course, Beverages.
I've eaten most everything on the menu and I this is clearly a very high-quality cafe. You will be very pleasantly surprised. You can order a custom espresso drink, but even the regular drip coffee is excellent.
See the menu: The following link should open a Word doc -- Cafe Serving Station Menu Card
Downstairs: The Academy also offers a first-class dining experience operated by two of San Francisco's most celebrated chefs, Charles Phan and Loretta Keller. It is the Moss Room. Executive Chef Michael Morrison creates a uniquely California menu that incorporates locally-produced seasonal foods whenever possible. Executive Pastry Chef Rachel Leising uses locally-grown seasonal fruits and organic chocolates, among other goodies, to create sumptuous desserts. Executive Beverage Director Clay Reynolds offers superb small-production spirits, fresh organic juices, a very large selection of beers brewed here in Northern California, and Napa and Sonoma Valley wines as well as some very highly rated wines from other areas of Northern California.
Here are some Moss Room Resources:
Moss Room lunch menu (.pdf)
Moss Room dinner menu (.pdf)
Dessert Menu (.pdf) This menu is served at both lunch and dinner. (Some of these are to die for)
Wine List (.pdf)
Spirits List (.pdf)
Online Reservations
Contact the Moss Room
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More Links to the California Academy of Sciences
Dining at the Aacdemy (they offer the best food anywhere around GG Park - great ambiance)
Food, Gas, Liquor:
There are two major park entrances along the south (Sunset) side of Golden Gate Park. They are 19th Avenue and 9th Avenue.
19th Ave - Cafes, coffee shops, sandwich shops and liquor stores are clustered around 19th Ave and Irving Streets, which is one-block from the 19th Avenue entrance to Golden Gate Park. These will be some of your closest places to get something to eat. There is also a gas station on the corner of 19th Ave and Irving and another a block away at 19th Ave and Lincoln. Here is a and here is a MapQuest Map
9th Ave - If you visit the deYoung Museum, California Academy of Sciences (Steinhart Aquarium, 4-story indoor rainforest, Morrision Planetarium), Japanese Tea Garden, Arboretum, Conservatory of Flowers or AIDS Memorial Grove, you will be closer to 9th and Irving Streets where there is another nice cluster of restaurants, coffee houses and other shopping. Here is a and a MapQuest Map.
Special Note:
If you choose to visit the National AIDS Memorial Grove (one of the most serene, sacred and beautiful places in San Francisco) please read this important message first:
The National AIDS Memorial Grove, located in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, is a dedicated space in the national landscape where millions of Americans touched directly or indirectly by AIDS can gather to heal, hope, and remember. For all the promising prospects on the horizon, AIDS continues to invade our lives, violate our past, and rob us of our comfortable assumptions about the future. The sacred ground of this living memorial honors all who have confronted this tragic pandemic both those who have died and those who have shared their struggle, kept the vigils, and supported each other during the final hours.
The National AIDS Memorial Grove signifies that the global tragedy of AIDS will never be forgotten.
The National AIDS Memorial Grove is a living tribute to all whose lives have been touched by AIDS. Our mission is to provide a healing sanctuary, to increase awareness of this national treasure, and to promote learning and understanding of the human tragedy of the AIDS pandemic.
Also check the resources listed along the right side column of this blog - - -
