Golden Gate Parkcast

We're heading to the far west side of the Bay Area for our last stop on the tour... for now. And, we're going back in time. At the end of the 19th century, when Golden Gate Park was just a few decades old, engineers built a pair of windmills to irrigate it. They harnessed the power of the ocean winds to pump water through the barren sand and nourish the verdant landscape. Over time the windmills fell into disrepair and slowly disintegrated. But, in the early 21st century, some visionary San Franciscans decided to rebuild them. We’ll hear that story from Niels Swinkels.

We’re continuing our journey westward, toward the ocean, and we’re getting close now. Less than a mile to go. We cross over Chain of Lakes Drive. And as we pass, just to our right is the simply named North Lake. We’re walking through this urban forest, and the trees have gotten especially thick to our right. Look closely and you can see … there’s a golf course in there! A lot of people who live in San Francisco don’t even know that. But we’re not here to play golf, today. We’re targeting a different sport. Just past the course’s parking lot, on 47th Avenue, a couple blocks from the beach, we’ve arrived at our destination. Luisa Cardoza is here to tell us all about it.

We’re heading out from the ponds of the Golden Gate Casting and Angling Club. It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to our next stop. As we approach John F. Kennedy Boulevard, again, we come across a site you won’t find on any map — but one that locals return to year after year. About 30 feet up one of the park’s majestic tall trees, there’s a great horned owl nest. Every year, the owls return to the same spot. Right now, though, we’re crossing the street to see some much bigger creatures. We’re going to the bison paddock. For well over a century, Golden Gate Park has hosted a herd of these 900-pound hoofed and hairy beasts. They were originally brought in as part of a nationwide conservation effort. So why are they still here? Laura Klivans gets some answers from people who care for the bison in their home on the west side of the park.

We hope you’ve been enjoying this audio tour celebrating the 150th anniversary of Golden Gate Park. We’ve still got a few more stops on our route, but in the wake of protests against the systemic race-based violence that plagues our country, we are going to take a break for the moment. We’ll be back with more episodes later this summer.

We’re down in the wilder spaces of the park, now. The lower side, with its hiking and mountain bike trails, its hidden gardens, its untamed forests...

Most of the cultivated features of Golden Gate Park are found on its eastern side. Now we’re heading for the wilder west — an area more frequented by locals than tourists. And as you’ll see and hear, there’s plenty to discover. There are lots of grassy areas here where people like to picnic. It gets foggier ... and we pass by one of Golden Gate Park’s more dramatic features. It's a waterfall cascading down from a man-made hillside, right next to an overpass. We continue on, under the bridge, and down the hill. The creek running alongside us eventually feeds into a lake with plenty of birds in it. That's where we're going today: Spreckels Lake. Reporter Hannah Kingley-Ma introduces us to its visitors.

We’ve just left the Shakespeare Garden, in a thicket off 9th Avenue. We're going to head back toward the north side of the park, and to get there, we'll take a circuitous route down a hill into the parking garage serving the California Academy of Sciences and the DeYoung Museum. Soon we’re back in the sprawling music concourse. We go down a path to the left of the Japanese Tea Garden until we get to John F. Kennedy Boulevard, where our destination is just across the street. It’s a garden. Sheer Elegance. Wild Blue Yonder. Lady Elsie May. Daybreaker. Although these might sound like romance novel titles, they’re actually names for different species of the flower of romance, the rose. San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park has one whole acre of land dedicated to roses. Reporter Chris Hambrick follows the scent.

Now it’s time to head out from the music concourse to a place that’s even more timeless. We climb up stairs as we head south, around the California Academy of Sciences, into a wooded area...

We’re taking a quick breather this week as our staff adjusts to reporting on how the coronavirus epidemic is affecting our lives. But do not fret! We’ll take you back to the park soon. We have six more episodes planned and, in the meantime, there’s a special virtual park event celebrating Golden Gate Park’s 150th birthday, this Saturday, April 4. Check that out at goldengatepark150.com and stay subscribed for more updates.

We just got a fun workout with the swing dancers on John F. Kennedy Drive. Now, let's catch our breath and wander into the Music Concourse. As we walk along Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, we can see the California Academy of Sciences in front of us, with its skylights and living roof. To our right, the M.H. De Young Memorial Museum looks like a copper-clad battleship beached in the middle of a forest. In between the two cultural attractions is an open-air, oval-shaped plaza with many levels. If you walk down to the other end of the concourse, you’ll find yourself at the bandshell. This is the Spreckels Temple of Music and it's home to the Golden Gate Park Band. The band has brought life to the park every Sunday between April and October every year since 1882. Reporter Steven Short went strolling in the park and here’s what he heard.