We were curious to stay at the San Francisco Thousand Trails. It is actually located in Pacifica. The park is situated up on a cliff by the ocean. It was windy and windier the whole time. It is basically just a big parking lot with hookups, but they do have a nice clean, heated swimming pool! Employees are all super friendly and helpful.
Below is an area right on the bluff where we could see sites no longer usable! Erosion and unstable cliffs are not to be taken lightly anywhere along the Pacific coastline.
We were not motivated to fight through San Francisco traffic for a parking place near Golden Gate Park or down by Ghirardelli Square over Memorial Weekend. Instead, we took to our bikes both days to explore locally.
Ride #1 — It was quite windy and chilly, but great views.
Sharp Park Coastal Area (Sharp Park Golf Course) has quite a unique history!
Pre-1840s: The Ohlone people utilize this land and the adjacent
tidal-lagoon
1849: Sharp Park was established by George F. Sharp as an artichoke
farm
1917: Land given to San Francisco to manage for pubic use
1929-1939: Served as a relief camp to house individuals displaced
by the Great Depression
1931: Construction of the golf course begins
WOW – 1941-1946: Over 2,500 individuals from German, Italy, and Japan were incarcerated by the US Government on this land!
This golf course was designed by golf architect Alister MacKenzie. It provided low-cost, ecologically responsible golf recreation within a beautiful seaside location. Nearly 60% of Sharp Park is managed as natural areas: forest, grassland, coastal scrub, wetland and beach habitat that is home to a wide variety of native plant and animal species.
I noticed all this creamy white stuff all over the beach – it was more Velella-Velella here!! These, however, were now just the gelatinous sails all dried up. There were thousands of them! It must have been spectacular when these first blew in from the ocean! The beach would have been covered with irridescent blue velella-velella!
Because the dried up sails are so thin and lightweight, the wind was blowing them all over, but there was this recessed area near the embankment by the trail where thousands upon thousands had accumulated. It looked gross and trashy, but it was just an enormous “collection” of the dries velella-velella sails. I’m sure most people had no idea what it was or paid it any attention.
We biked up to the top of the cliff. View to the north…
You can also walk up a lot of stairs to get here.
View south…
There were trails going further south, but I was done with the wind along the coast!
Barry went down to the viewpoint at the edge of the cliff. It was pretty…
We headed inland and rounded a corner into an 86-47 Anti-Trump protest! We cheered them on and took pictures of some of their signs. They were in their last 10-15 minutes.
As we continued our ride into a park area we saw some beautiful flowers bordering the path. Then we realized these were personalized gardens where people decorated their own little section. Many were a tribute to someone, or in memory of a loved one. It was pretty cool.
Our return route took us by a couple murals.
This underwater mural was at Cotton Crustacean. It was a pretty cool little store with a fish tank inside!
Fish Tank inside Cotton Crustacean…
Ride #2 Today we biked to the north towards Daly City. We went to Mussel Rock. We thoroughly enjoyed awesome views with exquisite ocean blues and greens, and beautiful wildflowers! There were people paragliding off the cliffs. We were mesmerized watching them.
Amazing how the sunlight could make the blues/greens so distinct and vivid or if slightly diffused caused them to be darker, but still beautiful.
These paragliders make this look so easy, but paragliding isn’t something you just jump off a cliff or bluff and do safely. A little further north we came to an area where people take lessons.
This guy was practicing controlling his glider while standing on the ground. We could see the amount of strength he needed. I can see how easy it would be to panic and be in trouble.
Barry rode down to the water. He found a decent size opening in a rock that he climbed through since the tide was out. While he was gone a retired local guy started talking to me up above where I waited. He told me about the hole that Barry was discovering down along the beach.
He said that years ago a rich guy who liked to take his horse and carriage along the beach didn’t like it when he couldn’t go any further. So, he had a tunnel blasted through the protruding rock cliff because he could. He worked for the railroad, and had the guys who could do it for him. Later, I read the sign that told about “Tobin’s Folly” (pictured above). Evidently a storm damaged the tunnel after only being used about 3 times! The tunnel was abandoned, and later the 1906 earthquake knocked what remained into the ocean.
Barry said that even though the tide was low, he had to scramble over some slippery and rough rocks.
Riding to meet Barry and head back to the Thousand Trails.
When we got back to the TT, Barry talked me into going swimming. The pool there looked great. It was sort of warm ~ 85 degrees, but there was a distinct chilly breeze. We enjoyed some conversation with two guys from Brazil, who have lived nearby for many years. They outlasted us in the pool – maybe it was the alcohol they had. LOL We went directly to the hot showers. Tomorrow we go to the Redding Elks.