Best Place to Imagine Pre-Euro San Francisco

Baker Beach

Once you've gotten yourself to the beach (see "Best Route to Cross the City on Foot" above), avert your eyes, if you can, from the gorgeous deep-orange bridge to your right and take in the unspoiled expanse of seashore, headlands, and ocean stretching before you. Peer at Mile Rock and the Farallons and the infinitude beyond and wonder what's out there, just as centuries of Costanoans and Miwoks did until, to their sorrow, they found out. Many a seafaring Euro passed up this usually foggy place, unaware of the magnificent harbor just behind you, until a conquistador by the name of Ayala wended his way through the Golden Gate, blazing a trail for the argonauts, speculators, and dot-commers to come. This silent, wind-swept remove still, however, smacks of the primeval.