Completed: February 24, 2023 | Elevation: 459′ | Trail: paved walkway | Distance: < 1 mile
While I had originally planned on tackling the San Francisco “peaks” during the summer, or even possibly in one go towards the end, the need to feel like we were making progress compounded by the fact that it wasn’t always practical to find the time to drive and hike the peaks situated further away every weekend, meant that we found ourselves checking off two more SF peaks one Friday afternoon in late February.
We didn’t have a lot of time so decided to combine Bernal Hill, which we could practically drive to, with Mount Davidson, just another 15-minute drive away.
Bernal Hill rises from the middle of Bernal Heights, the neighborhood that surrounds it. It’s not a very big or tall hill, but it’s situated high enough to afford beautiful 360° views of the city. We parked at the end of Bernal Heights Boulevard near Anderson Street, and walked up the paved pathway that leads to the top, past the swing, and around the bend. I could see snow from the recent rains and cold weather dusting the East Bay hills.
We got as close as we could to the peak, which is marked by a fenced off building tagged with a giant eagle, and a telecommunications tower. After an obligatory photo of the sweeping city views, we headed back to the car to drive to Mount Davidson, our next Nifty Ninety peak.
Follow our progress bagging the Bay Area’s Nifty Ninety here.
Coda
While we visit Bernal Heights every now and then to check out a new restaurant, we haven’t really had any reason to come to the park, other than one time when we did a stairway walk that had us zig-zagging through the streets that surround it before taking the Esmeralda Stairway into the park itself.