Best Parks For Picnics In San Francisco Near Me

4worldlovers: The rumors are true. Golden Gate Park is as fantastic as they say. Explore this iconic park’s 1,017 acres, from bucolic lakes and meadows to vibrant activity destinations. Golden Gate Park has something for everyone.

Golden Gate Park Car-Free Route In an effort to create safer spaces for everyone to enjoy our parks, we're providing a virtually car-free route from one end of the park to the other. Find out more

Visit our Accessibility Questions page for more information on accessibility resources in our parks, including Golden Gate Park.

4worldlovers: Encompassing nearly 16 acres, Mission Dolores Park is one of San Francisco’s most popular parks, the vibrant heart of its equally vibrant, culturally diverse neighborhood. Here you’ll find lush green lawns shaded by tall palm trees, a soccer field, six tennis courts, one basketball court, a multi-use court, a playground, and two off-leash dog play areas. Yes. Many festivals, performances, and other cultural events are held here, and on sunny afternoons people flock to the park to play, picnic, lounge, walk their dogs, and enjoy spectacular views of the city’s skyline and beyond.

Named for nearby Mission Dolores, the park is situated on land that was once a Jewish cemetery. The City bought the property in 1905 and established the park. In 1906 it served as a refugee camp for more than 1,600 residents made homeless by the earthquake and fire.

Following a major renovation project in 2016, a community effort was launched to encourage park users to pack out their trash and recyclables to the curb. Thank you for helping to keep our park clean!

Mission Dolores Park is bounded by Church, Dolores, 18th, and 20th streets. The Muni Metro J-Church Line runs along its western edge.

4worldlovers: If you're looking for a place to host the great American barbeque, look no further than the Crissy Field West Bluff Picnic Area. Located near the Golden Gate Bridge, the views here are breathtaking.

Why we Love It: Golden Gate Bridge views; grassy areas for kids to play​

A hot spot for all kinds of festivities – from birthday parties to family gatherings to work get-togethers – West Bluff has everything you need for a great day outdoors. There are many large picnic tables here, along with barbeque pits. On a weekend day, you will want to arrive early – very early – to grab a spot. Once you do you will be treated to views of Alcatraz, Angel Island, and the Marin Headlands.

West Bluff is an excellent base camp for a day at Crissy Field. Nearby you will find East Beach for sunbathing or dancing in the surf with the kids. The young and young-at-heart will also enjoy learning about the aquatic life of the bay at the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center or about amazing military architecture at Fort Point National Historic Site.

Many enjoy throwing Frisbees on the vast grassy field where airplanes first started landing a century ago. Keep in mind that the same bay breezes that carry those colorful disks could suddenly make you very chilly. Dress in layers as the fog could roll in at any moment.

4worldlovers: Bernal Hill provides visitors with a breathtaking 360-degree panorama and clear views of San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, downtown, San Bruno Mountain, and the hills of the East Bay. These windswept slopes are still sunny when Twin Peaks is shrouded in afternoon fog. Red-tailed hawks soar overhead, the breeze sends waves undulating through the native grassland community, and visitors hike around the hill’s peaceful summit to escape from the complexities of urban life. As one of the few remaining natural refuges in San Francisco, Bernal Hill is a special place for the city’s human and wildlife inhabitants.

A paved limited-access road and a network of well-defined dirt trails wind around the hill’s flanks and provide access to the summit.

Bernal Hill was originally part of a 4,446-acre land grant awarded to José Cornelio de Bernal, a soldier in Juan Bautista de Anza’s 1776 expedition. The grant extended south from current-day Cesar Chavez Street to Daly City. The Bernal region became a squatter’s paradise over the next several decades, until the Van Ness Ordinance of 1855 decreed that these illegitimate tenants were in fact bona fide landowners and citizens of the city.

In the mid-1800s, as San Francisco began to outgrow the capacity of the downtown district, the Bernal Heights neighborhood emerged. The streets were laid out and many small - to moderate-sized homes were built. A tight-knit community, including many Irish, Scots, and Scandinavians, took up residence in the shadow of the hill, which residents used extensively for cattle and dairy ranching.

One of the most dramatic tales of Bernal Hill took place in May of 1876. The Bernal Heights community caught the California gold rush fever after Frenchman Victor Resayre announced his discovery of gold on the Bernal summit, ore that he claimed would fetch $1 million per ton. For several days the hill was the site of extensive mining efforts, until it was revealed that the original discovery consisted of the considerably less valuable quartz.

During the 1906 earthquake, homeowners in Bernal Heights were some of the luckiest in the city because of the hill’s stable rock. Few homes here were damaged, compared to those in parts of the city that were built on landfill or former sand dunes.

Bernal Hill’s steep slopes support a thriving grassland community, suggesting how much of the northern San Francisco peninsula might have looked 250 years ago. In the summer and fall its grasslands are dry and parched, and Bernal appears from a distance to be a tawny, uninhabitable monolith. The native grasses and wildflowers have dropped their seeds, which wait patiently in the soil for the winter rains to awaken them. By early February, the hill is transformed into a palette of brilliant colors as a multitude of native wildflowers bloom, including footsteps of spring, sun cup, blue-eyed grass, checkerbloom, and shooting star. Native purple needlegrass and red fescue blow in waves from the almost constant ocean breeze.

With a diversity of plant life, an assortment of native animals can survive. More than 40 species of birds are known to use Bernal Hill, including Anna’s hummingbirds, dark-eyed juncos, American kestrels, western meadowlarks, and Townsend’s warblers. These birds forage and hunt in the grasslands in search of a tasty meal of seeds, berries, nectar, or invertebrates. The American kestrel effortlessly hovers above the steep slopes of the hill, waiting patiently for its next meal to reveal itself among the lupines, fragrant coyote mint, and red fescue.