W
hile I’m always scheming my next national park getaway, the truth is I still have NPS sites to visit here in my own backyard in the Bay Area. Earlier this spring, I took advantage of a nice sunny day to check out the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park in the Fisherman’s Wharf area. This part of town caters to the tourist crowd, but crowds and T-shirt shops aside, I do enjoy the occasional cable car ride or visit to Ghirardelli Square for an over-the-top ice cream sundae 🙂
The main
visitor center for the historic park is in a brick cannery building on the corner of Hyde and Jefferson. Inside, they have multimedia exhibits highlighting the importance of maritime trade and travel in the city’s history and some fun facts about the city. For example, I learned that the MUNI tunnel under Market St. actually goes right through the middle of a Gold Rush-era ship, one of many buried under the financial district. The visitor’s center also has information on other Bay Area and CA national park sites if San Francisco is just your first stop. Across the street from the visitor’s center is the historic Hyde Street Pier, where you can tour historic ships and other exhibits.
Before hopping on that cable car, it’s nice to walk along the beachfront around to the municipal pier side of the park. Across from Ghirardelli Square is the Aquatic Park Boathouse and Maritime Museum. This Depression-era building is used for events and as a senior center in addition to being a small museum associated with the park. It’s worth poking your head in to check out the art deco design, the WPA murals, and the model ships (and there is a bonus stamp of a ship for your Passport book in addition to the park stamp).
If you continue past the municipal pier, you can take the Bay Trail around (or go up and over the hill) to Fort Mason. Fort Mason is technically part of Golden Gate National 
Recreation Area, but it also houses the Maritime Park Library (open weekdays). It seems like there’s almost always something going on whenever I’m there, whether it is a farmers market, a food truck meet-up, or a craft [beer/chocolate/distilling] expo, and the buildings also house shops & restaurants (including the famous vegetarian restaurant Greens).
