San Francisco's Sutro Heights

Introduction. On Tuesday, Sept. 13, as part of your investigations for Real-World Problem #1, "Living on the Edge", we will visit Sutro Heights, one of four sites hypothetically under consideration for a new Creative Arts Charter School building. The park perches on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean just north of Ocean Beach, about 6 road miles (a 12-15 minute drive) northwest of SFSU.

Looking east toward downtown San Francisco. The Cliff House, the Great Highway, and Ocean Beach are in the foreground. Sutro Heights, topped by Sutro Heights Park, rises above the Cliff House (lower left). The dense strip of forested land on the right is Golden Gate Park. Balboa Ave. intersects the Great Highway just south of Sutro Heights (center foreground).

Before the Field Trip. Fill out, sign, and turn in a Student Field Trip Registration form (provided in class Thursday, Sept. 8). You cannot legally take part in the field trip without completing and turning in this form.

Field Trip Logistics. In class on Thursday, Sept. 8, we will organize transportation to the site. We hope that one person in your permanent group will have a car and be willing to drive your group to the site and back.

On Tuesday, Sept. 13, we will meet in the classroom at 2:10 pm as usual. After 40-45 minutes of regular class there, we will scatter to our respective cars for the trip to Sutro Heights Park (see directions below). If any group lacks transportation, one of the instructors might be able to take as many as one group. If your group can't arrange its own transportation, you should accompany Dr. Dempsey to the north entrance to Thornton Hall, ready for a quick departure. (Dr. White will be joining us separately.) Be sure to tell us in advance!

At Sutro Heights Park we will meet along 48th Ave. on the eastern edge of the park, a short distance east (up the hill) from the famous Cliff House. (See the red star on the second, more detailed street map below.) You should arrange to arrive at this meeting place no later than 3:30 p.m. (If you arrive a little late, look for the class in the northwestern corner of the park.)

After perhaps 30-40 minutes in Sutro Heights Park, we will return to our cars and drive back down the hill past the Cliff House and to the first parking lot at northern end of Ocean Beach, where we will regroup for the second stage of the field trip, on Ocean Beach and along the sidewalk leading up to the Cliff House at the base of Sutro Heights.

You should be able to get back to SFSU by 5:00 p.m.

Directions from SFSU to Sutro Heights Park. [see accompanying street/highway maps]:

1. From the west side of campus, drive north and then west around Lake Merced on Lake Merced Blvd. until it curves north and turns into Sunset Blvd. [As you drive past Lake Merced, you'll see the Harding Park Golf Course, one of the sites under consideration for the charter school.]
2. Drive north on Sunset Blvd. all the way to a "T" intersection with Lincoln Ave.
3. Turn left onto Lincoln Ave. and follow it to a "T" intersection at the Great Highway at Ocean Beach.
4. Turn right (north) onto the Great Highway and follow it past Golden Gate Park, up the hill past Sutro Heights (on the right) and the Cliff House (on the left). around the corner to the right (east), and on up the hill along the northern edge of Sutro Heights Park.
5. By this time the street will have become Point Lobos Avenue. Look for 48th Ave. on the right, the first possible right turn along the northern edge of Sutro Heights Park, and turn onto it. Look for a place to park along 48th Ave.
6. We will meet along 48th Ave near its junction with Point Lobos Avenue.
   
   
7. For the next stage of the field trip, retrace your route back down Point Lobos Avenue, past the Cliff House down to the bottom of the hill. By this time you'll be on the Great Highway. Along the west (ocean) side of the Great Highway there is an extended parking lot. Go as close to the north end of this stretch of parking as you can and park. We will regroup there.

Alternatively:

1. From 19th St. (Hwy. 1) on the east side of SFSU, drive north all the way through Golden Gate Park to a block just before or after Geary Ave. You can't turn left directly onto Geary, so you'll have to turn right on a nearby street and approach Geary Ave. from a lesser street.Turn onto Geary headed west (toward the ocean).
2. Follow Geary until it turns into Pt. Lobos Ave.at about Sutro Heights Park. Turn onto 48th Avenue as described above. Meet us there.

Above and below: Street maps of western/northwestern San Francisco. (Red star: Sutro Heights Park.)

Detailed street map of northwestern San Francisco.
( Red star: Point Lobos Ave. and 48th Ave., the northeastern corner of Sutro Heights Park.)

United States Geological Survey (USGS) topographic map, Point Bonita, CA quadrangle, 1954 (revised 1978).

USGS topographic map: close-up of Sutro Heights area.