Golden Gate Park gets the crowds, but southeast San Francisco has a big park of its own, ringed by the Excelsior, Crocker-Amazon, Visitacion Valley, Portola and University Mound.
What's there
San Francisco Recreation and Park says McLaren covers 313 acres and has more than 425 feet of elevation change. From the top you can see downtown, the East Bay and San Bruno Mountain. The department lists trails and paths, six playgrounds, five picnic areas, tennis and basketball courts, an amphitheater, natural areas, a clubhouse, an off-leash dog play area, a golf course, a reservoir, a lake, a marsh and baseball diamonds.
Shelley Promenade
One of the park's newer features is the Shelley Promenade. It's a half-mile stretch of former roadway along Shelley Drive, now closed to cars and kept for walking, biking, wheeling and running. It runs from the Upper Reservoir parking lot near the blue water tower to the park entrance at Cambridge Street. Rec and Park says more improvements will be phased in over the next several years.
How it came to be
Daniel Burnham's 1905 plan for San Francisco recommended setting aside parkland in this part of the city, but after the 1906 earthquake the city rebuilt on its old street grid. On Oct. 4, 1926, the Board of Supervisors voted to buy 550 acres for a planned "Mission Park." Later that year it renamed the park for longtime Golden Gate Park superintendent John McLaren. Coffman Pool, the park's first recreation facility, was built in 1958. A 1959 master plan led to the nine-hole Gleneagles Golf Course, finished in 1961, as well as McNab Lake and the amphitheater later renamed for Jerry Garcia.