Just off Lake Street in the Richmond District, at the south tip of the Presidio, is a small lake with reeds and benches. Mountain Lake is one of San Francisco's last natural lakes. The Presidio Trust says it's the only natural lake in the 80,000-acre Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Visiting

  • Getting there: Muni's 28 19th Avenue stops at Presidio Boulevard and California Street. The free Presidio Go shuttle's South Hills route stops at the Public Health Service District. Street parking is on Lake Street outside the Presidio.
  • Next door: the city's 14-acre Mountain Lake Park has restrooms, picnic tables, a big lawn, a playground and a dog park.
  • Accessibility: the part of the Mountain Lake Trail that circles the lake is paved, and there's a paved path to the restrooms.
  • No fishing: the lake is a restored habitat. The Presidio suggests Torpedo Wharf near Crissy Field for fishing instead.

What to look for

The Presidio Trust says 65 bird species stop at the lake while migrating between Alaska and South America. Bring binoculars and watch for Western pond turtles and chorus frogs. From June through September, a StoryWalk puts pages of a children's book on signs along the trail. The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail runs 2.7 miles from the lake to the Golden Gate Bridge.

A lake in distress

De Anza's 1776 expedition camped at the lake while scouting a site for the Spanish presidio. A 1957 plaque marks the spot. In 1897, the lake's water was used to irrigate the new Presidio golf course. In 1939, the Park Presidio approach to the Golden Gate Bridge was built over its western shore, shrinking the lake, and highway runoff was piped in. People also dumped unwanted pets. The Presidio Trust says it has found goldfish, turtles, a five-foot sturgeon and an alligator.

The alligator was the famous one. In 1996, a roughly three-foot alligator showed up in the lake and set off a citywide hunt. The Chronicle and the Examiner competed to catch it, and a professional alligator hunter the Chronicle flew in went home empty-handed. Examiner readers named it 'Golden Gator.' In October 1996, San Francisco Zoo curator John Aikin removed it.

Since then, the Partnership for the Presidio has worked with scientists and volunteers to clean up the water and soil, and native species have been brought back, including Western pond turtles.