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Atop a ridge of bedrock in San Francisco sits an appealing oasis, one of our smallest but finest parks in San Francisco. I think of Kite Hill Park as a triumph of Mother Nature, rising high above all the "progress" and overdevelopment below. I visited the park today for a short photo study, and I discovered plenty of beauty to behold, but also some caution to heed.
Unfortunately, the park is eroding. Foot traffic and vandals are dislodging chunks of bedrock, threatening the houses below with potential rockslides. I was quite dismayed when I picked up large chunks of rock at the bottom of the access trail. These pieces used to be part of the park, but now it's just rubble to be removed.
Accessing the park was a little awkward. I had to walk down 19th Street, past Douglass, to find a small path on the side of a house. The path turned into a gnarly trail cut through bedrock, hardly an excursion for a dork like me wearing tennis shoes. I reached the top, enjoyed the views, and tried to identify a few of the trees at the top of the hill. Below are the best of the photos that I took. Click any of them for a larger version. While you inspect Kite Hill, why not pair it with a bit of sensuality by the Hungarian composer Miklós Rózsa, from one of his dance suites.
Miklós Rózsa: North Hungarian Peasant Songs and Dances, for violin and piano: No. 1
 | The Gnarly Path
to Kite Hill |
 | Country-like Setting
Above Packed Neighborhoods |
 | It's A Different World on the
Top of Kite Hill |
 | Dusk Slowly Sweeps toward
Downtown San Francisco |
 | Kite Park's Soulful Pine |
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