Self-Guided Adventures
Spark ideas for your visit with our free guides and tools for exploring the park.
These self-guided adventures invite you discover the park’s nature and history. Additionally, the Field Station at Presidio Tunnel Tops is a “base camp” where you can choose from a free menu of exploratory guides and borrowable gear.
Downloadable Guides
Presidio Tunnel Tops Guide
Presidio Tunnel Tops is the gateway to the park – with trails, picnic sites, public lawns, San Francisco’s best playground, and Golden Gate Bridge views. The Presidio Tunnel Tops Discovery Guide, designed with illustrator Jean Wei, offers fun ideas for exploring on your own.
Adventures in the Presidio Map
This colorfully illustrated map highlights nearly two dozen fun things to do around the park. These free maps are available at the Presidio Field Station.
Goldsworthy in the Presidio
The Presidio is home to the largest collection of works by artist Andy Goldsworthy on public view in North America. See Spire, Wood Line, Tree Fall, and Earth Wall on a self-guided three-mile walk with the Goldsworthy in the Presidio guide.
Tennessee Hollow Watershed Walk
Tennessee Hollow is the park’s largest watershed, running through the eastern Presidio. The two-mile Tennessee Hollow Watershed Walk traces the creek system, describing nature and history along the way.
Butterflies of the Presidio
There are ten sites in the Presidio where spotting a butterfly is more likely. Grab your binoculars and go for a walk!
Bird Guides
More than 300 bird species come through the Presidio each year. Great places to view them include Mountain Lake and Crissy Field.
Self-Guided Adventures
Presidio Explorer Backpack
The Presidio Explorer Backpack introduces families to self-guided park adventures. It includes a map, nature guides, a magnifying glass, binoculars, a sand sifter, colored pencils and paper, and a compass. Activity cards prompt fun along your journey. Check out a backpack in person from the Presidio Tunnel Tops Field Station.
Geocaching in the Presidio
Geocaching is a treasure hunt where you seek hiding spots using wayfinding clues. There are eighteen geocaches hidden in off-the-beaten-path spots in the Presidio, offering insights into the park’s history and nature. Most are housed in waterproof boxes with a small log book inside. Go look for them! Find instructions on the Geocaching website – just search for “Presidio of SF. You can also pick up GeoQuest cards at the Field Station that allow you to find the boxes without a cell phone.
Presidio Field Notes
Field Notes are a collection of small wooden blocks attached to fence posts, benches, and stumps along Presidio trails. Go find them in the park! They contain messages that invite you to discover the Presidio’s natural world. You might be prompted to look for a locally rare butterfly in the spring, discover a remnant of a historic rose garden in the summer, or smell fragrant California sage in the winter. Access the Field Notes map in English, Spanish, and Chinese through a QR code inside the blocks.
Presidio StoryWalks
StoryWalks feature pages of a children’s book on sign panels along a trail so you can “seek, find and read” as you stroll. The Presidio is home to two “StoryWalks” from June to September. At Mountain Lake playground, experience I Wrote You a Note by Lizi Boyd. Starting at the Presidio Visitor Center on the Presidio Promenade Trail, enjoy The Hike by Alison Farrell. StoryWalks are presented with the San Francisco Public Library’s Summer Stride program.
Discovery Quests
A quest is a treasure hunt with wayfinding clues and activities that reward your journey. Every season, there is a new Discovery Quest that makes exploration of the Field Station and Outpost playground at Presidio Tunnel Tops a fresh new adventure. Exploring beyond Presidio Tunnel Tops, the Petlenuc Creek Quest takes you on a water-themed adventure that includes the beach, footbridges, and many observational activities along the way. All quests are available at the Field Station in English, Spanish, and Chinese.
