Day Trip Adventure: Bike Sunday on JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park
Bike JFK Drive (closed to cars on Sundays), hike to the top of Rainbow Falls, and stroll around the rose garden.
This is part of a series of family-oriented day trip outings around the San Francisco Bay Area I look forward to enjoying with my kids once social distancing and shelter in place isn’t the norm any longer.
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Passing the Conservatory of Flowers on Bike Sunday in Golden Gate Park by Cody Tolmasoff
Bike Sunday on JFK Drive — A Bonus Adventure
When I grew up in the Sunset District, my family always seemed to take part as pedestrians during Sunday closures of JFK Drive. We rarely had a car, and the logistics of bringing our skates or bikes were probably too complicated.
I think also, it was never a destination for us. It was more likely that we were visiting somewhere else nearby and came across this party on wheels along the way.
Even without a bike, it was a delightful experience to walk along the road among all the people cruising on roller skates or bikes, carrying boomboxes, dancing as they went. Even today, it’s a charming experience and a splendid way to spend the afternoon.
Adventure: Bike Sunday in Golden Gate Park
Bike JFK Drive (closed to cars on Sundays)
Hike to the top of Rainbow Falls
Stroll around the Rose Garden
Bike JFK Drive
Drawing chalk dahlia’s next to the dahlia garden on a Bike Sunday by Cody Tolmasoff
There are lots of brief detours and stops to take riding along JFK drive on bike Sunday. You can ride between (under) Crossover drive all the way up to Kezar drive. We often will make a couple of round trips. A favorite stop is the Dahlia Garden next to the Conservatory of Flowers. It’s often in bloom from the Spring to the Fall. We enjoy bringing sidewalk chalk and drawing some of our own while we visit.
Another popular stop is the Skatin Place, where we can watch all the roller skaters roll and dance around their track. John McLaren’s Memorial Rhododendron Dell is almost directly across, and you can see a statue of the man who shaped most of the park you experience today. His statue is a little different as it stands directly on the ground, which symbolized his connection to the park. It’s funny, he would have hated that there was a statue of him in the park.
Hike to the top of Rainbow Falls
Prayerbook Cross at the top of Rainbow Falls by Cody Tolmasoff
The Prayerbook Cross (also known as Drakes Cross) was dedicated back in 1894 at the time of the Mid-Winter Fair. This is one of the few natural ridges in the park, originally called Prayerbook Cross Hill later to become Rainbow Falls once it was constructed. At the time of the Mid-Winter Fair, this hill was mostly barren and the cross could be seen from a good distance all around.
Now the cross is obscured with nearby trees and you have to be almost next to it in order to notice it. The hill isn’t a bad climb, as it’s only around 60 feet tall.
Rainbow Falls was a later addition, dedicated in 1930, and was the second artificial waterfall in the park (the first being Huntington Falls at nearby Stow Lake on Strawberry Hill).
The water is pumped from Lloyd Lake, circulated in a trench stream along JFK Drive, which gives the appearance of flowing uphill.
Originally, colored lights framed the falls which is why it was called Rainbow Falls.
Stroll around the Rose Garden
By FASTILY — Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49788921
A stop here in the Rose Garden is a delight for your olfactory and visual senses. You can find different varietals blooming at all times of the year, but the peak experience is during the summer season.
Dedicated in 1961 at the behest of The American Rose Society, the Rose Garden in Golden Gate Park is a testing site for varieties of the colorful bloom. Over 60 beds of roses are planted here, primarily maintained by dedicated locals.
Enjoy the hundreds of variety of roses here — but remember not to pick any.
Cody Tolmasoff is an author and publisher for Adventuring.in. He is a recovering programmer and a San Francisco native, raising two daughters, and regularly finding new adventures around the SF Bay Area. This article is an excerpt from a book, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park West.
Find him on Twitter @codyo, and read his most recent title Adventures in Getting Out on Amazon, filled with advice on successfully getting your family out for day trip adventures.
Originally published on Medium on 12 May 2020