Fort Baker

Possibly one of the busiest tourist dumping grounds in Marin, Sausalito offers one of the most impressive access points to killer views of San Francisco, and quick access to the backbone of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge.

Let’s get one thing clear right up front, Sunday afternoons are a busy time for southbound 101 access to the bridge, and it starts to back up at the Sausalito exit.  So pulling off to scoot through town, on the way to Fort Baker should be a casual breeze.   Yep.  So after about 30 to 40 minutes crawing through downtown Sausalito (a one road in and out kind of town) we made it to the last street before hooking back up with the 101 at the Golden Gate Bridge.  So we shot off Alexander Ave, and headed down the access road into Fort Baker.

WARNING, HISTORY HERE
Fort Baker was an important Army base, that served to protect the USA against invaders by installing a series of batteries to shoot at them if they dare tried to sail into the San Francisco Bay.

Well, nowadays the Army Post has been transformed into a high class tourist destination, as part of the National Park Post to Park program.  There is a nice looking hotel, made from the old buildings around the base, an indoor and outdoor children’s museum and a bunch of trails that give you unprecedented views, real money shots, of San Francisco and the bridge.

We hiked around for about an hour, noticing that the roads are all under various stages of being all repaved.  It doesn’t cause many delays into or out of the place, it is mainly just dusty for people walking around on the roads, when cars drive by.  We headed up to one of the battery formations to have a closer look at what used to serve as a line of last defense for anything trying to sneak into the bay.  There are 6 stations in the concrete fortification that used to house big canons.  Once you get over the massive scale of these gun turrets, it is very much worth climbing over them to take in the view of the city, and to watch the ships pass through the Gate.  In the right season, March to June, you may even get to see an endangered Mission Blue Butterfly as they poke around on the lupines, leaving behind their eggs.

After about an hour and a half that we were there, the traffic heading south across the bridge didn’t appear to be letting up.  The fog had started seriously pouring over the top of the Marin Headlands as well.  Good thing for us we were heading north back to the San Rafael.