The pastoral setting that marks most of lands north of San Francisco Bay instantly disappears as you pass through the tollbooths at the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge. Yet among the museums, skyscrapers, shops, and restaurants that fill the city, there are parks filled with gardens and forests and miles of open beaches. San Francisco’s streets that traverse breathtakingly steep hills are legendary, as are the streetcars and Fisherman’s Wharf.

        Nearby, other towns and cities, from Alameda to Oakland, offer world class parks, museums and mansions. There are plenty of restaurants and spectacular views of San Francisco from the surrounding hills. The north side of the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the premier viewing points for seeing some of the 20,000 birds of prey that migrate past here annually from September through November.

         Continue driving on Highway 1 as it heads south out of San Francisco and the businesses and homes that crowded to the edges of the freeway near the city soon give way to open mountains and craggy cliffs that drop directly into the Pacific Ocean. Highway 1 follows the coastline very closely here, with only a few small towns to mark the open lands used mostly for cattle grazing, when it is usable at all.