Lyon Street Stairs | San Francisco
The Blue & Gold Ferry dropped us off at Pier 39 aka Fisherman's Wharf. Since we had brought our own road bikes (as opposed to renting from Blazing Saddles), we were excused from piling our bikes in the middle of the ferry for the ride from Sausalito to San Francisco. This allowed us to exit immediately after the pedestrians, a small win after waiting an hour and a half to board the ferry back in Sausalito.
As far as I could tell from google maps on my phone, we essentially wanted to take Bay Street to Lyon Street and then Pacific Avenue along the Presidio. What I couldn't see at the time under the blue line of the directions was that Lyon Street dead ended and turned into steps about halfway to Pacific Avenue.
So there I was, head down, grinding up Lyon Street on my bike, when I glance up to see the street veering left, a "Dead End" sign straight in front of me.
"Stop! Stop biking!" I yelled to my husband 100 yards behind me, "This is the wrong way! Stop!"
I made a U-turn to meet up with him to discuss our next move.
"The road ends up there. I think it's just steps," I explained, out of breath.
"Well why don't we just carry our bikes up the steps? It's probably the most direct way at this point," he suggested.
Huh. I hadn't thought of that. "That works for me!"
Another U-turn and we continued our climb up the hill until we came face to face with steps. Manicured hedges lined the sides of two flights of stairs, a metal railing dividing the steps in two. A woman in stretch pants lapped the top flight of the two sets, getting in her evening workout while catching up with someone on her phone. She looked down at us and smirked.
Feeling valiant, we reached the top of the second flight of stairs only to realize we were halfway to the top - there were two more flights ahead. Except these had a much better surprise a their landing. A garden, complete with heart sculpture, stone bench and amazing view of the bay.
A miscalculation turned into a highlight of the day.
