It's
never just another day in Golden Gate Park,
San Francisco's 1,000-acre backyard. The park's
trove of attractions includes Strybing Arboretum
and Botanical Gardens, a "living library"
where 6,000 plant species, including a stunning
display of California redwoods, flourish.
Each spring endows the park with a new cast
of floral favorites: flowering cherry blossoms
in the Japanese Tea Garden, a five-acre legacy
from the 1894 Midwinter International Exposition;
lush magenta colored rhododendrons; and more
than 14,000 tulips and daffodils near the
Dutch Windmill.
Located off the Great Highway, the Dutch Windmill
is one of two originally constructed to irrigate
the park, once a vast wasteland of sand dunes
and scrub oak. The long-shuttered Beach Chalet
has re-emerged as a visitor center for the
park. Located at 1000 Great Highway near the
Dutch Windmill, the Willis Polk-designed building
was completed in 1929.
Indoors the exceptional collections of the
Asian Art Museum, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum
(closed until 2005 for renovation) and California
Academy of Sciences are rotated on a regular
basis and frequently augmented by traveling
shows.
Free guided walking tours of Golden
Gate Park are conducted by Friends of
Recreation and Parks, 415-263-0991.
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