Sutro Baths & Golden Gate

Posted on by snukes

A transcription of the photographed journal pages can be found at the bottom of the page. Also, lots of photos because it turns out I’m too far behind on regular blog posts to catch up. So!

Matt retreats from an oncoming wave (a very low wave) toward rocks in the foreground of the photo. The bay stretches away behind him, with a hill rising in the far distance.
This might have been the first time Matt touched the Pacific? Well, three seconds before this photo was taken, anyway. I’m not speedy.
Laura walks toward the camera down a path between rows of shrubs. She strides and smiles as if she's in a catalog photoshoot. The Golden Gate Bridge rises through a slight haze in the background.
Apparently I’m auditioning for a spring wear catalogue?
A landscape photo taken from a bluff along the Pacific Ocean. In the foreground, well below the vantage point, a pool of water is retained in a cove by a man-made wall. Additional foundation ruins can be seen to the right of the pool.
Ruins of the Sutro Baths from above. Imagine everything you see covered with an immense glass building. Tough to conjure? Let’s try this:
A vintage postcard reading, "Sutro Baths, San Francisco. Largest bathing establishment in the world." The image depicts the inside of a massive glass building, whose glass ceilings are held up by three-story metal posts. People in bathing suits mill around on a platform in the rear right quarter of the pool area. A few people swim in the pool. Their heads above the water appear as simple dots.
Does this help? The main pool of water you see in my photo would have been the platform all the people in this photo appear to be standing on. In fact, the “platform” was a series of smaller pools in varying temperatures. Seawater was pumped in to supply the pools.
Laura walks toward the camera along a cement foundation wall with water behind her and to her right. Pond scum grows on the water to her right. The ocean can be seen in the distance.
Creeping around on the ruins. You sure wouldn’t want to bathe in there now.
A photo entirely composed of blue sky with a hawk in the center, wings wide and tail fanned out, head tilted toward the ground.
This hawk was hovering perfectly still in the wind above us. We watched him for awhile to admire the perfect balance between wind and bird, also hoping that he might find a snack to dive after. But he just kept staying perfectly still up there.
Closeup photo of five flowers with dozens of thin purple petals and a center that fades from white to yellow. Succulent leaves can be seen behind and between the flowers.
Hardy Iceplant. I would have guessed Anemone, because they look like little land-dwelling anemones to me, but nope, those are totally different. These were all over the hillside above the Sutro Bath ruins, and so beautiful.
A photo taken from the top of a rocky cliff. More of the cliff is visible on the right, with waves crashing up against the rocks. A very small white structure is visible on the left in the distance. Behind that, brown hills mark the opposite shore. One of the Golden Gate Bridge's red towers can be seen in the distance on the right.
Along the hike to Land’s End. Mile Rocks lighthouse is visible on the left, and a bit of the Golden Gate Bridge on the right. I mean…. if that’s the best they could do for a lighthouse, no wonder 300 ships sunk here.
Vertical closeup photo of one of the Golden Gate Bridge's support structures, taken from nearly right below it, through the windshield of a moving car. Needless to say, it is not a very artful image.
Mandatory Golden Gate Bridge Crossing photo.
The pointy nose and mournful eyes of a dachshund can be seen just peeking out of a fuzzy gray blanket, in which she is wrapped like a burrito. Plastic totes are visible in the background.
This is how Matt’s pup Gracie felt about the impending move.
A paper plate containing (from top going clockwise): a gluten-free chicken finger, gluten-free broccoli cheese pasta, gluten-free chicken pad thai, gluten free mac'n'cheese, and gluten-free cauliflower mac'n'cheese.
That meal when your friend is moving so you eat all the frozen dinners in his fridge. At once.

Transcription:

Sunday, May 8 and Monday, May 9, 2022
GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL RECREATION AREA
SUTRO BATHS & FORT POINT

When I started the last entry, I did mean to talk about happenings in the NRA, I just didn’t realize how much I’d have to say about our other adventures in San Fran first. Onward, then!

We spent much of the day on Sunday helping Matt with small projects, including eating only meals that came out of his freezer all day long. (Frozen pizzas for lunch was pretty good, but by dinner time the menu was getting weird.) Eventually, in the late afternoon, he let us talk him out for some fresh air.

Our destination was somewhere along the shore where we could watch the sun set behind the bridge. This wound up being Crissy Field, which was a delightful walk ending at Fort Point, at the base of the bridge. Of course, this being Sunday, none of the buildings were open at this hour for visiting, so we admired them from the outside and I drew my own stamp.

The next day, we hung in with Matt until the movers arrived for final pack-up, then we got the heck out of dodge. Today’s adventure was a very San Francisco-flavored drive past The Painted Ladies and Golden Gate Park to Land’s End and Sutro Baths, in another corner of the NRA.

I learned about the Sutro Baths from Seanan McGuire’s strange novel Middlegame, which I did not love but which painted a really compelling picture of this historic oddity. San Francisco.

Built in 1894 by the very rich and probably slightly crazy Adolph Sutro, the public bathhouse covered three acres and offered sea-filled pools in seven different temperatures. There were slides, trapezes, and diving boards. Ten thousand people could fit in the pools all at once. The Great Depression (among other things) hit the baths hard, and by 1964 plans were in place to tear it down and build condos. Instead, it burned down in 1966 and no condos went up.

Today, the footprint left behind does little to illustrate its former immensity and splendor. A seawater-filled outine of the largest pool remains, along with parts of the filling tank, but if you want to get a feel for the glass-framed monstrosity, you just have to look for pictures.

We scuttled around in the ruined foundations for a bit, enjoying pretty wildflowers and spectacular views, then we headed a mile or so up the Land’s End trail. Mile Rocks Lighthouse is now just a stump (a helipad, actually), the tower of the original having been demolished in 1966. I haven’t seen any specific explanations, though most info notes it was “automated” in 1966, so I guess that implies someone used to have to live out there, alone on that microscopic rock in the middle of water that sunk more that 300 (three. hundred.) ships from the 1800s to the 1950s.

From Lands End, we took a scenic drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, all the way around to Oakland to meet my cousin Judy and her husband Michael for dinner. It’s been ages since I’ve gotten to visit CA family, and it was delightful to catch up.

Tomorrow is moving day!

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