I don’t care what people say, but the Bay Area is always super fun to visit! I’ve been more than a handful of time in the past few years and I always leave happy. Spring is one of the best times to go when the flowers are in bloom and the city is bustling with fewer foggy days. On this particular trip, I was hell-bent on finding lupine. In Washington, they’re relatively rare, only blooming readily in the alpine meadows. However, in California, they are abundant and easily grow at sea level. I was mind blown with that fact! I was first made aware of lupine in Big Sur from another Instagram influencer… yes I do get influenced easily….

While we didn’t make it to Big Sur due to road closures, we still found a whole bunch of lupine and other wildflowers along the coast. So this is your blog to your backup plan if you only had 2 days in the Bay Area and couldn’t make it out to Big Sur like me.

Huge thanks to Manu for doing so much planning and hosting because while I came with some ideas, we definitely needed backup options for the drizzly weather and getting our bearings.

Half Moon Bay & Pacifica

Devil’s Slide Trail

If you know anything about lupines in Big Sur, you’ll know that they face the ocean and occur above the highway, at a high enough elevation band. So it totally makes sense that lupines continue up and down the coast in areas where there are meadows and fewer trees. We headed up to Pacifica for beach views and found lupines! Yellow and purple ones. I believe they’re the Yellow Bush Lupine and Pacific Lupine, but don’t quote me on that, I’m still learning the differences between all the species.

Not only did we find lupine, but a whole host of other wildflowers, including the state flower California Poppy, seaside daisies, and the ever common dandelion.

A cool sighting was the Common Murre. Apparently they had dwindled in number a few decades ago and there was a whole project to bring them back. The rock has thousands of birds living there!!

This trail is pretty short and we ended up doing an out-and-back. It’s a steep bike ride if you want to get some exercise in. Parking is available at either end of the trail. It’s just around 1 mile each way between the parking lots. This used to be the old highway until a big push was made to build the tunnel for safety after too many mudslides later. If you want some extra hiking, check out San Pedro Mountain or Pedro Point Headlands, both accessible by the Devil’s Slide Trail.

Seal Cove

We then headed over to Half Moon Bay for lunch before checking out another seaside view. Seal Cove is known for seal watching and we happened to come when the seal pups were still young and small. We couldn’t go out on the beach proper, so we viewed them from afar. If you hike the Bluff Trail, you can end up at Moss Beach which has plenty of tide pools. So many sea anemones and hermit crabs. Plus quite a few wildflowers popping up. This hike is less than a mile round trip!

Golden Gate National Recreation Area

The next day, we headed up to the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. I hadn’t crossed it in years! We decided against going to the Presidio since we knew parking in too many places would be a hassle. There’s definitely plenty of lupine in the Presidio and for a view with the bridge and flowers, head to Bakers Beach. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is made up of lots of ecosystems. I could see that just on our drive how one side versus the other of Marin Headlands has entirely different flowers!

We started at the far end by Point Bonita Lighthouse and slowly made our way towards the bridge. All along the drive on Bunker Road, I could see all the lupine plants through the car window. I wanted to stop but didn’t want to be too needy on this trip, so I made the best of what we did! Had it been my personal photography trip, I likely would have stopped every half mile. Ha!

The parking area by the trail had the most lupines. Huge bushes! Wilder than I’ve seen lupines before. These are not your average alpine lupine. My guess is they’re primarily Silver Lupine here. The walk down to the light house is less than a mile round trip.

There’s also plenty of other trails around to walk and enjoy the coastal views here, so take them while you can! Some of the roads here are only one-way, so we ended up not being able to drive through the Conzelman Road through Hawk Hill. There’s definitely lots of flowers here too!

Instead, we just headed straight to the Golden Gate View Point after spending time in Sausalito for lunch, which by the way is a super cute town! Parking is crazy here, but we walked out to Battery Ridge for the classic Golden Gate view. I was disappointed that there weren’t any flowers here unless you want to illegally cross the fencing. But to my delight, my favorite view came when we walked back to the cars! There was one lone lupine bush in the perfect spot in alignment with Golden Gate. And it was just chef’s kiss to end the day!

All this to say, go forth and explore all the lupine San Francisco has to offer you!

Notes

• As always, be respectful of the land you recreate on. These are relatively popular locations, so parking can be difficult. If you can’t legally park, go down the street and maybe there’s a different trail you can take that is just as stunning! Flexibility is your friend in crowded areas.
• I visited late April and the flowers were in full bloom everywhere. Depending on what flowers you’re looking for, early April and early May could be great too!

Photos taken on Canon EOS R5