Francisco ascent leads to bay view
The Francisco steps run up the shoulder of Telegraph Hill and are both less severe and less crowded than the more famous Filbert and Greenwich steps nearby.
All great urban stairways are also transportation routes, and those two climbs won’t get you anywhere except to Coit Tower and the homes of the people who live along the way. The Francisco steps, by contrast, connect the waterfront to the North Beach neighborhood.
The other advantage is that the entrance is hidden between apartment buildings at 150 and 155 Francisco St., off Sansome Street, and you have to walk through a courtyard before you can make your start.
The steps are gradual at the bottom, wide and built of pressure-treated wood that is easy on the knees, as are the switchbacks. After a 17-step flight to begin, it levels off and the flights average four to 10 steps until you reach the end at a modern Mediterranean villa development on Francisco near Grant Avenue.
The top is not really the top. From there take a left on Grant half a block to Jack Early Park, which offers a short staircase to a lookout. The park was built in 1962, when stairs were made of aggregate rock and railroad ties.
The lookout has a viewing cupola where you can see down to the flats where you started. An iron railing works as a stretching bar.
The view runs from the Golden Gate Bridge up to the Richmond Bridge and back down to the Bay Bridge. On the blue water, a white triple-decker paddlewheel ferry makes a wide turn and heads to its berth.
Just then a green formation of the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill makes a fly-by, louder and lower than the Blue Angels, a show of force.