Huff, puff: 324 stairs on Vallejo
The Vallejo steps connect North Beach to Russian Hill, and you can judge the socioeconomic rise by the homes along the way.
At the bottom is a plaster apartment building with round bay windows that look like Farley’s perch in the old cartoon. Halfway up is a shingled manse with a wroughtiron gate and a yellow sign announcing that a film crew will be shooting here. At the top you can see what Charlotte Shultz sees from her penthouse deck.
You can be upwardly or downwardly mobile on this staircase, but it’s best to start at the bottom, because if you come down first you won’t want to climb back up. To reach the start from Columbus Avenue means walking three uphill blocks of Vallejo Street. One alternative is to step off the Powell & Hyde cable car and step onto the stairs.
They are concrete and run up both sides of a median of live oaks and shrubs tough enough to get purchase on a steep grade. Counting landings, it is 150 steps to the first terrace of benches. Of course you don’t need the rest, but the view back across North Beach to the Transamerica Pyramid is worth stopping for momentarily.
An additional 56 steps brings you to Taylor Street, where a cheater can start or stop. The view drops directly off to Alcatraz.
Across Taylor, the staircase is marked by stone balusters that look like pepper grinders to indicate that you are reaching the heights, 118 more steps up. You’ll know you are at the hilltop when you can look west across Cow Hollow to the Presidio.
If you add the Vallejo steps to the Francisco steps, congratulations are in order. You’ve just climbed both Telegraph and Russian hills. Your reward is a toasted almond cone at the original Swensen’s, on the corner of Hyde and Union since 1948.