Total Cost: $18.50 w/ a Clipper Card ($31 if you buy a ticket from the ferry building)

With my new year goal in mind, I knew that I wanted to spend my birthday somewhere outside this year. I also knew that I didn’t want to have to worry about renting a car or relying on a ride (just in case no one wanted to join me). 

Though I could have stayed in the city and hiked one of the routes on Mount Sutro (where I’d volunteered to do trail maintenance) or Golden Gate Park or the Presidio, I decided that a Ferry ride to Angel Island was a bit more luxurious. 

Besides, there’s a café on the island where I figured the day could end with food and drinks (there’s nothing I love more than a good sandwich and beer post-hike). Spoiler alert: I did not do my research and the café was closed, resulting in an hour and a half of boredom on the sunny dock. 

Still, this trip to Angel Island ended up being the perfect birthday day trip and I thought I’d share it with you all in case it was of interest!

How to Get to Angel Island from San Francisco

Angel Island is a quick ferry ride away from San Francisco. The Golden Gate ferry picks up right outside the ferry building at Gate C. Schedules differ between weekdays and weekends, so it’s important to filter correctly on the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District website.

My birthday was on a Sunday, so there were only a few departure times from the ferry building and only a few returning times. 

We chose to leave at 10:15 in the morning to arrive on Angel Island at 10:45. We figured this would give us enough time to make our way slowly along the hike (AllTrails predicted ~2 hours in total) then arrive back at the dock/café with just over an hour to enjoy lunch and a beer.

What is on Angel Island

Angel Island is a state park located in the San Francisco Bay. It’s an easy thirty-minute ferry ride from San Francisco yet feels like a remote location in comparison. 

There’s a visitor center, café and cantina, picnic sites, camping sites, hikes, bike routes, and historic buildings all available to visit during your trip to this island. This island also has one of my favorite campsite bathrooms (which is a totally a thing!).

Map of Angel Island

I don’t have a map of the entire island, but here’s the route we took on AllTrails. 

A Day Hike on Angel Island

Arriving on the island, I opened my AllTrail’s map and proceeded to lead my group of friends in the… wrong direction. After a quick about-face, we righted ourselves and walked to the right of a car park onto a trail.

It was steeper than expected and we didn’t make it more than ten feet before we stopped.
There was a small lookout right at the beginning of the trail and we decided it was time to partake in the light, chilled wine we’d brought for the hike. After all, directly after this lookout were a set of steep steps that would take us up along the North Ridge Trail toward the peak of Mount Livermore.

We took some sips of liquid strength, captured some photos (I needed at least one photo of my birthday crew without sweat plastering our hair to our foreheads), and then decided it was time to actually get hiking.

The steep incline did not last long. I hate when people can hear me breathing loudly and luckily this only lasted for about ten minutes before the trail’s grade flattened and we strolled along a nice steady trail with a switchback here or there. 

The day was beautiful with the sun keeping us warm while the trees helped to shade us and keep us cool. I had advised everyone to wear a lot of layers, but soon after starting the hike, we had all stripped down to our bottom layers. That’s San Francisco for you!

It still boggles my mind that this state park is so close to the city. 
As we walked we saw mushrooms and wildflowers and moss. 

One mushroom, in particular, caught our eye and we Google reverse-image searched it to discover that it was called Tremella mesenterica or Witches Butter. This strange, jelly fungus looks like a brain attached to dead branches that lay on the forest floor. It will shrink when it dries out but then reform when it rains. Considering it had rained the day before, these vibrant, squishy mushrooms could be seen everywhere. 

Along the trail, which was fairly flat, we chatted in smaller groups. Catching up on dates, jobs, weekly plans. 

At various times throughout the hike, you could see the San Francisco Bay and Tiburon. There were also a few fire roads to cross as we wound our way up.

In total, we hiked for two hours and twenty minutes. 

The hike itself took us three hours and twelve minutes with our little breaks.

At the top of Mount Livermore (named for a Marin Conservationist who fought to make Angel Island a State Park) are another set of picnic benches with a gorgeous view of Tiburon and the Bay. 

Here, we enjoyed the rest of our wine and snacks before heading to the very top and turning around so that we could make our way back down to the café via the Sunset Trail.

Our snacks consisted of macadamia nuts, Sour Patch Kids, a few beers, and canned wine. By the time we returned to the base of the island, our bladders were full and our stomachs empty.

That’s when disaster struck.

The café and cantina that are just to the right of the boat dock were closed due to recent storms. Apparently, I had missed this on the website, and had now left myself and the group stranded on the island without any food and with no more booze! 

The hooooorrrrooorrrrr!!!!

We were left to doze in the sun, using up whatever was left of our phone batteries, as we waited for the ferry to arrive at 3:35 PM. 

When it was finally time to line up and board the ferry, we were ready to be back in the city. On top of the ferry, where little metal seats were lined up, we sat under the radiating warmth of heat lamps. As we left the island, we also seemed to leave behind the warm sunshine.

Exhausted and hungry we filed off the boat and went straight to Señor Sisig in the Ferry Building where we ordered burritos, nachos, and fries. Then it was a bus ride home where we could finally relax after a day well spent on Angel Island.