Golden Gate Bridge as seen from Marshall's Beach

iPhone Photography

Jul 21

Marshall's Beach is one of the more quiet places in San Francisco. A beautiful and a hidden beach near the Golden Gate Bridge.

The official web-site calls it a "clothing-optional" beach. Well, I was there in summer wondering if it ever gets that warm in San Francisco.

Getting to Marhsall's Beach

Anyway, the best way to get to Marshall's Beach is to take one of the busses to the Golden Gate Bridge. Then, facing the bridge, turn left and after 15 minutes of walk, during which you'll pass by some old fortifications, you'll see a small sign and some stairs that'll take you down to the beach.

When you're walk down, keep an eye for squirrels and even racoons. The racoons seem to be mainly active during dusk. One night I saw half a dozen of them within an hour. Seems like they loot the waste baskets looking for half-eaten stuff that tourists left during the day.

Photo Spots at Marhsall's Beach

The first thing you'll see downstairs is a beautiful view over the beach towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

The last few steps of the stairs are an ideal spot for getting a wide angle shot of the entire beach including the Golden Gate Bridge. A wide angle lens like the Moment Wide Angle Lens that I used for this shot can help a lot here.

I went there quite early, hoping I would get an empty photo of the beach. Luckily, there were not many people on there. Just a handful of visitors was walking along the beach. As I wanted the beach empty, I used TouchRetouch to remove them quickly.

Continue along the beach towards the big rocks you see in the background. Getting closer to the big rocks will also make a nice framing for the bridge. But be careful, if you walk past the rocks and miss the low tide, you have to swim back.