SpellWalk SF: Pacific Heights
Although Pacific Heights is a quiet neighborhood, this was one of the most interesting walks so far. There is so much to look at. Pacific Heights is an incredibly wealthy area of San Francisco, so block after block consists of beautiful, stately, and sometimes even gaudy, houses.
But the slopes on some of these streets are no joke. You can tell it’s steep when segments are replaced either with pedestrian stairs (on this walk: Baker Street and Lyon Street) or curved streets–the most famous of which is the winding part of Lombard Street. Ostensibly, these switchback-style streets used to be more commonplace in San Francisco, but only a few remain. Vermont Street in Potrero Hill is another such example, and on the Pacific Heights walk, I encountered another one on Broderick Street between Broadway and Vallejo Street. Unfortunately, however, this street is a dead end and does not actually connect Broadway and Vallejo.