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Friday Slide Show: O'Shaughnessy Hollow
31 March 2023
In July and September 2021, we featured slide shows of some serious road work being done to stabilize the very steep and very rocky cliffs along O'Shaughnessy Blvd., which cuts through San Francisco's ancient Glen Canyon. This week we returned to the area but from a different direction.
We walked through the small but wild area of O'Shaughnessy Hollow on the top of the southwestern side of the canyon. "Access to O'Shaughnessy Hollow is limited but possible by social trails from residential streets to the west, specifically Del Vale Ave.," the Parks Alliance Web site helpfully notes.
But we wandered in via Marietta on a bright, sunny day that, frankly, confused our Nikon D300's metering system by nearly a stop, as if we had entered some magical world where the laws of nature were no longer observed.
Magical indeed.
O'Shaughnessy Hollow's steep cliffs support a mesa whose dramatic rocky outcrops are surrounded by grassland and wildflowers, especially now after the winter rains. In the morning sunlight it was just gorgeous.
And the views weren't bad either. It's a great place to observe Twin Peaks but you get clear views south to San Bruno Mountain and east to Mount Diablo as well.
O'Shaughnessy Hollow. We entered from Marietta on the left.
We knew about it because we'd been here before. And remembered it fondly. But it's been a long time since we were there, although we drive by it on O'Shaughnessy all the time.
So when we finally decided to revisit the Hollow, we took a camera.
On top, you can see how the iron netting that holds the cliffs from the roadbed below is discretely anchored. Even during our multiple atmospheric rivers, that netting did the job. The roadway remained clear of debris and rocks all winter.
We wandered around for a while on the dirt paths, equally tempted by the distant views and closeups of the bright flowers and chiseled rocks.
When we returned home with a card full of images, we felt, in a word, restored. Magically.
