new digs.
Bird’s-Eye View
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy kicks off phase three of Hawk Hill access improvements, giving visitors a new perspective. By Joseph Knelman
HAWK HILL IS A PLACE OF CONSTANT MOTION. On a geologic timescale, the site was formed from the forceful collision of tectonic plates, an ancient ocean floor pushed skyward. On a human timescale, a rhythmic pulse of bikers, visitors and coastal fog traverse the peak. To keep up with the active site, the National Park Service and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy are entering into a third phase of improvements that will provide greater accessibility, enhance ecology and historical resources, and bolster the site’s namesake status as a raptor observatory. The process of improvement started with an extensive mapping effort to understand the many distinct elements of Hawk Hill, located in the Marin Headlands. The site improvements team considered factors ranging from locations of plant habitat for the Mission Blue butterfly, an endangered species, to the footprint of historical military structures from World War II and the Cold War. The improvement projects are attempts to bring these unique natural and human stories closer to visitors. “You have endangered species and resources that are 76 june 2022 marin living.
decades old. To be able to bring people into that versus putting a fence around it and saying ‘read this sign and don’t touch it’ is really innovative,” says Claire Mooney, vice president of park places and innovation at the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Phase two, completed last fall, improved the Tunnel Loop Trail, which now provides greater accessibility to sweeping vistas overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Marin Headlands. Phase three, scheduled to start later this year, will focus on improving access for visitor exploration at the apex of Hawk Hill, through trail improvements and military structure rehabilitation. The project will also aid scientific efforts to monitor the largest raptor migration on the West Coast. “As a bird migration thoroughfare, it is unrivaled in the Pacific shoreline from Vancouver all the way down to Baja,” says Allen Fish, associate director of conservation and community programs at the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. With strong thermals and updraft, Hawk Hill provides raptors a vital boost over the Golden Gate gap and down the California Coast.
Alison Taggart-Barone, courtesy of Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
An aerial view of Hawk Hill
