Kirby Cove and Chinatown

The annual tradition of camping at Kirby Cove is something we look forward to every year. We started solo in 2018, were joined by the McGees in 2019, and since returning from our year-long sojourn overseas have made it an annual get together (2023 and 2024) for the Taylor, McGee and Valtenbergs families. The kids always have such a blast romping around the picturesque campground surrounds, and – in spite of camping probably being Annie’s absolute least favorite pastime – the adults always enjoy lots of laughs around the fire and excursions into the city with the youngens. It’s always tough to get everyone’s schedules to align, but looking back through the photos over the years makes us realize how special of a place it is down there under the Golden Gate and that it’s always worth the effort.

We actually almost missed out this year: for 2025 the National Park Service changed the booking window from three months ahead to six, so when I went to book our site in June everything was taken during our usual August/September camping slots. We managed to snag a site for this last weekend and were very lucky to slot in between a storm last week and the torrent of rain that’s in the forecast for Wednesday/Thursday. It was actually probably some of the best weather any of us had experienced in the headlands, with warm temps and – except for a couple of hours when we first arrived – no fog (the lack of fog made Brian very happy = no foghorns…). Ben and Max made sure to get in for their annual swim on Saturday morning, and this year Colette joined them for a dip in the icy Pacific. Next year we need to get Taylor in for a swim too!

Riding out of the campground and across the Golden Gate goes part and parcel with the weekend, and this year we were all very impressed to see Colette make the seven mile round trip out of the cove and across the bridge. We had a bit of (unfortunate) excitement on our way home, which resulted in the road out of the campground being closed for hours after a Tesla driver got into an altercation with a cyclist and subsequently stabbed the cyclist multiple times! The road closure delayed our annual trip into the city – and no doubt caused many people stuck in the headlands to miss flights at the airport – but we still had enough time to head into Chinatown for a couple of hours and dine on our favorite wings at Capital. We usually head deeper into the city for a few beers at Mission Dolores Park followed by dinner at Mission Chinese, but after his intro to Capital, Kevin noted we may have to do an annual rotation between Chinatown and the Mission!