Urban hike: Telegraph Hill, San Francisco

For two years, I've kept an article from the Explore section of the Sacramento Bee about an urban hike in San Francisco up and down Telegraph Hill. It turned out to be a rather strenuous hike of 2.5 miles, climbing about 400 steps then down about the same number. The starting point:
The Maybeck Building at 1736 Stockton, an Alpine chalet-type office building designed in 1907 by Berkeley-based Bernard Maybeck:

Greenwich Street - the climbing begins:

A little side trip to Gerke Alley and Coit Tower was nicely framed:

Flat sidewalk ends, time to climb stairs:

Coit Tower at the top of Telegraph Hill:

Walking around the tower provided some great views of the city. Bay Bridge:

Treasure Island:

Lombard Street:

Golden Gate Bridge:

On the far side, the Greenwich Steps begin:

The steps lead us past private gardens and entrances to houses:

At the bottom, a short walk along Sansome Street took us to the Filbert Steps. OK, I admit it, my legs by this time were aching. When I saw we had to start climbing again, I was dismayed but not ready to quit.

Still climbing, stopping to rest more often, time to turn around at enjoy the view. Levi's Plaza is below:

And down the other side. At this point, going down hurts worse than climbing up.

Off to the side of the steps was a small public garden with narrow pathways and a few benches:

Napier Lane: home to a feral flock of South American parrots, although we didn't see any of them.

Grace Marchant Gardens:

1360 Montgomery - this art moderne building was Lauren Bacall's apartment house in the 1947 movie "Dark Passage" co-starring Humphrey Bogart:

Just before turning right onto Green Street, the Transamerica Building:

Downhill to the end of the hike, but it's slow-going for me:

In North Beach, we found a place to sit down (hurray!) and have a snack - Nico's Tacos:

The proprietor checks to see if Dick's qualifies. It did - whew!

I'm so glad this little adventure is over and I'm wondering how sore my leg muscles will be tomorrow.