As a rule, whenever I’m in San Francisco I try to avoid the more tourist-oriented spots and instead seek out more obscure treasures. I think this site must fall somewhere between those two extremes — I was joined by a handful of other intrepid climbers during my midday visit, but I had never heard of the Lyon Street Steps until this year. Since I would much rather climb stairs than stagger up a steeply inclined sidewalk, I decided I was up for this challenge. And after climbing up ten flights of steps to the Lyon Step Podium, I would say the view is definitely worth the exertion. I also have tons of respect for the two people I saw running intervals up and down all 332 steps!

If the stairs don’t take your breath away, the grand neighborhood of Pacific Heights might

This is the first section, running between Green Street and Vallejo. These are only the warm-up — the steps you must climb to get to the stairs up above!

Partway there, and the view only gets better.

At the Podium, there are still a few more flights to the top