Lobos Creek Dunes and Valley Lobos Creek

Photo courtesy of John W. Wall (www.bobcathill.com)

This is a shot of Lobos Creek on its accessible side. This area has mostly non-native plants. The Great Egret doesn't seem to care as long as there are fish and amphibians. It is possible to follow the creek almost to the ocean, by a scruffy path starting on the western side of Lincoln Boulevard.

It runs along the creek, until the water is detoured under a private structure and emerges inelegantly onto Baker Beach from a drain pipe. I don't know who owns the land that the path runs on. (This photo was taken by John W. Wall. He has other photos of the Great Egret and Lobos Creek at his web site. I've had to decrease the sharpness of his photo somewhat for faster loading to my site, please see his site to get the full impact of his photos.

	Now, back to the side that is undergoing restoration work. This photo was shot (by me) from the sidewalk at Lincoln Boulevard looking east. Occasionally you can see from the road, a Great Egret and ducks (mallards) feeding in the Creek. The Threespine Stickleback (3 inches long) is the only resident fish. Much of the time you can only see a lot of green (watercress) plants growing at the bottom of a ravine. The steep banks are covered on one side with plants from the neighbors' yards and an area of city-planted natives. On the Presidio side, the native plants include Sticky Monkey Flower, Coast Buckwheat, and Dune Knotweed.  Since the Creek is the water source for the Presidio, it has been fenced off. Water is taken out just across Lincoln Boulevard and sent to the Lobos Creek Water Treatment Plant (established in 1910). The small brick building is beside the first parking lot at Baker Beach.
Behind the fenced areas along the boardwalk, there is a Coast Live Oak riparian (stream bank) forest. The non-native inhabitants include lots of Cape and English ivy, Eucalyptus trees and various grasses. The natives include Horse Tail, Bee Plant, Wild Cucumber, Poison Oak, Dogwood, and the Coast Live Oaks. Flowering Currants, Yarrow, and Yerba Buena were some of the natives planted under the oaks in 1999.
Some historical notes: As a young child, the photographer Ansel Adams used to play by the creek.  His family moved to a home on 24th Avenue in 1903 when he was a year old.  In 1930, he had his own home built to house his wife and himself in the former garden of the older house.  Both houses still stand today and are private residences. Here are two paragraphs about Lobos Creek from his book, Ansel Adams: An Autobiography, published by Little Brown and Company, 1985 :       "With a resolute whisper, Lobos Creek flowed past our home on its mile-long journey to the ocean. It was bordered, at times covered, with watercress and alive with minnows, tadpoles, and a variety of larvae. Water bugs skimmed the open surfaces and dragonflies darted above the stream bed. In spring, flowers were rampant and fragrant. In heavy fog the creek was eerie, rippling out of nowhere and vanishing into nothingness. I explored every foot, tunneling thruugh the thick brush and following the last small canyons in the clay strata before it met the Pacific. The ocean was too cold for swimming, so I would skirt the wave-foamed edge and follow the rocky shore to Fort Scott to the east or climb along the rugged cliffs to China Beach to the west. These cliffs were dangerous, but I was light and strong and could pull myself by my fingertips over minor chasms.     "A beautiful stand of live oaks arched over the creek. In about 1910, the Army Corp of Engineers, for unimaginable reasons, decided to clear out the oaks and brush. My father was out of town when the crime was committed. One of his favorite walks was through these glades to Mountain Lake in the nearby San Francisco Presidio; on his return, he became physically ill when he witnessed the ruthless damage."     The creek is also famous for a 1995 incident which made it known as "the place where the house fell in". Heavy rains had helped to undermine an old brick sewer. On December 11th, a sinkhole developed and 'ate' the foundation of a 3-story Tudor house. The house had to be destroyed and several houses nearby (including Ansel Adams' old home) were endangered.  It was a massive ordeal to clean-up the sewer leak and to stabilize the area around the houses. Piles of sand which had been brought in for use at the Lobos Creek Dunes project were used instead to help fill the huge hole. When part of one of the Creek's banks fell and blocked the creek, the sand was removed and used to build the dunes. How can you see the site? Volunteer work parties go in to clear out the ivy and non-native grasses or to plant some natives. One has to be very careful about the poison oak and the occasional really steep bank but it's a pretty place. If you're interested in helping to weed or plant by Lobos Creek or other park areas, call the Presidio Plant Stewards at (415) 668-9765.