Glen Canyon Park
Unfinished History
Glen Canyon Park
Photo: Chris Carlsson
Glen Canyon, 1905, looking south.
Photo: Burnham Plan
Glen Canyon looking south down Islais Creek, 1903.
Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp14.0999
Photograph of bottom of Glen Canyon with proposed San Miguel Reservoir Dam, c. 1915.
Photo: courtesy Western Neighborhoods Project, OpenSFHistory.org
O'Shaughnessy Blvd. with Glen Canyon at right, 1930s.
Photo: C. R. collection
Shaping the future roadway: grading O'Shaughnessy Blvd. near Del Vale, Nov. 26, 1934.
Photo: courtesy OpenSFHistory.org wnp27.5512
Glen Canyon, southerly view, 1942.
Photo: courtesy Western Neighborhoods Project, OpenSFHistory.org
Photo: Chris Carlsson
Across the street from 38 Sussex Street in Glen Park is the beginning of Ohlone Way. Named after the Indian tribe that lived in the Bay Area before the Europeans arrived, it looks more like an Indian trail than a city street. The rutted dirt tracks are completely surrounded by trees and underbrush, leading the imaginative walker to imagine him or herself transported back in time ... to an Ohlone settlement?
Just a few blocks west, Sussex Street dead-ends at Glen Canyon Park. You can walk down into the park, which is one of San Francisco's least known and most secluded urban wildernesses. Glen Canyon Park is gorgeously unspoiled.
--Dr. Weirde
Glen Canyon looking northward. O'Shaughnessy Blvd. at left, Sutro Tower and Twin Peaks at top of photo. At the top of the canyon, Islais Creek begins its journey to the bay, one of two remaining open creeks in San Francisco.
Photo: Chris Carlsson
Glen Canyon below the Diamond Heights landscaping and leveling underway in 1961.
Photo: courtesy Western Neighborhoods Project, OpenSFHistory.org