The second edition of the popular San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide is the one essential book for anyone who wants to explore the remarkably diverse San Francisco Bay shoreline. Comprehensive, compact, user-friendly, and studded with full-color maps and illustrations, the Guide covers the more than 325 miles of the shoreline Bay Trail already open to the public, a corridor that will eventually encircle San Francisco and San Pablo Bays with a continuous 500-mile network of bicycling and hiking trails.
The Bay Trail offers access to commercial, industrial and residential neighborhoods; points of historic, natural and cultural interest; recreational areas like beaches, marinas, fishing piers, boat launches, and over 130 parks and wildlife preserves. It passes through highly urbanized areas like downtown San Francisco as well as remote natural areas like the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The Bay Trail consists of paved multi-use paths, dirt trails, bike lanes, and sidewalks. The Guide includes natural, cultural, and historic features that reveal the Bay Area's rich multicultural heritage. It also highlights the various ecosystems that coexist along this unique urban shoreline. Common plant and animal species are illustrated and described for easy identification. Icons indicate sites suitable for various activities: boating, fishing, biking, hiking, birdwatching, picnicking, and wheelchair riding. A reference section contains public transit information, names of Bay-related organizations, and many useful phone numbers.
"This handsome new guidebook, produced by the California State Coastal Conservancy, will make the bay much more visible to many people [...] Surprises are to be had even at well-trodden locales."
– Sunset
"A brand new handbook for anyone who really wants to get close to the Bay [...] Offers directions to the entire 400-mile Bay Trail route and contains hundreds of brief, clearly written descriptions of the Bay's wildlife, history, geography, and geology."
– Motorland
"This user-friendly guide fits easily in a backpack and is filled with information about everything from points of historic, natural and cultural interest to where to locate biking and hiking trails."
– Bookloons.com
"Should be on any California road-tripper's reading list [...] sure to delight."
– Megan Sever, Earth Magazine
"As comprehensive a look at the greater Bay Area as you are going to find in a guide book of this nature. With 380 color illustrations, 48 black and white photos, 53 line illustrations (plants and wildlife) and 14 maps, the book is as attractive as it is a valuable resource."
– Register Pajaronian
"The San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide takes us on a walking and cycling journey around San Francisco Bay, unfolding the wonder, drama and beauty of one of the great estuaries of the world."
– Robert Redford
"From the bustling waterfronts of our cities and towns, to our wild, windswept, and thankfully, protected natural wetlands, this is our fantastic guide to all of the magnificence of the San Francisco Bay Shoreline. Grab it and go on world-class journeys in our own backyard. I'll see you along the trail!"
– Doug McConnell, Television Producer and Reporter
"This guide helps to create an awareness and appreciation of San Francisco Bay."
– Sylvia McLaughlin, co-founder of Save the Bay
Praise from the previous edition:
"There are absorbing stories here for the armchair reader and detailed guides for the active explorer. Read, enjoy, and cultivate your roots in the region."
– Harold Gilliam
"Comprehensive and copiously illustrated, this Guide is a treasure-house of user-friendly information. It reveals the equivalent of a national park hitherto unknown in our midst."
– Margot Patterson Doss
"This book is a complete guide to the Bay Area. All that's missing are the smells, so perhaps the next edition should be scratch and sniff."
– Robin Williams