Kirby Cove Beach is at the base of the Marin Headlands north of the entrance to San Francisco Bay. The view from the beach is stunning with the city of San Francisco framed under the wide span of the Golden Gate Bridge. The steep, mile-long trail to the cove begins at the parking area above Battery Spencer on Conzelman Road—eye-level with the bridge’s towers—and descends through a grove of cypress, eucalyptus, and pine.
San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opened on May 27 1937, instantly becoming a much-loved symbol of the city and an iconic piece of architecture around the world. The suspension bridge spans the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide (1.6 km) strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the American city of San Francisco, California – the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula – to Marin County, carrying both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 across the strait. The bridge is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco, California, and the United States. It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The San Francisco Bay, reached via the Golden Gate Strait, was missed for 227 consecutive years by passing Spanish ships. It was finally discovered in 1769, when bored hunters passed overland and found the bay; three years later, at last, the strait was spotted from present-day Oakland.
The Marin Headlands is a hilly peninsula at the southernmost end of Marin County, California, United States, located just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge, which connects the two counties and peninsulas. The Marin Headlands were home to the Native American Coastal Miwok tribe, who moved between the bay side of the peninsula and the ocean side seasonally, for thousands of years. The entire area is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Headlands are famous for their views of the Bay Area, especially of the Golden Gate Bridge. In the waters surrounding the Headlands, harbor seals can be found year-round, gray whales can be seen in the spring and fall, and seabirds such as common murres and surf scoters swim within sight of shore.
