Angel Island State Park - Jan 2-3, 2018

Angel Island - Sunrise on Jan 3rd, 2018

Angel Island sits in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, about a 15 minute ferry ride from Pier 41 in the San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf area.  With kids off from school, I decided to be a bit hopeful about the weather and scheduled a camping trip for Jan 2-3.

Five of us went on the trip, getting to the island just before noon on Jan 2nd.  We hiked about two miles into campsite #2 and set up camp.  The 17 to 20 year old crowd promptly announced that they were ready for a nap, while a friend and I hiked up to the top of Mt. Livermore, which reaches a big 788 feet into the sky.  The location in the middle of  the bay provides spectacular views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.  It's also interesting to look down on the back side of Alcatraz.  After summiting, we took the Ida trail to the dirt fire road and circled the island until we came back to our the campsite.

Angel Island Campsite #2

On Jan 3rd, we watched a dramatic sunrise over coffee.  A friend and I then explored the historic immigration station and military facilities on the island for a couple of hours and then we all broke camp and caught the 11:55 AM ferry back to San Francisco, just dodging some light rain in the process.  I haven't been camping in January for a long time, and this was a very nice way to get a break from urban life in the middle of winter.

Although there are ten campsites on the island, as far as we could see, we were the only campers that night.  As a result, from the last ferry departure at 3:40 PM on Jan 2nd until the 10:10 AM ferry arrival on Jan 3rd, we had the island to ourselves.  This was especially nice in the early morning on January 3rd when we explored the island in solitude.