I have visited the Golden Gate bridge a few times before. One time, we rode the open top city tour bus which took us around the golden gate. And then in another time, we drove a car and crossed the bridge to see the city from the other shore. Though the bridge was astonishing every time, it was also getting too-usual.
I wanted to experience a whole different view. So, I decided to walk along the San Francisco bay to reach the bridge instead of taking a bus/car ride. And to my surprise, there's a well maintained walking trail that goes from Pier 39 to Golden Gate bridge. On a fine Sunday morning, I started at Fisherman's wharf and walked towards the golden gate, on this route:
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[![Ghirardelli at pier 39][3]][3]
[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/008.jpg
Just after crossing the heavily crowded market area, I reached Ghirardelli. If you like chocolates, then you don't wanna miss this place. I have seen few of my friends who specifically came to SFO to buy chocolates from this place.
But anyway, I'm not a big fan of chocolate, so I continued my walk along the marina bay.
On the right hand side, opposite to the Hyde street pier, there were group of very old sailing ships stationed in the sea. These ships are used for transportation, commerce and war during the old times of San Francisco. For a small ticket fee, people go inside the ships and see the inner architecture of the ship. But, too bad they are not letting you to sail the ship anymore!
[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/009.jpg
Anyway, if you are lucky, sometimes you get to see the street artists staging plays near the ship area. The theme of the play is mostly about how it is used to be in the olden days.
After crossing the Hyde street pier and walking past the Maritime museum, the journey became tougher. Because there's a small hill/forest area that I have to cross in order to continue on the trail. At first I thought I lost my way. Because the place looked like a privately owned area. But then I saw people walking in the direction. So, I followed them.
That is one golden rule I follow if I lost in a unknown location - follow the flow of people. Works every time unless you are the only one in that place. In that case, you are totally lost and good luck getting back. 
Jokes aside, I continued to walk and after crossing the steep road, the Golden Gate bridge came into my view along with the distance that I still had to cover. You can also see the **Fort Mason center **in the front.
[![][7]][7]
[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/fort-mason.jpg
Now I had few two different possible directions to choose: either go down the hill via Fort mason center or continue walking through the recreation area. I chose the later path as the road was easy to walk.
[![sfo skyline][8]][8]And it was a really good view to see the San Francisco skylines from the park. There was a statue of a man in the park whom I couldn't identify from the distance. Also, there's a weirdest tree in the park which I would name it as the retarded tree!. Seriously, the tree looked like a melted and frozen plastic material without using any molds. [![Retarded tree!][9]][9]
[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/0231.jpg []: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/027.jpg
Anyway, I continued to walk towards the Golden Gate. After sometime, I reached the San Francisco Exploratorium. From the outside, the building looked like an ancient Greek palace. Being an techie, I was tempted to go inside the building. But, I didn't have much time to spend there, as my goal was to reach Golden Gate as early as possible. But to explore the Exploratorium, one need at least a one full day. May be another time..
[![San Francisco Exploratorium][10]][10]
[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/040.jpg
After the exploratorium, the walking trail went very close to the beach. I could see people jogging, walking, riding all the way in the pathway. Looking back from there, I could see the bay bridge in the distance.
[![golden gate walking trail][11]][11]
[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/053.jpg
From there, the Golden Gate was just a few minutes walk away (well, the 'Ëœfew' stands for 30, though). I continued to walk on and it was real good view of the bridge which I'd never seen in my previous visits.
As I (and the others) were nearing the bridge,
[![Walking towards the golden gate bridge][12]][12]
[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/065.jpg
And, finally I got the **photo of the day **which totally worth the One and half hour walk.
[![The golden gate bridge][13]][13]
[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/071.jpg