John S.
Yelp
San Francisco has many lovely picnic spots in various lovely places with variegated lovely views. In short, I am extremely fortunate to live in such a lovely city.
But I get spoiled because I don't spend enough time at these lovely places, and when I do, I'm not usually impressed right away. So the West Bluff Picnic Area would deserve four-and-a-half stars if it weren't in San Francisco, but it's in our lovely city, so I'm dinging it because it's way too hard to get to without a car. Yes, you can walk from Crissy Field, but the most direct bus route on paper seems to be from the Golden Gate Bridge parking lot, but have you tried walking that? There's no rhyme or reason to the sidewalks; you'll have to brave treacherous inclines and poky non-native ice plant, and even then you might see where you're going but not know how to get there.
So I drove. And guess what? The parking lot's tiny. I know, I know. So I parked way over by the businesses behind Crissy Field, and then I ended up walking almost as far as I would have if I had taken the bus to the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. The parking lot is also too narrow and an insurance company's nightmare--everyone's always backing into everyone else, and people are idiots and sit there idling without realizing that people can't back out of spots when the cars waiting to fill those spots are blocking the backer-outers' egress.
The picnic tables themselves are fine. And there's grass. And yes, lovely views.
I won't pretend I didn't enjoy myself, because I really did. But I also had to watch the clock because my meter was running, and I had a half-mile or so to walk to feed the meter or re-park.
If you're a kid or an adult who has people carting you around because you're just like that, here's what you'll think: Lovely!