Click on the Golden Gate Night image to enlarge

Golden Gate Night

A Golden Gate Night is my favorite time to be in the Marin Headlands to photograph the Golden Gate Bridge. Golden Gate Night captures a view at dusk.

The Golden Gate Night photograph is taken along Conzelman Road in the Marin Headlands. The Marin Headlands is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It is famous for both the dramatic views of the Bay Area but also for Hawk Hill, a lookout for raptor migrations along the Pacific Coast. Each autumn, from August into December, tens of thousands of hawks, kites, falcons, eagles, vultures, osprey, and harriers fly through this area. At this time in  the fall, strong onshore winds hit the hills of the Marin Headlands and creates a cold updraft allowing excellent flying conditions for these raptors.

Golden Gate Night is a view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Area that is available for anyone. At one time the Marin Headlands were almost lost to development. In the 1960′s the government sold 2,000 acres of land in the Marin Headlands to a developer named Thomas Frouge form Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With assistance from Gulf Oil the land was purchased and plans were drawn up for a development to house up to 30,000 people in 50 apartment towers, as well as hundreds of homes and townhouses. The plan also envisioned a Grand Mall and luxurious Hotel at the top of the Marin Headlands.

Who knows what would have happened to the view of Golden Gate Night or the Hawk Hill Lookout if Marincello would have been built.

A small group of activists called the Golden Gate Headlands Committee challenged the pending approval of the project. The activists took to the Courts and challenged the development though legal action that eventually derailed the project.

Eventually in 1972, the land was sold to the Nature Conservancy for $6.5 million. The land was then transferred to the newly formed Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

The view of the Golden Gate Night was protected for all to now enjoy.