From 1999 until this September, the old Vista Point Road was off-limits to walkers and cyclists. It was closed that year for the Golden Gate Bridge seismic upgrade, and cyclists were sent onto Alexander Avenue instead. Now the road is a 15-foot-wide paved trail with benches, bollards, signs and paved drainage ditches. It curves around the hillside from the Vista Point parking lot and passes under the bridge into Fort Baker. Cars can't use it.
People were using the Vista Point Trail about two weeks before its ribbon-cutting on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, the Marin Independent Journal reported. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition gives Sept. 30 as the official opening date.
For a Sausalito household, though, the new trail fixes the far end of the trip. It doesn't touch the near end. The car-free section starts at Fort Baker and goes south. Getting from downtown to Fort Baker, and back again, still happens on Alexander Avenue.
What the Trail Replaced
Northbound cyclists coming off the bridge used to have one way to reach Sausalito, and it was Alexander Avenue. Tarrell Kullaway, executive director of the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, told the Marin Independent Journal that the stretch had more than 80 crashes between 2010 and 2020. She described it as a high-speed, pothole-pocked road with no bike lane, where riders had to jockey with traffic.
"It's going to fix part of what's called Marin's most dangerous mile," Kullaway told the paper.
The project took planning that began in 2012, construction that started in 2025, and a $6 million federal grant from the Federal Lands Transportation Program. The Marin County Bicycle Coalition's project page puts the total at $6.10 million and lists the trail as a completed Class I multiuse path running "between Vista Point and Lower Conzelman Drive." Lower Conzelman is at Fort Baker. Downtown Sausalito is past the end of the trail, at the top of Alexander Avenue.
The Route From Downtown, Leg by Leg
Here is what changed and what didn't on the walk or ride from town to the bridge, in order:
- Downtown Sausalito to East Road: unchanged. Leaving town, you take Alexander Avenue south. The Downtown Sausalito trails guide still sends its 12-mile Headlands bike loop out this way and brings it back to town "via Alexander Avenue."
- East Road down into Fort Baker: unchanged, but calmer. The National Park Service calls riding around Murray Circle and the waterfront relatively flat. It also warns of a short, steep climb on the access road toward Sausalito. You'll feel that climb on the way home, not on the way out.
- Lower Conzelman to Vista Point: new. This is the Vista Point Trail. The NPS project plan called for a 15-foot path with a downhill lane for bikes and a shared uphill lane for bikes and pedestrians. It runs from Dana Bowers Vista Point at the north end of the bridge, around the hillside, and under the span.
- Vista Point to the bridge's east sidewalk: new. In an email to the Marin IJ, Golden Gate Bridge district spokesperson Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz described the trail as "a new safe and accessible path from the Golden Gate Bridge east sidewalk to Fort Baker and Sausalito."
The car-free section covers legs three and four. Legs one and two are the same roads Sausalito riders have always used. Visitors coming north off the bridge get the biggest benefit, since they are the ones the trail now keeps away from cars. Joshua Winchell of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which led the project, told the paper it was built for "the thousands of bikes and pedestrians that cross the bridge daily to recreate in federal lands in Marin."
Fort Baker Becomes the Natural Turnaround
Because the trail ends at Fort Baker, Fort Baker now makes sense as a destination in its own right. For a shorter outing, it's also a good place to turn around. The NPS lists these stops there:
- Cavallo Point, where Farley offers walk-in dining with terrace views and Sula serves breakfast, weekend brunch, lunch and dinner. Check hours with the restaurants directly before you go.
- The Bay Area Discovery Museum at 557 McReynolds Road is open Wednesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on weekends from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Bean Sprouts Cafe inside is open 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and the museum closes at 3 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month.
- The parade ground, ringed by the Army post's historic buildings, has a self-guided tour.
- Horseshoe Cove, home to the Travis AFB Sailing Marina and the Presidio Yacht Club. The marina is open to civilian use.
A loop from downtown to the museum or the parade ground and back never uses the new trail. A walk to the bridge does. It goes past those same stops first and adds the trail's climb under the span.
The Bridge Went to Winter Hours on Sunday
The trail opened under the bridge's daylight-time schedule. That schedule ended Sunday, Nov. 1. The Golden Gate Bridge sidewalk page says Pacific Standard Time hours run from the first Sunday in November to the second Monday in March. If your favorite trip ends with a walk across the span, these are the hours to plan around now:
| Who | Daylight time (through Nov. 1) | Standard time (now) |
|---|---|---|
| Pedestrians, east sidewalk | 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. | 5 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. |
| Cyclists, weekdays | East until 3:30 p.m., west until 9 p.m. | East until 3:30 p.m., west until 6:30 p.m. |
| Cyclists, weekends and holidays | Both sidewalks, 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. | West sidewalk only, 5 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. |
| Cyclists, overnight | East sidewalk via buzzer gates after 9 p.m. | East sidewalk via buzzer gates after 6:30 p.m. |
The weekend change affects a Saturday ride the most. Under standard time, cyclists lose shared use of both sidewalks and ride the west sidewalk only. The west sidewalk can close without notice for high winds or special events, and indicator lights at the approach show which side is open.
A few rules apply all year. Cyclists must yield to pedestrians. The sidewalk speed limit is 15 mph, dropping to 5 mph around the towers. Every class of e-bike is allowed. The Bridge District also says that while suicide-deterrent construction continues, the east sidewalk will close to pedestrians an hour early on some weeknights. It posts those dates on its temporary closures page.
What Could Close the Gap, and Who Controls It
The stretch between Fort Baker and downtown has owners and proposals, but no funding and no schedule yet.
The coalition's countywide project tracker says the National Park Service plans to start a corridor plan now that the Vista Point Trail is finished. The coalition's own recommendation for that corridor is a two-way bikeway on Center Road and East Road between Conzelman and Alexander Avenue. East Road would become one-way for cars, ideally uphill toward Sausalito. Center Road and Bunker Road would stay two-way, and parking would remain because the bike lane would run on the west side of the road.
The same tracker lists a second recommendation at the South Street and Second Street end, where the recreation area meets the city: a "gateway treatment" plus traffic calming. That would "require coordination with GGBHTD, which owns Alexander Ave," meaning the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. The tracker marks both items as recommendations, not funded projects.
An earlier study of the Alexander Avenue corridor, led by the Federal Highway Administration's Central Federal Lands Highway Division in cooperation with the National Park Service and other agencies, covered the full run from the bridge to the Sausalito city limit and set out a phased plan. The study page doesn't say which phases, if any, have moved forward.
So the trail settles the bridge end. The Sausalito end, from Second Street out to East Road, now depends on three agencies: the National Park Service, the Bridge District and the City of Sausalito. That's the piece to follow if you'd like a car-free route from your own street to the bridge.
If you live in Sausalito or are thinking about moving there, I'm happy to talk through how the south end of town connects to Fort Baker and the bridge, or anything else about the area. Julie Upton is local, direct and quick to answer. Let's Connect.
