Dog Parks and Green Spaces in San Francisco

San Francisco's 412-hectare Olmsted-influenced flagship park stretches from the Haight to Ocean Beach, with two of the city's largest fenced off-leash Dog Play Areas: Hellman Hollow (formerly Speedway Meadow West) near Marx Meadow off Fulton Street, and Speedway Meadow proper running along JFK Drive. Both have open lawn, mature cypress windbreaks and free street parking. The rest of the park requires a 6-foot leash. The Sunday JFK Drive closure (car-free 7 days a week east of Transverse) makes the park a long leashed loop too.

A federal Golden Gate National Recreation Area headland at the south-west corner of San Francisco, with 60-metre sandy bluffs over the Pacific, a hang-glider launch ramp and one of the most generous off-leash zones in the US National Park system. The Sunset Trail and the Battery Davis Loop both allow voice-controlled off-leash dogs sunrise to sunset. The beach below (accessed by a sand ramp) is also off-leash. Free parking lot, water fountains for dogs.

A federal GGNRA waterfront park along the Bay between Marina Boulevard and the Golden Gate Bridge, with a 3 km flat promenade, restored tidal marsh and one of the most photogenic off-leash beaches in the US: the East Beach sand strip looks straight at the Golden Gate Bridge while dogs swim in calm Bay water. Voice-controlled off-leash on the East Beach sand and along the central lawn (the West Bluff and the marsh are leash-only). Free parking, water fountains, pick-up stations.