Changes afoot at Twin Peaks.
By Sam Whiting, Staff Writer Feb 15, 2026 - San Francisco Chronicle
On a wet winter day, a hike up San Francisco’s Marview Trail to Twin Peaks has always been an exercise in slip-sliding up and down a narrow and steep footpath of slick gravel, slippery mud and sharp, protruding rocks with poison oak on either side.
But on this particular rainy Sunday, Kevin McCarthy and Dave Whisman were able to meander up a wide and smooth roadway bordered by a split rail fence to keep them from blowing off the mountainside in the western wind.
The danger element had been eliminated, thanks to a $49,000 city grant that funded a Recreation and Park Department remodel. Opened just a few weeks ago, the trail from the Midtown Terrace neighborhood west of Twin Peaks is suddenly accessible for the first time even in the rain.
The asset will soon get more beautiful because the park department is finally beginning construction this summer on renovation of the Twin Peaks Promenade, a $5 million job to turn the paved roadway at the top of Marview Trail into a linear park, closed to automobiles and accessible to cyclists, skaters, wheelchairs and pedestrians with a connection to the Bay Area Ridge Trail.
After it is closed for renovation this summer, the Promenade will reopen in 2027 and is projected to be a regional destination park, as made evident by nearly $3.5 million in funding by California State Parks. An additional $1 million came from the 2020 Health and Safety Bond.
“Twin Peaks offers one of the most extraordinary views in the world,” said park department interim General Manager Sarah Madland, “and we’re poised to take the biggest step yet with the Promenade, transforming the closed roadway into a welcoming park for people of all ages and abilities.”
Trail to S.F.’s Twin Peaks, once a ‘disaster,’ transformed into pedestrian paradise
Greg
Quick and Dirty
On a wet winter day, a hike up San Francisco’s Marview Trail to Twin Peaks has always been an exercise in slip-sliding up and down a narrow and steep footpath of slick gravel, slippery mud and sharp, protruding rocks with poison oak on either side.
But on this particular rainy Sunday, Kevin McCarthy and Dave Whisman were able to meander up a wide and smooth roadway bordered by a split rail fence to keep them from blowing off the mountainside in the western wind.
The danger element had been eliminated, thanks to a $49,000 city grant that funded a Recreation and Park Department remodel. Opened just a few weeks ago, the trail from the Midtown Terrace neighborhood west of Twin Peaks is suddenly accessible for the first time even in the rain.
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“This is used a lot more now than when it was just a rock trail straight down,” Whisman, 61, said after reaching the top at Twin Peaks Boulevard and looking down an incline greatly reduced by S turns. “This is now a beautiful city asset,” added McCarthy, 65.
The Marview Trail now includes a path that connects to Midtown Terrance on the west side of Twin Peaks.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
The asset will soon get more beautiful because the park department is finally beginning construction this summer on renovation of the Twin Peaks Promenade, a $5 million job to turn the paved roadway at the top of Marview Trail into a linear park, closed to automobiles and accessible to cyclists, skaters, wheelchairs and pedestrians with a connection to the Bay Area Ridge Trail.
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After it is closed for renovation this summer, the Promenade will reopen in 2027 and is projected to be a regional destination park, as made evident by nearly $3.5 million in funding by California State Parks. An additional $1 million came from the 2020 Health and Safety Bond.
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“Twin Peaks offers one of the most extraordinary views in the world,” said park department interim General Manager Sarah Madland, “and we’re poised to take the biggest step yet with the Promenade, transforming the closed roadway into a welcoming park for people of all ages and abilities.”
The upgrade of Twin Peaks into a car-free environment has been ongoing since the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, and the job has been done in phases. The pedestrian approaches from Twin Peaks neighborhoods have already been improved, starting last summer with completion of the Crestline Trail, a series of deep and sturdy box steps that climb a steep incline on the east side of Twin Peaks. That improvement, over a crude set of slippery railroad tie steps, was completed last summer.
The Marview Trail leading to Twin Peaks is now accessible to all, thanks to a $49,000 city grant.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
“It’s an improvement in a massive way,” said Judah Collins, who was out walking Lola, his Shiba Inu. “It was a disaster before — very treacherous, and that’s not an exaggeration.”
As proof, Collins offered up his broken wrist and sprained ankle from falling down the hill many times in his 21 years of living on Crestline Drive. “And I’m sturdy and in my 50s,” he said. “Now regular people can just walk up and down the steps.”
The Crestline Trail can be accessed from a Muni stop and will be the major access point to the Promenade. By comparison, the Marview Trail on the west side does not get as much citywide foot traffic largely because it previously followed the electrical line straight up a hill that was covered in loose chert and was like walking on marbles. There was no wheelchair access, even on the flat parts at the bottom.
“It was suicidal,’’ said George Wooding, president of the Midtown Terrace HOA, who uses a wheelchair. ‘It was hard-packed with aggregate.’
George Wooding makes his way up the Marview Trail on Twin Peaks with his wife, Nancy Ichiuji, and their dog, Hiro, on Sunday.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
Safety improvements were made possible by the Board of Supervisors, which passed an ordinance in 2024 to pull $550,000 out of the city’s general fund and Municipal Transportation Agency and spread it to projects around the city, in a program known as Participatory Budgeting. Acting on behalf of the Midtown Terrace HOA, District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar was able to direct $49,000 in funds to the Marview Trail project.
“This Participatory Budgeting project makes Twin Peaks accessible for visitors and residents alike and perfectly exemplifies the value of community-led budgeting,” Melgar said.
The park department oversaw the improvement on Marview Trail and announced its opening through social media during Super Bowl week. As soon as it was completed, Wooding went out to test it in his wheelchair. He was able to make it at least a third of the way up the trail before a turn became too steep to safely maneuver.
“It’s much greater access,” said Wooding, 69, who was out there Sunday with his wife, Nancy Ichiuji, and their dog, Hiro, meeting his neighbors at the trailhead, across from the intersection of Marview Way and Farview Court.
“I’m enjoying it right now,” he said. “Even in the rain.”