A ‘hidden gem' on San Francisco Bay is waiting to be explored

San Francisco Chronicle​

a day ago

Sometimes, when the world closes in, the best thing to do is to go on a small adventure, perhaps to an island with trees, trails, beaches and wild animals — only a 30-minute ferry boat ride from the heart of the city.
The destination is Angel Island State Park on the largest natural island in San Francisco Bay, perfect for a day trip into another world.
It's accessible only by boat, so it has that unique feel that comes only to islands, a feeling of isolation. There are picnic areas and trails all over, little glens and benches to take in the spectacular view of San Francisco glittering across the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge and Mount Tamalpais.
Angel Island is about the same size as Muir Woods National Monument, which draws over a million visitors a year and requires reservations. Angel Island has 200,000 visitors in a good year, so it's seldom crowded. 'Truly a hidden gem,' the state park website says.
Casey Dexter-Lee, an interpretive ranger who has worked on Angel Island for 25 years, said more visitors are welcome.
'We ask people to tell their friends about Angel Island,' Dexter-Lee said. 'Tell three more people. It's truly a magical place.''
It's ideal for a quick escape, too. The Golden Gate Ferry runs four weekday round trips from the San Francisco Ferry Building, three on weekends. The Angel Island ferry runs three trips on weekdays in the summertime and six on weekends. The last boat leaves the island at 5 p.m.; there are no overnight accommodations unless you get a camping reservation. 'At night, you practically have the island to yourself,' one camper said.
The island is a good place for exploring, too. The ferries land at Ayala Cove, where Spanish sea captain Juan Manuel de Ayala anchored the ship San Carlos in 1775, 250 years ago this August. The San Carlos was the first European ship to enter San Francisco Bay, and Ayala sent his pilot, Jose Canizares, to chart San Francisco Bay. He made the first survey of the bay and a copy of the chart is displayed in the old quarantine building near the ferry landing. The Spanish made contact with local Miwok people who welcomed them to their land. Little did they know what was to come.
Ayala's ship was followed by British, Russian and American ships, by Mexican cattle ranchers and by Americans after 1846.
The U.S. Army came during the Civil War to build a fort and gun battery on the west side of the island. Much of it is in ruins now, but some of the fort has been preserved.
A bigger and better fort was built on the eastern side of the island — Fort McDowell, named for the Civil War general who was in command at Bull Run. Fort McDowell is a huge old concrete garrison, a hospital, a mess hall, a prison, spooky looking, abandoned and empty.
If there are ghosts and bitter memories on the island, they are at the Immigration Station, where approximately 300,000 immigrants to the United States were detained between 1910 and 1940. About a third of them were Asian; 100,000 Chinese, 70,000 Japanese, 8,000 south Asian. There were also some Europeans: Russians fleeing the Bolsheviks, Jews escaping Nazis and political refugees without proper documents.
It was a place of hope and despair; at Ellis Island in New York, Europeans were welcomed to the United States. At Angel Island, many Asians were turned away because of anti-Asian immigration laws. A sign near the main building describes it: 'Angel Island came to symbolize discrimination and exclusion instead of welcome.'' The immigration station and the barracks where the immigrants lived are a historic site and open to the public.
But if Angel Island has its dark stories, it's hard to remember them on a sunny summer's day when people are hiking, riding bikes and eating lunch in the little café. 'I came here to work because it was a place I wanted to be,'' said Sandra Freeman, who is the general manager of the Angel Island Co., which runs the park concessions. 'It's slow on the weekdays, but you should come on the weekends. We'll have music, and we have a new chef. We'll have oysters.''
Weekdays were perfect for Dan Bednarczyk, one of the staff at the Ranch camp, a nonprofit based in Tiburon and Belvedere. He and other staffers were managing a gaggle of kids from San Francisco and Marin out on the island for a day camp. 'I have 142 kids today,' he said.
'We do different things, sometimes kayaking, sometimes hiking, sometimes a fashion show,' he said. 'Today is fishing day. We give them some cheese for bait and there they are.'' Sure enough, the camp staff had kids lined up on the boat dock with poles and hopeful expressions. Did they ever catch anything? Bednarczyk offered the enigmatic smile that is the hallmark of summer camp counselors the world over. 'Fishing teaches patience,'' he said.
The children and adults who had spent the day on the island crowded on the boat sailing back to real life, full of tales they'd been told: how Angel Island has deer that come out at night, raccoons that live in the island forests, how a single coyote swam across Raccoon Strait from the Tiburon Peninsula one night in 2017. Then another coyote made the trip, a litter of pups followed and now Angel Island has a coyote population.
One of Dexter-Lee's favorite stories is about the seldom seen Angel Island Mole, a mammal that lives underground. These moles — scientifically known as Scapanus latimanus insularis — evolved separately from mainland moles when the sea level rose about 10,000 years ago and the rising waters flooded the valley between what became an island and the Tiburon Peninsula. These island moles are slightly larger and have darker fur than their mainland brethren.
'This is the only place in the world they are found,' she said.
That's what I like about Angel Island. It's one of a kind.