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Angel Island Makes a Great Weekend Day Trip from San Francisco on a sunny day, with plenty of easy walks and hikes around the island and scenic spots for picnics. It can be combined with a Saturday visit to the Ferry Building Farmer's Market, a good source for picnic provisions. The island has quite a history, having been first inhabited by local Indian tribes, then used by the military (Camp Reynolds) during the Civil War. From 1910 to 1940, the U.S. Immigration Station processed hundreds of thousands of immigrants, mainly from Asia. During World War II, Japanese and German prisoners were detained at the Station before being sent to facilities farther inland.
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Angel Island Location and Getting There
Angel Island is located close to Tiburon, and a ferry is also available from Tiburon–see the Angel Island Ferry Tiburon schedule. From the San Francisco Ferry Terminal, there are weekend ferries that depart at 9:20am, 11am, 12:40pm, and 3:10pm, with return ferries from Angel Island at 11:40am, 1:40pm, and 4:10pm.
If driving to the ferry building, there's convenient parking at Pier 3 for $20 for the day, and there are several other parking garages nearby as well. If taking public transit, a number of buses stop near the Ferry Building, or take BART to the Embarcadero Station.
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Angel Island Tips
Regular ferry tickets to Angel Island are $14 each way per adult, but with a Clipper Card the cost is $9 each way. There's no way to reload Clipper cards on Angel Island, so make sure your card has at least $18 on it for the roundtrip before boarding the ferry to Angel Island. The Angel Island ferry departs from Gate B at the end of the Ferry Terminal closest to Pier 3.
At time of writing, face masks are still required in the San Francisco Ferry Building and on the ferries, so be sure to have one with you. Note that dogs (except for true service animals) are NOT allowed on Angel Island, so don't bring any pets with you.
The ferry ride is a pleasant 30 minute journey. We enjoyed sitting on one of the outside decks, but it does get quite windy and chilly there, especially in the morning, so bring some warm layers. If you find that your phone is low on battery, there are some convenient public phone chargers areas inside the ferry.
Once at Angel Island, you can pick up a basic free map, or visit the small Visitor Center for a better $1 map and trail advice. As you can see below, the ferries arrive in the Ayala Cove area, by the Visitor Center and public restrooms.
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Groups can pre-reserve the Platform Group Picnic Area, but there are also picnic tables and benches in the nearby Picnic Areas A & B shown on the map above, which is the grassy green area in the center of the photo below. The open area nearby is a great place to play frisbee.
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In case you didn't have time to grab coffee or provisions at the Ferry Building, there's the Angel Island Cafe with brewed coffee and tea and a limited range of pre-packaged sandwiches, Chobani yogurts, cold drinks, bananas, etc.
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Trails lead around the island; we took one that led to the Camp Reynolds/West Garrison area, which enjoyed some lovely views of the coastline and Golden Gate Bridge:
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In terms of wildlife, there are sometimes baby seals, although we didn't see any. We did see a coyote, although it was some distance away, and seemed very skittish. Our son, who hiked around more of the island than we did, saw some deer. Speaking of deer, there are ticks on Angel Island, so be sure to wear long pants and socks and conduct a tick inspection to remove any unwelcome guests, so as to avoid Lyme disease.
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In addition to the walking and hiking trails, Angel Island offers camping; you can reserve Angel Island camping permits up to 6 months in advance.
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