Mile Rock Beach and Point Lobos Overlook: The Shipwreck Graveyard
Why is it significant?
Stand on the wooden viewing platform high above Mile Rock Beach, where the ocean crashes against jagged sea stacks and pebble coves. Looking out toward the mouth of the Golden Gate, you can see Mile Rock, a tiny, wave-battered rock islet crowned by an orange-and-white helicopter landing platform.
Key Facts
| Place | Mile Rock Beach and Point Lobos Overlook: The Shipwreck Graveyard |
|---|---|
| Address | Coastal Trail & Mile Rock Trail, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA |
| Geo Coordinates | 37.78450, -122.50650 |
| Part of Walk | San Francisco: Lands End, Sutro Baths and Ocean Beach |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand on the wooden viewing platform high above Mile Rock Beach, where the ocean crashes against jagged sea stacks and pebble coves. Looking out toward the mouth of the Golden Gate, you can see Mile Rock, a tiny, wave-battered rock islet crowned by an orange-and-white helicopter landing platform. This desolate rock was the site of the legendary Mile Rock Lighthouse, built between 1904 and 1905 following one of the worst maritime catastrophes in California history: the sinking of the passenger steamship SS City of Rio de Janeiro on February 22, 1901.
In dense coastal fog, the inbound steamship struck a submerged reef near Mile Rock and sank in less than ten minutes, claiming the lives of one hundred twenty-eight passengers and crew. Horrified by the tragedy, the government commissioned heroic lighthouse engineers to blast a flat foundation on the wave-washed rock, anchoring an eighty-five-foot steel and masonry lighthouse tower that guided mariners through fog for six decades before its upper tiers were replaced by an automated beacon and helipad in 1966.
At low tide, look down into the surf directly below Point Lobos. You can still see the rusted steel ribs and boiler of the oil tanker Frank H. Buck, which ran aground here in March 1937, and the Ohioan, which wrecked in 1936. More than three hundred vessels have wrecked along the treacherous approaches to the Golden Gate. Every surrounding viewpoint, weathered stone pillar, and historic pathway tells an essential chapter of California's ongoing transformation from a rugged frontier outpost into a world-renowned Pacific metropolis. Every surrounding viewpoint, weathered stone pillar, and historic pathway tells an essential chapter of California's ongoing transformation from a rugged frontier outpost into a world-renowned Pacific metropolis.
Listen to the rhythmic bellow of distant foghorns echoing off the cliffs, warning container ships navigating the deep-water shipping lanes.
Continue along the trail to the scenic point overlooking the Lands End Labyrinth.