16th Avenue Tiled Steps

Back in August I shared a beautiful location in San Francisco that the girls and I stumbled upon by mistake: the Hidden Garden Steps (which you can see here). We came across the Hidden Garden Steps while on our way to the more well known 16th Avenue Tiled Steps which are just a few blocks away. At the time I hadn't realized that there were two sets of tiled steps so close to each other and I thought I'd just made a mistake with the address. I felt pretty silly when I realized that we'd come so close to our intended destination without actually making it there!

During the Summer vacation the girls and I headed back to San Francisco's Sunset district to go see the famous tiled steps. This time we knew exactly where to go and we knew that there were two staircases. In fact, we made sure to walk via the Hidden Garden Steps to check those out again. Mathilde had been asleep in her baby carrier the first time around and this time she was awake.

First let's have a look at the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps...

Hidden Garden Steps

San Francisco is a city of hills. Being a city of hills means it's also a city of staircases. Most staircases around the city are just a means to reach a destination (usually with an amazing view at the top), but every now and then the staircase itself is the destination. 

Back in May the girls and I headed into the city to track down once such staircase.

The Hidden Garden Steps in the Sunset neighborhood is a gorgeous little staircase. Covered in mosaics depicting garden life, the staircase is located on 16th Avenue and Kirkham Street, just a few blocks away from the more well known 16th Avenue Tiled Steps. As the Hidden Garden Steps are relatively new (the mosaic project was finished in December 2013) and located in a residential area they are still somewhat "secret" and therefore, not as busy as their nearby counterpart. I think we saw two other people in the time that we spent at the staircase. In fact, we actually waited a while for a second person to appear so I could ask them to take our photo!