Living in the city is tough. Sometimes you just want to shut out the noise of the streets and the buzzing of phones. Here now, a few of our favorite places to hide out when you just need to find a moment of solitude.
Ina Coolbrith Park
When the hum of the Financial District or the tourist traffic in North Beach get to be too much, head up Taylor Street to the saddle between Russian Hill and Nob Hill, where you'll find a scenic little pocket park with views of Telegraph Hill and the Bay Bridge. The spot is little more than a winding path and a park bench where you can be alone with the scenery and the memory of California's first poet laureate. —Andrew Dalton
Taylor Street (at Vallejo)
Grace Cathedral
Arguably any church or cathedral will do when you're in need of a place of quiet reflection, but the heft and welcoming environment at Grace Cathedral make it a favorite. Take seat on a back pew or just get lost in your thoughts while strolling along the cathedral's labyrinth laid out on the floor. There's even a second labyrinth on the steps outside for after-hours meditation. —Andrew Dalton
Taylor Street at California Street
The Shakespeare Garden, Golden Gate Park
Among the countless hidden groves, meditative corners and sprawling meadows where one could easily get lost with oneself in Golden Gate Park, the Shakespeare Garden is a perfectly tranquil hideout. The garden is manicured and decorated with plants referenced by the bard, without feeling like an overly precious or sacred space. Hidden just enough out of view that most people miss it they don't know where to look, the garden is a perfect place to escape with a good read. —Andrew Dalton
Just off Music Concourse Drive in Golden Gate Park (Between MLK Jr. Drive and the California Academy of Sciences)
A few of the Main Library's glassed-in study rooms, from the SFPL's website
The Study Rooms at the Main Library
The San Francisco Public Library's Main branch is a beautiful building, and can be a fantastic place in which to work, read, or just think in peaceful solitude. Sometimes, however, louder users (and I'm not necessarily talking about some of the less fortunate who take shelter at the SFPL here—student groups and small children can be quite distracting!) mean that you might need a little bit of separation from your fellow patrons. That's where the Main Library's study rooms come in handy: with their glass walls, you're still part of the action, but you're cut off (the door even locks!) from the rest of the world. All you do is ask for a room from a library staffer at the page desk, and they'll let you in to one of the 14 rooms that are perfectly sized just for you. -- Eve Batey
100 Larkin Street
It's usually as the N Judah stops at Sunset Boulevard that you look up from your book/phone/knitting and realize that you're the only person left in the second set of cars. If it's nighttime, this is when you imagine a pack of hoodlums and or vampires (basically, some variation on The Warriors and Near Dark) getting on and spattering the graffitied windows with your blood. If it's daytime, you might be tempted to dance down the aisle, moon passers by, or do gymnastics from the railings. Either way, you feel galvanized the rest of the way to the beach, mind spinning with the possibilities offered by this ride in public solitude. -- Eve Batey
Judah Street, from Sunset Boulevard to La Playa
Photo courtesy of the Exploratorium
The Tactile Dome at the Exploratorium
Since it debuted in 1971 see the original press release here August Coppola's famed feel-around-in-the-dark exhibit remains one of the most popular attractions at the kid- and stoner-centric Exploratorium. They had to reconstruct the whole thing in their new digs, and now you have to make a reservation, but the whole experience still takes about half an hour. You're obviously not guaranteed to be completely by yourself in there, but as you wend your way in the pitch dark down its unseen paths, you're very much on your own having what Coppola intended to be the full range of tactile perceptions, including, "detection of pressure, pain, temperature and kinesthesia, as well as cutaneous, internal body and muscle awareness." And, should you want to do your groping and fumbling without fear of stepping on a child, try going during one of their monthly, adult-only After Dark events. - Jay Barmann
Pier 15 on the Embarcadero
James Turrell's Skyspace at the DeYoung
It's one of the most contemplative spots in the city, and one that not all museum-goers even realize is there though the recent surge in interest in James Turrell's work via the retrospective at LACMA has helped it get noticed. Out in the side courtyard of the DeYoung past the cafeteria area and the sculpture garden is this site-specific commission titled "Three Gems" that was built for the museum when it opened in 2005. It was the first of Turrell's "skypaces" to be built into the ground in the form of a stupa, and through the oculus at the top, the viewer's perception of the color of the sky shifts depending on the time of day and the LED lighting effects inside the dome. It's also a lovely place to spend a few minutes, or longer, just meditating on the sky and forgetting the world is still outside. - Jay Barmann
DeYoung Museum, Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
Baker Beach (most of the year)
Fort Funston is full of dogs, Ocean Beach is full of surfers, and there are some aging pervs who will head to Marshall no matter what the weather. But most days out of the year, you can have whole swaths of Baker Beach all to yourself, especially over by the sand ladder. Sure you may see a couple stroll by on a date, and this can be a popular dog beach as well, but it's always a good spot if you need alone-time, so long as you're bundled up and brought a thermos. - Jay Barmann
Lincoln Boulevard in the Presidio
Honorable Mention: Some place you don't want to tell anyone else about.
(Photo: David Yu)
