6 Exceedingly Strange Bay Area Walking Tours

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Are you a night owl? A weirdo? A person that gets bored on nature hikes? Are you also currently being told by friends and family that, since it’s summertime, you just have to go out in the daylight and walk somewhere?

Same. Eugh.

Fear not, for I bring you this handy list of (guided) daytime walks guaranteed to leave you amused, confused and ghost-infused. After all, there are people that love walking around in grass and looking at trees, and then there are … us. Find somewhere weird to walk below.

‘Once Upon a Time, Happily Ever After…’

Lake Merritt, Oakland
Free

This self-guided walking tour of Lake Merritt is accompanied by audio clips that can be found on the tour’s website — some of which are very strange. Take, for example, the introduction you hear at your first stop, the Rotary Nature Center. “The tour begins here,” says tour guide and local artist Scott Oliver. “Approximately 37 degrees, 48 minutes, 26 seconds north of the equator and 122 degrees, 15 minutes, 21 seconds west of Greenwich, England.”

There are 21 stops around the lake, including the pergola, Cleveland Cascade stairway, McElroy Memorial Fountain, Pine Knoll Park, the Edoff Memorial Bandstand, the Camron-Stanford House’s boat house foundation and (checks notes) the Kaiser Center’s storm drain. Yep. “Once Upon a Time” is a bit weird.

The accompanying audio includes engaging music selections courtesy of Michael Blodgett, co-founder of Oakland’s own Electric Sparkyland Recording Studio. Included are interviews with relevant experts, musicians and artists. (A particular highlight is Alex Champion’s Earth Maze, at which the artist relays the conversations he has with spirits before creating his outdoor works.)

Because of the in-depth nature of the tour, organizers recommend breaking the walk up into three separate visits. However you decide to do it, “Once Upon a Time, Happily Ever After” will make you look at Lake Merritt from a multitude of new angles.

Cypress Lawn Cemetery Trolley Tour

Starts at 1370 El Camino Real, Colma
$50

This Colma graveyard has been around since 1892, but even so, there is an astonishing number of dead buried here. Over 300,000 people, to be specific, including San Francisco luminaries like Charles de Young, William Crocker, William Randolph Hearst and Adolph Spreckels and his wife “Big Alma.” Other culturally significant figures include transgender legend Jack Bee Garland, stunt pilot Lincoln Beachey (who died in front of 50,000 witnesses at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition) and Abby Fisher, a formerly enslaved cook who became a celebrity chef.

A variety of different tours are available at Cypress Lawn this summer. Some involve sports figures, some involve wine, and all will teach you fascinating things about the dead legends in this vast and storied cemetery.

Haunted Pub Crawl

Starts at various San Francisco locations
$31.90

Seasonal Halloween walking tours may come and go, but truly dedicated ghost hunters will talk your ear off about ghouls and specters even on a warm summer’s eve.

Take the guides for San Francisco Ghosts. Year-round, they happily lead strangers through the city to historic locations with amazing backstories and — if you’re lucky — paranormal activity. “Gold, Greed and Gunslingers,” with its tales of Gold Rush gangs, is one of the company’s highlights, but for those who need a side of liquid courage with their EMF machine (rentable for $7 per tour!), the Haunted Pub Crawl is the way to go.

Journeying around the city’s most historic neighborhoods to bars like North Beach’s Specs, Chinatown’s Lipo Lounge and one of San Francisco’s oldest bars, the Old Ship Saloon, the tour isn’t just educational, it’s a boo-nafide party.

American Slot Machines

August 2, 2025 at 10 a.m.
Starts at 400 San Mateo Avenue, San Bruno
Free, no need to RSVP

Fans of San Francisco’s beloved Musée Mécanique will get a major kick out of the San Mateo County Historical Association’s tour of San Bruno’s business district. Why? The final stop on the walking tour is the Joe Welch American Slot Machine Museum. Welch spent decades collecting gumball machines, antique fortune-telling novelties and slot machines dating back to the 1890s. He housed them all in the offices of his family’s real estate business, where his son continues to maintain the extraordinary collection today. The museum is not generally open to the public, but exceptions are made for participants of this quirky San Bruno walking tour.

The tour, led by the historical association’s president Mitch Postel, takes visitors down San Mateo Avenue to spots like the original EIMAC building (an essential hub that made parts for radar transmitters during World War II), Artichoke Joe’s (which started as a card room named Joe’s Pool Hall in 1921) and an art deco barber shop. It also includes an odd location used in the 1988 Francis Ford Coppola movie, Tucker: The Man and His Dream.

Locals will enjoy the San Bruno history, but the slot machines at the tour’s finale make an unusual treat for everyone.

Mare Island Naval History

Starts at St. Peter’s Chapel, 1181 Walnut Ave., Vallejo
$20; free for children under 13

Visiting the first U.S. naval base on the West Coast might not sound like the most obvious Fun Day Out, but Mare Island is full of surprises. The docent-led tours that take place every first and third week of the month (on Thursdays and weekends) yield some genuinely bewildering sights. Take, for example, the very picturesque Alden Park, which contains a 19th-century bandstand and a 28-foot ballistic missile — directly next to each other. And that’s before you get to the bunkers.

Also on the tour: the oldest naval chapel in the country (containing 25 beautiful Tiffany stained-glass windows), the 125-year-old Admiral’s Mansion and the very creepy administrative building. There are also submarines, dry docks and a pipe shop dating back to 1855.

Is this all a bit weird? Yes. Is Mare Island still worth a visit? Absolutely. When you’re done with the tour, you can check out the art studios, breweries, coffee shops and other small businesses that now occupy the old military buildings and coal sheds.

Pigeon Point Light Station

Starts at “the sign in front of the first cottage,” Pescadero
Free, RSVP or just show up

To random passersby, Pigeon Point is merely one more dramatic and windswept spot on California’s beautiful coastline. For those who know why there’s been a lighthouse at Pigeon Point since 1872, the crashing waves around the historic 115-foot structure carry much more meaning. Prior to its construction, San Mateo County Gazette editor H.A. Scofield noted: “No other place on the Pacific Coast has proved so fatal to navigators as this locality.”

Indeed. Before there was a light on the land, this area sank many an important ship. The Carrier Pigeon in 1853, the Sir John Franklin in 1864, the Coya in 1866 and the Hellespont in 1868. Scores of men, women and children lost their lives in these wrecks before construction of the lighthouse was finally approved.

Though the lighthouse is currently under restoration and closed to the public, there are still 45-minute tours of the area every Sunday that take you back in time and share tons of information about the shipwrecks, bootleggers and other tough characters that once lived and died in the area.