Where to See Cherry Blossoms in the Bay Area This Spring

For a few fleeting weeks each year in March and April, pink blossoms gather along neighborhood sidewalks, frame the Peace Plaza in Japantown and dust park lawns like pastel snow.

In Japan, sakura — cherry blossoms — have been celebrated for more than a thousand years. Hanami, or flower-viewing celebrations, date back to the ninth century in Japan and were made popular among the aristocracy.

Today, the arrival of cherry blossoms is celebrated not only in Japan but worldwide, including in U.S. cities like Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. And in the Bay Area, the City’s Japantown fills with pink petals and festivalgoers for the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival – now in its 59th year.

Keep reading for what to know about visiting the 2026 Cherry Blossom Festival, and other places to spot blossoms.

• Jump straight to: Where to see cherry blossoms around the Bay Area

When to see the 2026 Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival

San Francisco’s festival is one of the largest of its kind on the West Coast and spans two weekends:

• April 11-12, 2026: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• April 18-19, 2026: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

More than 250,000 people are expected to visit Japantown over these four days for cultural performances, arts and crafts vendors, nonprofit food booths and family-friendly activities.

This year, organizers are continuing their expansion onto Sutter Street, allowing for additional vendors and easier access to nearby cultural institutions like the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California and Nihonmachi Little Friends.

One major highlight: the return of the Kanda Mikoshi, carried for the first time since the pandemic. The portable shrine was gifted by Kanda Myojin, a historic shrine in Tokyo, said Akiko Bates, a spokesperson for the festival. Festivalgoers can also expect to see the iconic Taru Mikoshi shrine during the Grand Parade finale.

Organizers encourage people to take public transportation, walk, bike or take an Uber or taxi to the event, as parking around Japantown will be extremely limited during those weekends. Festival organizers are also still seeking volunteers.

Beyond the festivities, Bates said the event serves a deeper purpose.

“We want to honor and celebrate the diversity of our Japanese and Japanese American communities and invite others to learn more about our culture,” she said. “Japanese and Japanese Americans have been vital to the Bay Area, and this festival is our way of bringing the community together.”

Where else can you see cherry blossoms in the Bay Area?

Spring is the best time to admire the blushing pink flowers of cherry blossoms that adorn the Bay Area’s streets and parks.

As for timing, March and April are the best moments to go looking for cherry blossoms in the region, as they bloom for a limited time during these months.

Here are a few places to spot cherry blossoms around the Bay Area:

San Francisco cherry blossoms

• Japanese Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park
• Lindley Meadow, Golden Gate Park
• Japantown Peace Plaza
• Palace of Fine Arts, Presidio
• San Francisco Botanical Gardens, Golden Gate Park

South Bay cherry blossoms

• Japanese Friendship Garden, San José
• Hanami at Hakone, Saratoga (March)
• Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival, Cupertino (April 25 and 26)
• Filoli Estate & Gardens, Woodside
• Gamble Garden, Palo Alto

East Bay cherry blossoms

• Rancho San Ramon Community Park, San Ramon
• Bollinger Canyon Road, San Ramon
• Dougherty Station Library Parking Lot, San Ramon
• UC Berkeley campus west entrance, Berkeley
• Hayward Japanese Gardens, Hayward
• Piedmont Park, Piedmont
• Central Park, Fremont

North Bay cherry blossoms

• Santa Rosa Junior College, Petaluma
• Fairfield, Solano County

How climate change is reshaping bloom times

If you’ve noticed cherry blossoms beginning to bloom earlier than usual, you’re not alone.

Springtime temperature plays a big role in how early trees bloom, according to Patrick Gonzalez, climate change scientist and forest ecologist at UC Berkeley. “Climate change can disrupt cherry blossom timing in two ways — earlier due to spring heating and later due to winter heating,” he added.

Cherry trees blossom for a very short period, making the peak flowering stage a critical data point in understanding the physiological stage of the tree.

It’s also the most well-documented data in phenology — the timing of life events in plants and animals — with more than a thousand years of measurements.

Studies have shown that cherry blossoms in both Washington, D.C., and Kyoto, Japan, have been blooming earlier than in previous years due to climate change. With increased global temperatures, “cherry trees blooming in the center of Washington, D.C. could advance by up to a month by 2100,” Gonzalez said, referring to a study from 2011. And with measurements dating back over a millennium, the data indicate that this will also be the case with peak blooms in Japan, Gonzalez said.

But why might earlier blooms become an issue? Gonzalez said that rising global temperatures could inadvertently cause a “phenology mismatch” between when a tree blooms and when pollinators like bees and butterflies mature.

Many of the cherry trees we see in the Bay Area are more ornamental and therefore may not be a cause of concern with earlier blooms.

But elsewhere in California, “the phenology mismatch is important ecologically for food crops, especially like almonds and cherries that we eat here,” Gonzalez said.