How to get to Trash Bowl SF

There is a “secret” bowl in San Francisco – specifically in Bayview / Potrero Hill. Not really sure what neighborhood it qualifies as. It’s right next to third and army, the legendary SF spot.

I found out about it today and by asking a series of people – I found it.

First I went to Potrero Park just to hang out there, and I found out that there was a whole beautiful skatepark there!

I was talking to a guy there and he told me that there was some DIY bowl “right under the bridge” and pointed to the 101 highway. He was kind of “casual” though so I didn’t totally trust him. I asked another guy and he told me it was also “right there” on Caesar Chavez, but also referenced third and army.

I went over to the 101 immediately next to Potrero Del Sol and looked around and asked this homeless guy where the bowl was and he told me about Potrero Del Sol. So I kept going down Caesar Chavez until the next bridge, I-280.

I-280 had a ton of barbed wire around it and it looked like nothing so I just guessed that there was nothing there. At this point I was right next to third and army so I decided to just skate that. I skated it for a little while and it was really fun, and then I heard someone say the word “bowl”.

So I told him what I heard and asked him if it was around here and he told me exactly where it was.

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He said go back to the entrance of third and army and there would be a “trail”. The trail is a concrete walkway that Google Maps calls “Islais Creek Promenade”. You go west from Third and Army until the end of this Promenade. Then cut south. It’s a little bit cutty but there’s a foot path that goes along a pipe. At one point along the pipe there is a place that you can hop onto a concrete block and in the picture below there is a ladder that previous skaters used to get up the pipe. The bowl is right there once you climb the ladder.