Originally shared on Instagram on December 19, 2025. Photography and story by Mark Middleton.
I’ve always been a fan of California.
In 2023, I found myself back there several times—there always seemed to be a reason that year. This particular trip was built around Napa and Sonoma, Lake Tahoe, and a few unhurried days wandering San Francisco. No tight schedule. Just time to take it in again.
This photograph was taken from the Presidio, once a military installation and now one of the most beautiful urban national parks in the country. The views from here are timeless, and adding a drone offered a perspective I hadn’t experienced before—quiet, elevated, and expansive. Looking west toward the Marin Headlands at sunset never gets old.
San Francisco carries layers. Every time I’m here, I think of the 1960s and the cultural heartbeat of Haight-Ashbury. I think of Jerry Garcia, the Dead, and the music that shaped so much of the city’s identity. I think about running the San Francisco Marathon in 2016—crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on foot, surrounded by fog, adrenaline, and history. It’s something you don’t forget.
I also think about 2021, when I walked these same streets and they were nearly empty. A city known for energy and movement suddenly paused. San Francisco has seen booms, collapses, reinventions, and reckonings. Few cities have evolved so visibly—and so often.
This may not be my most dramatic Golden Gate photograph. But it’s my most recent. And sometimes that’s enough.
Today, I’m grateful for the memories of this last trip—and for the chance to keep returning, watching a city that never stops becoming something new.
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