Golden Gate Park most-visited city park in the United States after Central Park in New York City, Lincoln Park in Chicago, and Balboa and Mission Bay Parks in San Diego. In the 1860s, San Franciscans began to feel the need for a spacious public park similar to Central Park, which was then taking shape in New York City. Golden Gate Park was carved out of unpromising sand and shore dunes that were known as the Outside Lands, in an unincorporated area west of San Francisco's then-current borders. Conceived ostensibly for recreation, the underlying purpose of the park was housing development and the westward
Golden Gate Park and can be found all around the park, most notably in Heroes Grove, Redwood Memorial Grove, AIDS Memorial Grove, Stanyan Meadows, on top of Hippie Hill, and in the Panhandle. Tree ferns were planted early on by McClaren and continue to thrive in the park. Many can be found in the Tree Fern Dell, near the Conservatory of Flowers, which is made up of mostly Tasmanian tree fern. Four out of the thirty-two San Francisco locations designated as "Natural Areas" by the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department's Natural Areas Program are in Golden Gate Park. These are the Oak