H. Dana Bower Rest Area Northbound

After searching where to stay in San Fran, and not wanting to spend $$$, I’m so glad we found this option.
At first, I was very skeptical due to it being a public viewing point. We parked our RV up in the morning and Ubered it into the city for the day. Came back to freshen up and went back in for the night.
No issues at all, I was so relieved.
Bridge patrol officers make their presence known. Didn’t use restrooms. Noise wasn’t too much of an issue.

Technically, it’s an hour maximum parking stay. But no one enforces that rule. I was able to put my slides out and even run my generator. We camped nightly and during the day drove to Crissy Beach, which prohibits overnight parking. This place has amazing views, is extremely safe, has working restrooms, plenty of light, abundant law enforcement, and easy access.

This is really the only option for boondocking near SF. We spent 4 nights here in our 24ft Class C. We came on a weekend - Friday night went to a baseball game at Oracle park and had our fingers crossed that there would be a space open after and there was! During the day we drove to the Daly City Train Station (super safe area) and parked the RV in the train lot. On weekends the parking is free, during week days it’s $3.00 for the full day. We’d take the BART into SF to explore, come back, and head to this rest area. We were one of many RVs and conversion vans. Didn’t see any homeless and police occasionally come in and patrol. Bathrooms are relatively clean (I felt clean bringing my tooth brush in to brush my teeth). Oh did I mention the absolutely INSANE view of the Golden Gate?? Walking/bike path right in the rest area. Definitely recommend if you’re visiting SF, goes without saying to not take advantage.

We arrived around 4:30. This rest stop makes a circle so if you’re in a larger rig, like we are, good to go. You can get out if there isn’t a space available. We didn’t know this when we first pulled in and we’re STRESSED. Lots of cars and lots of people. The view of the bridge is on-point. Tour buses drop off here. Three-quarters around the loop is where the RV spots are. We are a 30’ Class A with a tow-behind and we fit. Several sprinter vans also fit behind us but I’m glad we arrived early or I don’t think we would have had a spot.
Quieter than I thought it would be. We left the next morning about 9am. No one bothered us.
Would definitely stop here again.

I decided to stay here, because it was the right location for my road trip, it was free, and I thought the view of the city would be excellent. It's a large rest area with plenty of parking located on the first exit after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. I stayed the night in my SUV, and parked on the far side of the rest area where I saw several campers & RVs.

I had an excellent view of the city and the bridge both at night and in the morning. There were a lot of people, including a bunch of teenagers, hanging out at the rest area. Plus, quite a few people stopping just to take a quick photograph. It's a very busy rest area, and very noisy. In addition to the car noise, the large group of teenagers were pretty rowdy. (Bring earplugs!) There was also almost always a police car patrolling the rest area, even in the morning. I believe there's a rule that you're not supposed to park more than 8 hours at a rest area in California, but I'm not sure if that's enforced here.

The rest area itself had multiple bathrooms, which were pretty dirty, but still usable. The trashcan nearest to my car was overflowing, and in the middle of the night I woke to a weird sound, which turned out to be a couple of racoons digging through it.

Overall, it was not a restful night, but it was still a pretty cool place to stay.