Alcatraz Island, California
When in San Francisco, why not go to prison? When we visited California back in August, my family got to go to Alcatraz. We had 10am tickets for the ferry (BOOK IN ADVANCE!) and spend the morning on Pier 39, famous for Sea Lions and cinnamon donuts, waiting for our time slot.
You may be thinking, “Keeley, I have come to our passion blog for National Parks content and now all I’m getting is San Francisco.. uhh” Well guess what, Alcatraz is run by the National Parks Service!
There are two main ferries that go back and forth from the island and drop off tourists every half hour/hour. As always, my brothers and I ran to sit on the top, open level and got to see the windmills shaped like double helixes and the solar panels that cover the roof. The ferry gives you a great famous fog that rolls in over the city.
The second you get off the ferry you get to witness the historical significance of the island ad “Indians Welcome” paint can be viewed from the occupation of Alcatraz that took place from 1969-1971. This can also been seen on the water tower. This sign was repainted in 2012 by people who had occupied, and their families, when the National Parks Service decided to restore the tower. This is a really cool part of history and the movement it sparked is sit extremely important in the US today.
The island is covered in beautiful flowers and has amazing birds (although they poop everywhere, a lot). We chose to do the audio tour (BEWARE IF YOU GO OFF THE TOUR, I walked too far away from the tour sports and my headset started beeping to alert everyone that I was potentially stealing it). It was so embarrassing hahahah!
We initially followed a ranger up the main hill as he told us about his theories on different prisoners who are believed to have escaped. The island gives you an interesting perspective because we hear about stories in the past and always cheer for a prisoner to beat the system and escape the unescapable island. But the island and its staff remind you of their crimes. Alcatraz was for prisoners who were too bad for prison.
Not only had they committed crimes before their incarceration, they had done some bad stuff in mainland prisons too. I didn’t fully recognize this until they talked about how the officers and guards lived on the island with their families and that the wives and kids were trained to run to the officers building in case of an escape because it was likely that the prisoners would try to take/threaten to kill a kid in order to blackmail the guards into letting them go.
The tour is great because the audio was recorded by past guards and past prisoners who lived there. Both tell stories from living on the island, and the insights they have into prison life is fascinating to hear about. Of course, Alcatraz is a major tourist attraction, so the audio tour also directs you to locations and objects that played important roles in potential/alleged/failed/”successful” escapes.
Alcatraz is a must see when visiting San Francisco. Whether you’re a history buff, crime-show enthusiast, photographer, or simply a tourist checking it off, Alcatraz is an amazing place to visit and gives you a new perspective on the U.S. prison system.