Dutch Windmill Tulip Garden
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco CA
The Dutch windmill tulip garden was given to the city of San Francisco in 1902 by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. The tulips, icelandic poppies and primroses in this peaceful garden at the base of the north Dutch windmill are in full bloom from March 15th-April 15th. For pictures, related pages, more details and precise map see below.
By supplying Golden Gate Park with massive quantities of fresh ground water, the wooden Dutch windmill helped convert it from sand dunes into a great man-made botanical garden containing over 2 million trees from around the world. This speculative irrigation project was so successful that a Murphy Windmill, the largest wooden windmill ever in its day, was built further south for the same purpose. Together these once pumped 1.5 million gallons/day for irrigation use to a reservoir now named Stow Lake. Electrical pumps have long since replaced this function.
As an aside, the Park Chalet Garden Restaurant and the Beach Chalet Brewery & Restaurant are just steps away as shown on our Golden Gate Park map. When the weather is warm we recommend hamburgers with your dog on the east lawn of Park Chalet. Beach Chalet upstairs has big picture windows with west ocean beach views. Food is average in both restaurants but the settings and the bars are nice. Downstairs in the Visitor Center is a San Francisco history display and public restrooms. You can also find there a nice three dimensional scale map of the park that shows where to visit next.
Related Pages:
- More pictures in year 2015.
- Golden Gate Park guide & map – Best things to do in Golden Gate Park.
- Ocean Beach page & map – Shows little known things to do in this area.
- Back from Dutch Windmill & Tulip Garden to Best SF Things to Do home
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