Geologists warn Lands End landslide sign of unstable coastline

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A large hillside at Lands End in San Francisco is sliding, which is forcing park rangers to close a popular trail.

This comes after several days of heavy rain over the past couple of weeks.

For San Franciscans and visitors, the timing could not be more frustrating. Finally it's a beautiful, rain-free day but the side-effect of the storm is the yellow caution tape portioning off the trail to Lands End.

It's a nice walk with a fine reward.

"Oh, you really get a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge," said one visitor.

And for now, anyway, an even better view of California's unstable coastline in action, thanks to a large slide that materialized on Monday.

It remains unstable enough that the National Park Service has closed 1,500 feet of walkway to public access, just in time for the holiday weekend.

"This is a situation that comes up from time to time and we will always error on the side of caution to keep visitors safe," explained Howard Levitt, with the National Park Service.

Meantime, the slide has become an interesting case study for the United States Geological Survey.

Doctor Jonathon Stock toured the area on Tuesday. He notes that this is a slide within an older slide, essentially, a pre-existing condition.

"There is the possibility that we will see this migrate into the bigger older landscape," said Dr. Stock.

In short, it's not the end of the world, but at Lands End, certainly a crack in it.