The Panhandle is the long, narrow strip of parkland that extends east from Golden Gate Park, a single block wide and eight blocks long, running between Oak and Fell streets along the northern edge of the Haight. Shaded by some of the oldest and tallest trees in the city's park system, it functions as the neighbourhood's back garden — joggers, dog-walkers, picnickers, and a well-used bike and pedestrian path that links the Haight to the main park.
It has its own place in the counterculture story: free concerts here in the mid-1960s, including an early Grateful Dead show and a 1967 benefit, helped seed the scene that exploded a few blocks away. Today it is simply a pleasant, leafy shortcut and a good spot to rest between the Haight and Golden Gate Park proper.