I'm not too surprised to read this. I get a little antsy if I haven't been on a hike in a while. It's more than just exercise. Urban walks, including ones wi

I'm not too surprised to read this. I get a little antsy if I haven't been on a hike in a while. It's more than just exercise. Urban walks, including ones with a lot of greenery like in Golden Gate Park, stave it off, but don't completely take care of it [1]. Even a place like Muir Woods, which does have beautiful trees and a creek but is so heavily travelled that people are supposed to stay on a roped off path, doesn't quite do it. Fortunately (recent tweets from a high profile investor notwithstanding), SF has a lot of this available within a 90 minute radius. Some researchers did find that natural walks have a stronger effect on blood pressure and stress than "urban" walks (the link was here on HN, but unfortunately I don't remember it right now). However, they took a walk down el camino real in suburban sprawl as their "urban" experience. I have really enjoyed taking very very long walks in places like Paris or New York, highly urban areas, and depending on where you go, it's actually pretty fantastic. So my guess, again this is just based on my own experience, is that highly urbanized areas aren't necessarily lacking in whatever that element is that brings a sense of calm and contentedness from long walks or hikes. [1] I know, GGP has a reputation for having lots of addicted or mentally ill people camping in the bushes. This isn't undeserved, unfortunately, but SF's problems, while pretty bad, can still be overstated. It depends on where you go in the park.