The National Park Service is considering what it calls a new vision for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area - and one of the proposals calls for turning one of the historic buildings on Alcatraz into a hotel.

The ideas - which Park Service planner Nancy Hornor calls preliminary, includes three separate proposals for five different regions in the sprawling park, from Stinson Beach in Marin County to rolling hills in San Mateo County.

The most famous regions are Alcatraz and Muir Woods National Monument. Alcatraz draws more than 1.4 million visitors a year, and Muir Woods, the only large stand of virgin redwood near a major city, is visited by 1.5 million people every year.

The proposals are a first step in planning the future of the park for the next 20 to 30 years, Hornor said. No dollar figures were offered for any of the plans, which are detailed in a National Park Service Newsletter, and they would happen only subject to available funding.

The Park Service is interested in the public's view of the proposals and has scheduled several hearings for input.

One of the Alcatraz proposals calls for opening up more of the island to visitors and offering more services. Another proposal for Alcatraz calls for rehabilitating historic structures. Alternative One suggests turning one of the old buildings into an overnight facility - possibly even a hotel. It also proposes turning historic buildings into a hostel, perhaps similar to the youth hostel at San Francisco's Fort Mason.

Overnight visitors would not stay in the main cell block but in Building 64, formerly used to house guards. The building, on the east side of the island, has spectacular views of Berkeley and the East Bay hills. The proposal would also let visitors camp on the island.

Another Alcatraz idea is to move the ferry dock from Pier 33 on the Embarcadero to a historic pier at Fort Mason, and use what the Park Service calls "prison-themed" ferries to transport visitors past "a network of warning buoys."

"The experience would continue at the island's arrival pier, marching up to the main prison building through a landscape of fences and guard towers."

This alternative - called "Focusing on National Treasures" - considers reopening the prison kitchen and serving visitors in the prison dining room.

The Park Service also has some new ideas for Muir Woods National Monument near Mill Valley. One would leave the area pretty much alone, but two others would remove many buildings, including the historic superintendent's house, and severely restrict parking so that most visitors would have to take a shuttle bus from a new visitor center near Highway 101, nearly four miles outside the monument boundary.