Places westcoastspirit Wants to Go

A library and museum dedicated to typography.

The stones that traveled from Spain to eventually become a holy place for San Francisco's nature worshippers.

This turn of the century masterpiece has a mysterious goaty interloper.

The restored and active Victorian-era final resting place of San Francisco.

This 19th-century church is now a popular roller rink.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

With the touch of a button, you can read a randomly selected short story.

The oldest burial ground in the city, final resting place of city founders, Ohlone natives and murderers alike.

In this century-old literary safehouse, print is alive and well.

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

A favorite haunt of dinosaur loving children and hallucinogen loving hippies alike.

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

A pair of slides and a tree-lined stair corridor have been an urban oasis for nearly 40 years.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

Get lost in this haunting fairytale art walk through a man-made eucalyptus grove.

A tiny theater hidden in an alley plays a constant stream of short silent films for anyone willing to peer through the peephole.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

Bring your own cardboard to the slippery slopes of concrete hidden in a neighborhood park.

An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.