Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

Guns that have been defending San Francisco since 1904.

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

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

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

Only hotel where you can legally launder money.

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

Rodin's famous depiction of Dante's 'Inferno', amidst a sculpture garden of many of his other works.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

A raised boardwalk winds through a thicket of stunted, century-old trees no more than nine feet tall.

The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California."

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

A Looff creation in Santa Monica best described as “a California-Byzantine-Moorish-style fantasy.”

The huge granite obelisk that towers over a small California town.

California's longest-running tourist attraction is a stump.

This corn maze so big you may want to pack a lunch, and possibly a flaregun.

The rusting remains of the largest assembled WWII fleet on the West Coast.

The perfect spot for a picnic, right next to a giant ballistic missile.

The former Naval shipyard is open for exploring - mostly.

The oldest Naval chapel in the United States is home to an incredible collection of Tiffany stained-glass windows.

The oldest Naval cemetery on the West Coast.

Where a staggering 747 ships were constructed during World War II.