Places deepblue Wants to Go

California's most comprehensive horticultural library.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

The remains of a 12th-century chapter house in Golden Gate Park.

Under the shadow of its towering parent tree, a rare specimen of sequoia produces ghostly white leaves.

An elaborate gift from Claus Spreckels is now a piece of San Francisco history.

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

A garden oasis filled with flowers mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare.

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

Russian history in San Francisco.

A brooding mansion of clinker brick stands out among the Victorian houses of Pacific Heights.

Built in 1906, this unique building was the first Hindu temple in the United States.

One of few lasting examples of the brief octagon craze that developed into folly.

A modern mechanical planetary system, part of a 10,000 year clock.

Once the fastest ship from San Francisco to Tahiti, the Galilee now lays in pieces in three different cities.

The only visible piece of San Francisco's most famous shipwreck.

This residential door allows San Francisco muggles a glimpse at the wizarding world.

A free, public museum dedicated to the fascinating science of sight.

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

A psychedelic labyrinth on the San Francisco bay.

Prone to disastrous fires, the city of San Francisco has the Guardian, a fireboat gifted by residents, to watch over them from the bay.

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

The largest whiskey stash on the West Coast survived the 1906 fires--but not without heroic effort.

The oldest alley in San Francisco is paved with a reminder of the city's original shoreline.

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