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

Perfect your fly fishing technique on their practice ponds.

Shoot for par over the bodies of the dead on this cemetery-cum-golf course.

At the base of the Golden Gate Bridge, a small sign basically begs for a high-five.

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

California's most comprehensive horticultural library.

These WWII-era murals were initially booed as a libelous portrayal of the American dream but have survived multiple attempts to have them destroyed.

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

A pair of mutilated bronze octopuses slump at the base of the monument honoring California's admission to the U.S.

Gold Rush ship-turned-hotel buried underneath San Francisco's financial district.

Faceless white figures loom over the city from the rooftop.

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.

Half of a house.

A mysterious painting of the self-declared Emperor of the United States watches over a local hof-brau.

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

An entire town preserved as a historic landmark.

Creek water that starts here has a 50/50 chance of ending up in the Atlantic or the Pacific.

The largest hot spring in the United States is, as the name suggests, a stunning show of natural color.

A chance to sleep among the firs and pines of the Oregon forest.

An American city stranded at the tip of a Canadian peninsula where strict adherence to the "49th parallel rule" became problematic.

This unassuming cheese empire in rural Oregon churns out more than 150,000 pounds of cheese each day.

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

A museum befitting the city responsible for supplying the majority of the world's LSD.

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