Places douglasjtimpe Wants to Go

The taxidermied remains of the "last wild grizzly bear in California" and of the symbol of the state of California.

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

An overlooked and unassuming engineering marvel.

The miraculous hydrant that saved the Mission District in 1906.

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

The rustic cabin-like decor of this Arts and Crafts-style church reflects the love of nature central to its little-known theology.

An invitation-only museum of items natural and bizarre, arcane and exotic.

This private residence was the template for one of the most beloved television homes of all time.

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

Visible below the waves are memorials to the city's Gold Rush dead.

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

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

The randomness of this wall of lava lamps helps encrypt up to 10 percent of the internet.

An art supply shop holds the secrets of this quiet neighborhood's raucous Barbary Coast past.

Nestled in the heart of San Francisco’s bustling Financial District stands a unique homage to the Mayan and Beaux Arts.

A Barbary Coast watering hole built into a Gold Rush shipwreck.

Faceless white figures loom over the city from the rooftop.

A shining, cold, black organ lies in San Francisco's financial district.

Noble beasts perhaps, but not the Emperor's dogs.

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

This ancient Greek place of assembly and marketplace is being revealed layer by layer below the modern Athens cityscape.

Hidden in a secluded Greek cove is a pristine beach marred only by the rusting smuggler's hulk stranded on its shores.

Monasteries on rock pillars, once accessible only by frayed ropes.

The oldest olive tree in Greece has been bearing fruit for at least 2,000 years.