A library built during San Francisco's pioneer times is a student's retreat, bibliophile's sanctuary, and chess player's delight.

Join the circus for a few lessons to learn clowning, acrobatics, and Chinese contortion.

A famous alternative culture epicenter and where Joplin serenaded young hippies.

A promotional sun clock on the site of San Francisco's great raceway.

Since 1973, this block has been home to the most concentrated collection of murals in San Francisco.

Gold Rush-era tombstones line the park's paths.

An overlooked and unassuming engineering marvel.

The giant pair of sexy legs sticking out the window of this costume store have become its main draw.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

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

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

Hidden above a drug store on a nondescript corner of Lincoln Heights is a private clubhouse for intrepid explorers.

Small museum packed with artifacts recovered by the man rumored to be the real-life inspiration for Indiana Jones.

Marta Becket's hand-painted theater in the desert.

These lush groves of fan palms rise up like oases out of southern California's Colorado Desert.

A trail weaves through the verses of a poem illustrated by stone sculptures inspired by Native American pictographs.

Successful artist residence program has filled this ranch with dozens of sculptures over the years.

Two mammoth statues inspired by equally tall tales lure tourists to this roadside attraction.

One of the largest free-standing structures ever built, this dirigible hangar is now simply a giant skeleton.

A large sculptural artwork and garden in Escondido, California.

Abortion, prohibition, religion, war, and fear all play a part in the history of this idiosyncratic Pacifica castle.

Three vintage horses survived a 1976 inferno and found a home on a sister carousel.

Abandoned anti-ballistic missile base.