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An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.

Bring your own cardboard to the slippery slopes of concrete hidden in a neighborhood park.

The only theatre in the world constructed specifically for sound movement.

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

Reverend Franzo Wayne King administers spiritual enlightenment through the music of the jazz legend.

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

This shop and studio is dedicated to the art of the book, from letterpress to bookbinding.

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

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

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.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

Get lost in this haunting fairytale art walk through a man-made eucalyptus grove.

A library and museum dedicated to typography.

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

A tiny theater hidden in an alley plays a constant stream of short silent films for anyone willing to peer through the peephole.

A psychedelic labyrinth on the San Francisco bay.

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

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

A favorite haunt of dinosaur loving children and hallucinogen loving hippies alike.

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

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

San Franciscans leave gifts and messages for the magical beings that live behind the tiny, mysterious door installed on a tree in Golden Gate Park.

The remains of a ruined mansion memorialize the 1906 earthquake.

A winding path built in secret on the edge of the continent.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

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

A 140-year-old castle with underground caves hidden in San Francisco.

A hidden subterranean installation offers a view of the sky.

The one-time watch house for incoming ships at the Golden Gate now stands abandoned and hidden in trees.

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

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

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

The second building of its name to occupy this location might be the finest flatiron building in San Francisco.

A collection of memorabilia from the Beat era in the back of a San Francisco bookstore.

Masterful ceramic fountain and map of the Pacific Basin.

In this century-old literary safehouse, print is alive and well.

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

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

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

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

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

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

Big gun installations, built over a massive cemetery, now abandoned & hidden in trees.

Over 315,000 preserved amphibians and reptiles in jars.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

Art from the latest counter-culture; kids who dye their hair blue and believe the future will be a post-apocalyptic water world.

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