The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

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

The miraculous hydrant that saved the Mission District in 1906.

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

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

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

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

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

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.

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

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

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

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

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

Its buzzing collection honors vibrator history.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

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

A flooded Mexican cave that hides a river beneath the water.

Life and death are on parade at the most reliably perilous site of “the Great Migration.”

In Northeastern Iceland lies something of an oxymoron: a steaming desert.

A modern Nordic Pompeii on the Icelandic island of Heimaey.

This black church sits alone among a field of lava rock.

This stunning concert hall has become a symbol of Iceland's national recovery.

This tumultuous Icelandic lava field looks so alien European researchers want to use it as a stand-in for Mars.