Hidden Gems of SF

San Francisco is like an artichoke

By Amity Bacon

It’s not an onion, whose layers are stinky and may make you cry, but rather a big, beautiful bud that makes you really work to get to its rich center. Oddball visionaries, lesser-known histories and unconventional destination spots arguably make up the meat of our city’s beloved urban heart. See anything missing on this map? If you’re feeling benevolent, add your secret spots to the comments below.

A jetty made by Exploratorium artists in residence in the ’80s that uses cemetery stones with inlaid pipes to create an organ when the waves come in at high tide.

Nearly 40 feet of steep cement sliding fun … if you don’t burn your biscuits (bring cardboard).

Bathe in extreme surround sound with 176 speakers filling a dark, circular room meant to create a “sound sculpture.”

This privately owned library is filled with rare books and ephemera categorized in the Prelingers’ anti-Dewey “serendipitous” style. (Appointment only, and open only on Wednesdays.)

What began as a silk-screening print shop has now also become an impressive vintage arcade housing 20 pinball machines, skeeball and scores of other classic games at ’80s arcade prices.

An antique penny arcade with artifacts from the Zelinsky family, who had previously displayed their games at Playland at the Beach in the 1920s.

A hidden stretch of beach to the south of Treasure Island’s yacht harbor is shielded from the wind and offers great views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge.

The inside of the forest at Mount Sutro is just as lush and majestic as it looks from afar, with easy-to-navigate trails along its ridges that may be more fun to explore through the fog than on a sunny day.

The artistic director of the Velocity Circus opens his home to the public (by appointment) in experimentally themed rooms and a labyrinth to symbolize “the path of life.”

A Mission muralist collective founded in 1977 with a large storefront, art classes and several mural tours.

Rumor has it that cavalry horses and military guard dogs were buried here before military families turned it into an unofficial pet cemetery in the 1950s.

Thousands of fortunes have been created here daily since 1962. Buy them by the bagful, or take a couple of samples with you for the road.

Inspired by the Escadaria Selarón in Brazil, local artists covered 163 precipitous steps with mosaic tiles, portraying a shimmering path from the sea to the sky.

At the time this giant, climbable sundial was erected in 1913, Ingleside was a new housing-development project where a large racetrack once stood.

This psychedelic art collector’s home, a.k.a. the “LSD museum,” holds more than 33,000 sheets of LSD that the DEA has tried him for — twice.