Golden Gate Park: the east end
The Conservatory, the de Young tower, the Academy, the Tea Garden — the museum half. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Conservatory of Flowers
Start at the white wooden glasshouse on the hill — the oldest building in the park and the oldest public conservatory in the western hemisphere. You don't have to go in for the orchids; the dahlia garden out front is free and the structure itself is the photograph.

2. de Young Museum and the Hamon Tower
The copper-clad museum that's slowly oxidising green to match the park. Take the lift up the twisted tower — it's free, no ticket needed — for the look out over the canopy to the ocean and the city.

3. California Academy of Sciences
Across the Music Concourse, the rainforest dome and the living roof under one famous green ceiling. The roof's planted with native wildflowers and rolls like the hills around it. Worth a full hour if the weather turns.

4. The Music Concourse
The sunken oval of plane trees pollarded into knuckles, with the Spreckels bandshell at one end. Free concerts here on summer Sundays. Sit on the rim a moment; it's the one formal space in a park that's otherwise all curves.

5. Japanese Tea Garden
The oldest public Japanese garden in the country, laid out for the 1894 fair and kept ever since. The drum bridge is steeper than it looks. Tea and a mochi in the teahouse if you've timed it for the quiet first hour.

6. Stow Lake Boathouse and out to the N
Drift west to the lake's edge for the trees reflected and the herons, then cut south out of the park to Irving Street and the N-Judah. Coffee and a pastry on Ninth before the train if the morning's run long.

Golden Gate Park: the east end