Photos: Dawn Endico from Menlo Park, California · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Doug Letterman from Oakland, CA · CC BY 2.0 (2, 3, 4, 5)
A Cold War air defence battery in the Marin Headlands, with missiles, launch pits and a tracking area.
Why it's unique
The National Park Service calls SF-88 the most fully restored of the close to 300 Nike missile sites built in the United States from 1953 to 1979.
It is kept by volunteers and veterans, so the people showing you round may have served at Nike sites themselves. A 2009 report describes visitors riding the missile elevator; that could not be confirmed as still happening.
Before you go
National Park Service pages disagree on opening, so confirm first. One says Saturdays 12:30 to 3:30, another first Saturdays only. The first Saturday is the veterans' open house, when people who served at Nike sites tell their own stories, and the next is 7 November.
It shuts in bad weather, so ring the visitor center on (415) 331-1540 on an iffy day. Ask on arrival whether the missile elevator is running rather than assuming it. There are only portable toilets at the site; the rest stop a mile earlier on Field Road has running water.
