The Ten Best Instagram Spots at San Francisco's Exploratorium

From sweeping views of San Francisco Bay to practically endless selfie opportunities, the Exploratorium is one of the most Instagrammable spots in San Francisco. Grab your phone and get ready to capture can't-miss moments interacting with more than 650 exhibits.

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1. Colored Shadows
Step in front of the Colored Shadows wall in the Bechtel Central Gallery and make a trail of chromatic shadows that wiggle, jump, and strut their stuff along with you. #coloredshadows #youarethefilter

@nor_theexplorer

@bri.yogi

@ollgajan

2. Giant Mirror
Take your mirror selfie to the next level—capture yourself upside down, multiplied, or fish-eyed at Giant Mirror. Located in the Exploratorium’s Bechtel Central Gallery, Giant Mirror is constructed with materials from a NASA flight simulator and yields astonishing optical effects. #giantmirror #spaceselfie

@grayrosenyc

@dutchmayhem

@selhui

3. Mood Lighting
Settle into a comfy chair and pull our color-changing bubble dome over your head—you'll look like an astronaut or an undersea explorer, and feel like a visitor to another world. Feel your mood shift with the colors and find your favorite hue. Pass your camera to a friend and document the journey. #moodlighting

@keithoreillly

@sylvie3777

@andylutz7

4. Lumen-Illusion
Find your '80s music-video bliss in the Bechtel Central Gallery—experiment with speed, direction, and frequency to create distinct patterns at Lumen-Illusion. Crank up the synthesizer on your earbuds. #lumenillusion

@andyviernes

 @_the_real_broman

@kyrie_sismaet

5. Distorted Room
Go from tiny to towering in a few steps in our Distorted Room. Peer in and you’ll see an astonishing effect straight out of Alice In Wonderland: Watch your friends grow and shrink as they wander around the checkered floor. #distortedroom

@emilygoodtwin

@melodylac

6. Fog Bridge #72494
Lose yourself inside the ultimate filter: artist Fujiko Nakaya’s Fog Bridge, an installation that stretches across a 150-foot-long pedestrian bridge. The swirling fog—formed by water pumped at high pressure through more than 800 nozzles—adds a hint of mystery to every photo. #fogbridge

@henryscottd

@andykwhau

@circusnurse

7. Spectral Meadow
Start your rainbow slideshow with Spectral Meadow, an artwork composed of radiant light patches—it bathes the whole West Gallery in traveling rainbows, #nofilterneeded. #spectralmeadow

@michellefaves

@buu_tang_clan

@sennaska

8. Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery & Terrace
Find a new angle on the San Francisco cityscape—one you can't get anywhere else—in the Exploratorium’s second-floor Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery & Terrace. The glass-walled gallery features exhibits, artworks, and installations about the environment, and the outdoor Terrace provides an unforgettable open-air view of the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island. #observatory

@exploratorium

9. Buckyball
Get mesmerized by the subtly shifting colors of Buckyball, a towering illuminated sculpture by artist Leo Villareal featuring two nested, illuminated geodesic spheres. Your stories may never be the same again. #buckyball

@alycatinthecity

@nana.land_

@phibetakitten

10. Inflatable
Don't miss a single shot at Inflatable, our summer exhibition of gigantic, fantastical works of art. Spread across our indoor and outdoor galleries, these ephemeral sculptures include an inflatable insect-eye room, monumental humanoid figures, and more. #InflatableSF

@parerstudio

@cassisgreat

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