Sea Serpent Naga & the Captainess

San Francisco, California, United States

Public art

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Current

Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Naga, a 100-foot-long, 25-foot-tall lit sea-serpent sculpture by Cjay Roughgarden, Stephanie Shipman and Jacquelyn Scott, stands in Rainbow Falls Pond beside JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. It came from Burning Man 2024 and was installed in July 2025.

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Sea Serpent Naga & the Captainess

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Site-level location · 37.7715° N, 122.4675° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A 100-foot sea serpent rises out of a pond in the middle of Golden Gate Park, glowing from the inside and now and then blowing bubbles from its nose. Naga was first shown at Burning Man in 2024 and was installed in July 2025 at Rainbow Falls Pond on JFK Promenade, part of the Golden Mile, which Illuminate describes as a 1.5-mile car-free, art-filled stretch of the park.

The work is by three Bay Area artists: metal fabricator Cjay Roughgarden, woodworker and arts educator Stephanie Shipman, and production designer and special-effects artisan Jacquelyn Scott. The serpent is 25 feet tall, wears more than 5,000 hand-forged iridescent scales, and was built with more than 250 volunteers. The Richmond Review reported in August 2025 that it is made of stainless steel mesh, aluminum scales and eco-friendly paint, and that bubbles come out when it is not too windy. The preparation and installation budget was $400,000, and Illuminate and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department presented it. Organizers call it the largest public art installation in the park's history.

Roughgarden told the Richmond Review she chose the name Naga from the folklore of South and Southeast Asia, where she says nagas are treasure-protecting deities, because she wanted a sea serpent that was not simply a monster. She says she did not want to make a figure from those traditions because it is not her culture.

The full Burning Man piece, Naga and the Captainess, included a shipwreck. For the park, organizers planned a seating area shaped like a shipwreck, with interactive treasure chests, and in August 2025 hoped to add it that autumn. Shipman said the serpent was scheduled to stay at least two years. In September 2026 Illuminate announced that Naga had won two 2026 CODAawards, Most Inspirational and People's Choice.

Funcheap's 2025 listing places the pond just north of the Blue Heron (formerly Stowe) Lake boathouse.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

An outdoor sculpture in a pond beside JFK Promenade, lit from within and, according to its makers, blowing bubbles from its nose in calm weather. A cyclist told the Richmond Review in 2025 that you can see it from far away.

ACCESS

Rainbow Falls Pond, JFK Promenade, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, between 19th and 20th Avenues, just north of the Blue Heron Lake boathouse (Funcheap, 2025). It is in a public park and is viewed from the path.

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