For vim there is a filesystem explorer called NERDtree: https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree
Surely an alternative or superior package exists for Emacs?
(Shameless reanswer from A good project tree browser for Emacs? - Stack Overflow)
I just now did a word search for "explore" in package-list-packages, and discovered project-explorer. Seems to fit exactly what I want today (I don't code hardly, but getting a grip on the structure of my Jekyll site).
Keys include TAB for folding and unfolding directories. Open files with RET or f, but with prefix, it will prompt nicely for which window, and even from there allow you to decide to use window or open up a new one to any side (I didn't find the prompt string in the package code, so it seems to leverage built in Emacs functionality nicely; indeed it looks like dired even).
It's available on Melpa and Marmalade, and packaged description points to sabof_project-explorer · GitHub.
I include the site's image for convenience:

I don't use projectile or helm, but it has some integration.