Once the gateway to the utopian dream-village of a Civil War embalmer.

Once the largest windmill outside of Holland, with enormous 114 foot sails.

A B&B on a Victorian lighthouse station in San Francisco Bay.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

A winding path built in secret on the edge of the continent.

An abandoned, unfinished mansion on grounds strewn with lava rocks.

The one-time watch house for incoming ships at the Golden Gate now stands abandoned and hidden in trees.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

This lighthouse has been guiding shipping into the Golden Gate since before the American Civil War.

This rare example of a "tidefall" is a spectacular drop from the cliffs down onto the beach.

The lighthouse central to the 1980s horror classic "The Fog" is, in fact, located in one of the foggiest areas of the Pacific Coast.

This abandoned boat was left in place thanks to its rotting beauty.

California's own medieval Italian castle, authentic down to the 300-year-old iron maiden in the dungeon.

This historic California cemetery holds the bodies of veterans of both the Civil War and the Donner Party.

The mysterious round rocks of Schooner Gulch.

One of the largest Buddhist communities in the West sits on the site of an old hospital.

A grove of "candelabra redwoods" deep in California's Lost Coast.

This massive redwood tree has a hole in the base big enough to drive through.

A Tibetan Temple and Buddhist organization just off the beaten path in Northern California.

This 19th-century museum inside of a lighthouse is only accessible during low tide.

Humboldt's human-powered sculptures race across land and sea for days on end in a wacky quest for dominance.

The park preserves a single, rare species of carnivorous plant that spells doom for unsuspecting insects.

This lesser known Hearst estate is a fairytale village built from the stolen bones of historic European buildings.

A lighthouse built to save lives that took quite a few with its treacherous location.