The stones that traveled from Spain to eventually become a holy place for San Francisco's nature worshippers.

Life in this isolated, hilltop lighthouse was lonely, but it sure was lovely.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

The fossilized remains of ancient California redwoods.

"Only the devil could play golf here."

A monument to the love people have for their pets.

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

A popular tourist cave with a dark past.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.

An extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

This Big Sur waterfall drops 80 feet directly into the Pacific Ocean, and inspired the hillside house up top.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

The lowest point in North America is home to an undrinkable pool surrounded by fields of geometric salt flats.

Big gun installations, built over a massive cemetery, now abandoned & hidden in trees.

Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

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

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.