Steinbeck's old stomping grounds, immortalized in Cannery Row.

Fake rail crossings mark the site of an influential doctor's demise.

This eagle-topped spire remembers the military commander who snatched up California for the United States.

An old whaling station now serves to give the public a look at the commercial whaling industry, no longer a part of Monterey's economy.

The oldest U.S. Government building in California, and it's State Historic Landmark #1.

The first safe in this California town had to hold all the gold.

The stately birthplace of California's statehood.

This remarkably simple jail went over a century without an escape.

A tree grown from astronaut seeds which were exposed to cosmic rays.

This municipal playground was co-created by the father of one of the most playful characters ever.

Once America’s most beautiful army base, this abandoned military fort on the coast of Monterey Bay has been left to the elements.

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

Canyon walls shrouded in ferns.

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.

A trash dump made beautiful by nature's power.

The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

California's own majestic geyser is powered by a subterranean volcano.

The rusting remains of the largest assembled WWII fleet on the West Coast.

This mountaintop beacon is only lit three times a year but shines like some kind of all-seeing eye.

Cows on a ranch are commonplace, scattered cow bones everywhere? Not so much.

A psychedelic labyrinth on the San Francisco bay.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

A 140-year-old castle with underground caves hidden in San Francisco.