This infamous prison has a store where you can buy goods crafted by incarcerated people.

Coastal dunes, site of buried Egyptian movie set and former utopian colony.

A sign at the end of the Santa Monica Pier marks the traditional end of the legendary American highway.

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

Nestled in the heart of San Francisco’s bustling Financial District stands a unique homage to the Mayan and Beaux Arts.

One man's vast collection of artifacts and ephemera from matchbooks and postcards to vintage neon signs and cars.

A tiny theater hidden in an alley plays a constant stream of short silent films for anyone willing to peer through the peephole.

A glimpse into the lives of the the Miwok and Paiute people in Yosemite National Park.

A UFO scrapyard in the California desert.

A popular winter vacation destination for migrating monarch butterflies.

This symbol of peace is appropriately positioned overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

A surreal, Gaudi-inspired play space near an Anaheim community center.

Former 1954 Del Mar Train Station now serves signature cocktails and delightful culinary treats, and still operates as a Metro stop.

Haunting and beautiful trees, doomed to die.

A fashion designer's dazzling world of Japanese collectibles is hidden in a warehouse downtown.

Abandoned anti-ballistic missile base.

Happy harbor seals frolic and snooze on this warm, sandy stretch of coast.

This odd California folly seems like it was almost designed to accumulate urban legends.

No one's quite sure why there's a metal megaphone bolted on two rocks in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

Once close to extinction, there is no shortage of elephant seals on the beaches of Año Nuevo State Park.

This sculpture garden in Death Valley makes you feel like you've slipped into some alternate reality.

Huge otherworldly domed rocks on the shore of a deadly lake.

Version of the French Riviera destroyed by the sea.

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