This stretch of beach along California's central coast is a busy highway for the largest seal in the northern hemisphere.

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

This whimsical seashell-shaped place of worship was designed to blend into its surroundings.

The mysterious round rocks of Schooner Gulch.

Built by the inventor of the radio, this abandoned hotel has housed early radio employees, military men, and a dangerous cult.

Law-protected wreckage serves as a peculiar memorial for an almost forgotten World War II tragedy.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

A collection of memorabilia from the Beat era in the back of a San Francisco bookstore.

Noble beasts perhaps, but not the Emperor's dogs.

Gold Rush ship-turned-hotel buried underneath San Francisco's financial district.

Social saloon from a scrapped trans-Pacific 19th century steamer.

Internationally-recognized arts center housed in a century-old former military barracks.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

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

Across Ring Mountain is a vast collection of Native American petroglyphs unique to the region.

The Flatiron Building's storied West Coast cousin is a lot more into religion.

A restored 1920s cascade stairway provides one of the best views of Oakland's Lake Merritt.

Julia Morgan's Moorish-Gothic labyrinth of fountains, trees, natural light and Oakland's notable dead.

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

Abandoned landscape once home to "the world's largest winery."

Once the largest winery in the world, this castle-like building now sits abandoned on the San Pablo/San Francisco Bay shore.

At 16,627 feet above sea level, this unstaffed station is the highest in the world.

Nuclear waste dump site now an environmental sanctuary.

The graffiti-covered remnants of a former triangulation station are balanced precariously on this California peak.