A large sculptural artwork and garden in Escondido, California.

Radioactivity still cause for concern at this urban explorer's paradise.

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

Oldest building in California still in use.

Finally the worlds of UFO enthusiasts and beef jerky lovers have come together in this roadside shop.

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

A creepy steel gremlin has protected the Bay Bridge since 1989.

One of few lasting examples of the brief octagon craze that developed into folly.

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

A working model of the entire San Francisco Bay and much of the Sacramento River Delta, complete with regular tides that change every 14 minutes.

A famous alternative culture epicenter and where Joplin serenaded young hippies.

A shape-shifting buy-sell-trade bookstore, born to Beatnik Era spirit.

A speck of nature and art in one of San Francisco’s most notorious neighborhoods.

Celebrating the transformation of trash into objects of beauty.

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.

This Oakland fairytale kingdom, fiercely devoted to childlike whimsy, was an early inspiration for Disneyland.

The world's largest wooden trestle stretches across this desert canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

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

A vast city of the dead, where the deceased outnumber the living by more than a million.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

Where there's quartz, there must be gold. Thus is the story of the mines of Julian, and the titillating times of the Gold Rush.

Art from the latest counter-culture; kids who dye their hair blue and believe the future will be a post-apocalyptic water world.

Adolph Sutro's little-known, geographically inaccurate, deprecated monument.

This Pringle-shaped ledge makes for the perfect photo op.