A giant chess set, minus the psychedelic drug trip.

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

The oldest lighthouse on America's west coast no longer needs keepers, yet they maintain the site anyhow.

A pair of pure white felines guard the entrance to a spot of California real estate established as an artist's haven.

More than 700 species live within this murky marvel of a swamp on California's coast.

A "gravitational anomaly" located in the redwood forests just outside of Santa Cruz, California.

At this California chicken ranch, four bucks will get you 18 eggs and a chorus of dancing animatronic poultry.

This concrete ship has had four careers - World War I tanker, floating amusement park, fishing pier, and artificial reef.

A strange house built only at night, with rumored mystic inspiration.

Housed in a memorial lighthouse, this museum relays the history of surfing, beginning with the antics of royal Hawaiian teenagers.

These subterranean storage areas hold emergency water reserves.

Once the largest windmill outside of Holland, with enormous 114 foot sails.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

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

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

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

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

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

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

Bring your own cardboard to the slippery slopes of concrete hidden in a neighborhood park.

An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.

A nondescript building that's been functioning as a speakeasy for nearly a century and a half.

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