An eatery within a Bay Area Buddhist temple pulls off all your favorite Vietnamese classics without the meat.

This 252 step staircase offers stunning views of San Jose.

A lonely monument to the original Silicon Valley tech campus.

A mysterious monument covered in a binary code marks the heart of tech.

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

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

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

The oldest continuously operating church in California.

Hopeless romantics will swoon over the sweet story behind this bright and colorful home.

Every year, over 25,000 monarchs overwinter in Pacific Grove.

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

Two rocks in a perpetual kiss and one of "the most romantic spot in America."

This cabin from the 1850s is one of the first structures built by Chinese immigrants in California.

Haunting and beautiful trees, doomed to die.

Thanks to a quirk of elevation this gift shop produces magic doughnuts that are found nowhere else on Earth.

Eons ago, a rushing lava river formed this pristine passage through solid rock.

Stroll through a wonderland of stupendous moss-covered trees.

The final remnant of the Arkansas zinc industry is this historically protected ghost town.

Who needs fancy modern water slides when this giant North Carolina rock works just as well?

The wreckage of a deadly bomber plane crash can still be found near an Arizona peak.