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

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

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

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

This 19th-century church is now a popular roller rink.

A pair of slides and a tree-lined stair corridor have been an urban oasis for nearly 40 years.

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

Anyone can control this glittery light installation with just a phone call.

Seven ceramic sculptures are scattered around this California college campus.

An eccentric home stands out in an otherwise average neighborhood with mosaics, mini topiaries, and kinetic sculpture.

The only standing town in the United States that early Chinese Americans built for themselves.

A deserted hodgepodge of experimental structures designed by nearby university students.

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

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

California's own majestic geyser is powered by a subterranean volcano.

A raised boardwalk winds through a thicket of stunted, century-old trees no more than nine feet tall.

Monumental sculptures of Patrick Amiot, constructed from debris, detritus, and determination.

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

A trash dump made beautiful by nature's power.

The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California."

Dentist's hated concrete colossi are now beloved icons of the community.

An "anarchical" no man's land, complete with garbage sculptures and a hobo-run "Landfillian Library."

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

Bonsai garden in Oakland is curated by the first non-Japanese female bonsai master in the United States.