Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

Life in this isolated, hilltop lighthouse was lonely, but it sure was lovely.

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

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

A storybook European village in Berkeley.

California's own medieval Italian castle, authentic down to the 300-year-old iron maiden in the dungeon.

The remains of a ruined mansion memorialize the 1906 earthquake.

Once thought to be the oldest living tree in the world, Methuselah was germinated before the Egyptian pyramids were built.

Big gun installations, built over a massive cemetery, now abandoned & hidden in trees.

The tea room that pushed the boundaries of adorable straight into...we can't find the words.

This Big Sur waterfall drops 80 feet directly into the Pacific Ocean, and inspired the hillside house up top.

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

Canyon walls shrouded in ferns.

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

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

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

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

Each year these high desert hills are absolutely covered with poppy flowers in a surreal show of nature.

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

A favorite haunt of dinosaur loving children and hallucinogen loving hippies alike.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.