An enchanting tunnel of cypress trees leads to an old morse code station still used today.

Massive prehistoric mammals used these stones as oversized scratching posts.

The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

Beneath the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge is the “Gibraltar of the West Coast,” a fort built to protect the San Francisco Bay from naval attack.

With its peeling paint and faded sign, this theater-turned-recycling plant is a nostalgic relic of 1950s Americana.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

This little valley along Highway 1 is engulfed by thousands of lilies during the spring season.

One poet's handmade, anachronistic home.

Named for a self-taught botanist who cataloged hundreds of native plants, this garden continues her work of preserving California plant life.

Haunting and beautiful trees, doomed to die.

When California condors were hovering on the brink of extinction, this recovery program was charged with helping the birds thrive again.

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

An archive and museum with a mind-boggling collection of Shakespeare-related objects.

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

The grand, column-fronted, sculpture-adorned home of the ambitious digital library.

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

Nassau Hall has served as army barracks, a museum, and played a key role in the American Revolution.

A New England-style lighthouse along California's beautiful Highway 1 gets a re-do.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

"Only the devil could play golf here."

Millions of years of oxidation make a drive down this winding Death Valley road surprisingly colorful.

A ruined mansion hidden in the woods of the Hudson Valley, home of a tragically doomed romance.

A sharp bend in a dramatic river canyon cut through red rocks.