Places westcoastspirit Wants to Go

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

This California museum is home to one of the largest collections related to the 'Treasure Island' author.

The haunting ruins of Jack London's dream house.

A poignant memorial to a young boy whose death spurred a dramatic increase in organ donations in Italy—dubbed the "Nicholas Effect."

This California family's ancestral melon is sold only here.

Nursery with extensive collection of flesh-eating plants operated by the author of "The Savage Garden."

Home to an apple tree that can produce 25 different varieties of fruit.

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

Wheels of chrome by the thousands adorn this California Historical Landmark.

The fossilized remains of ancient California redwoods.

This historic California cemetery holds the bodies of veterans of both the Civil War and the Donner Party.

Massive prehistoric mammals used these stones as oversized scratching posts.

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

The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

This collection of hand fans doubles as a history of femininity.

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

A grove of "candelabra redwoods" deep in California's Lost Coast.

One of the largest Buddhist communities in the West sits on the site of an old hospital.

The mysterious round rocks of Schooner Gulch.

Experience Larry Spring's self-taught "common sense" laws of physics.

Celebrating the transformation of trash into objects of beauty.

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

This historic steamboat is scuttled just a few hundred feet from where it was built over a hundred years ago.

One of the most comprehensive collections of historic Native American culture in the country reframes artifacts as artwork.