Once close to extinction, there is no shortage of elephant seals on the beaches of Año Nuevo State Park.

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

Funhouse of found art and participatory sculpture.

A damaged tree turned into a whimsical giant pencil that is sharpened each year.

This old residential building was once the largest flour mill in the world.

Each summer, the migratory bats living beneath the bypass form "batnadoes" at dusk.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

The echoes of a railroad town that solemnly mark the end of the line.

The hundreds of movies and television shows shot in this high desert town are commemorated in a unique museum.

This naturally heated mountainous creek has created a group of neon blue pools of potentially deadly boiling water.

The hike through a narrow river flanked by the 2,000-foot-tall walls of Zion Canyon is one of the best in the world.

A tunnel with windows, so you don't miss out on the impressive views.

The unusual patterns in this rock formation result from two distinct modes of weathering.

The longest living non-clonal organisms on Earth.

A gothic palace of endless stalagmites and pseudoscorpions waits within one of the world's most beautiful caves.

This rugged area of red rocks and arches is often considered one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

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

A trash dump made beautiful by nature's power.

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

The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

Climb 200 stairs up the tallest lighthouse on the West Coast for an unbeatable view.

At night, a grove of towering redwood trees growing through the pavement block out all light from the so-called “Dark Park” of Madrone Avenue.

A working model of the entire San Francisco Bay and much of the Sacramento River Delta, complete with regular tides that change every 14 minutes.

Bits and pieces from the ill-fated Donner Party's winter cabins.