A giant statue perched on dumpsters watches over the freeway.

A sudden forest of traditional Papua New Guinean art works is hidden in a corner of Stanford University.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

A historic hotel that made a cameo in Hitchcock's classic film has no intention of letting guests forget its fame.

Faceless white figures loom over the city from the rooftop.

A promotional sun clock on the site of San Francisco's great raceway.

One of the best absinthe distilleries in the United States.

A vast city of the dead, where the deceased outnumber the living by more than a million.

The final resting place of the Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.

Outside San Francisco lies a small clown cemetery and memorial.

The peaceful gravesite of a rugged wild west gunman echoes the touching story of his last days.

A rough granite monument marks the spot where Europeans first caught sight of the San Francisco Bay.

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

This odd California folly seems like it was almost designed to accumulate urban legends.

This giant shopping mall still holds signs of its automotive past.

A life-sized mammoth sculpture marks the spot where the remains of a Columbian mammoth were discovered in 2005.

It took years to decode its mysterious messages.

The oldest house in the capital of Silicon Valley.

A giant chess set, minus the psychedelic drug trip.

Once America’s most beautiful army base, this abandoned military fort on the coast of Monterey Bay has been left to the elements.

The haunting ruins of Jack London's dream house.

The lighthouse central to the 1980s horror classic "The Fog" is, in fact, located in one of the foggiest areas of the Pacific Coast.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

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.