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.

Outsider art or homage to aliens?

This massive redwood tree has stood in Northern California for nearly 2,000 years.

California's longest-running tourist attraction is a stump.

The oldest U.S. Government building in California, and it's State Historic Landmark #1.

Seven ceramic sculptures are scattered around this California college campus.

San Francisco’s condensed garden of incredible plant growth.

Guarded by the Angel of Grief, the Stanford family tomb attracts an odd mix of halloween revelry and somber contemplation.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

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

'Cause the fence start shaking, the earth was quaking.

This mysterious series of teeny guerrilla installations sheds a whimsical light on street art in Oakland.

The oldest lighthouse on America's west coast no longer needs keepers, yet they maintain the site anyhow.

Each winter this underground cave forms a dazzling ice palace.

The oldest continuously operating church in California.

Four hundred granite steps were built into this massive rock by the National Park Service.

A restored 1920s cascade stairway provides one of the best views of Oakland's Lake Merritt.

This quirky UFO-shaped curiosity is often mistaken for the airport’s control tower.

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

Forgotten and then destroyed by fire, this was once one of the largest saltwater swimming pools in the world.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

Bonsai garden in Oakland is curated by the first non-Japanese female bonsai master in the United States.

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

This massive redwood tree has a hole in the base big enough to drive through.