People do not just visit Muir Woods. They come from around the globe to pay homage to nature in this cathedral of redwoods. The trees' ages range from 400 to 800 years, their height up to 250 feet. Flat easy trails loop through the groves and across creeks. Parking can be an issue.

On a clear day you can see as far as Point Reyes from this park adjacent to the Marin Headlands. Trails loop through groves of eucalyptus and bay laurel. In the spring you will find lupine and California poppies. In summer, the grasses turn golden, and by late summer you can find fennel, sagebrush, and blackberry bushes.

Picture a 3.5-mile stretch of white beach with few tourists and no highrises. It's just you and the waves and the seabirds at Ocean Beach, on the westernmost border of San Francisco, adjacent to Golden Gate Park. 

You're in another world here, a picture-perfect rural valley bordering both the Golden Gate National Parks and Point Reyes National Seashore. This pastoral landscape stretches for nine miles, its ribbon of Highway 1 unspooling between the slopes of Bolinas and Inverness Ridge. Here you have an opportunity to experience two national parks in one trip.

Ready for a challenge? This 4,000-acre park above the San Mateo coast is a former Spanish colonial land grant. It boasts miles of winding public trails, important watersheds, diverse wildlife, and, atop 2,000-foot Montara Mountain, a breath-taking 360-degree view from the Bay to the Pacific.

Imagine yourself on the coast of Scotland. At this glorious, rocky bluff off Highway 1 near Stinson Beach you can park and hike down to Red Rock Beach. The Pacific roars, winds stir the chaparral, and if you make reservations far in advance you can spend the night at rustic cabins here.

Windswept, exhilarating, and covered with unique red and green pebbles, this beach is just three miles northwest of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Rich with wildlife habitats, Rodeo Valley winds through the heart of the Marin Headlands and is edged by grassy, wind-swept hillsides. Where it descends to the Pacific, there is a lagoon and shallow wetlands home to shorebirds including egrets and ducks, as well as butterflies and occasional bobcats.

Amble along the alabaster sands here, one of the most perfect beaches on the California coast. Find it 35 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge via Highway 1, which unwinds atop heart-stopping cliffs. 

Infamous for its maximum security prison, Alcatraz is also known for remnants of an 1850s military fort, the West Coast's first lighthouse, the birthplace of a Native American movement, an important bird-nesting locale, and the historic Alcatraz Gardens.