Things to do in California, United States: The Best Lighthouses

Point San Luis Lighthouse is a fully restored national landmark with tours open to the public Wednesdays (12 & 1pm) & Saturdays 12, 1, & 2). The site offers private group tours, educational trips for schools, special events, and weddings. Tickets for the tours can be purchased online at the Point San Luis Lighthouse website. Point San Luis is a non-profit charity and all ticket sales go to support ongoing restoration, education, and conservation programs. The Pecho Coast Trail is a trail hike that leads to the Lighthouse on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. To learn more about signing up for the hike please visit PGE's website. In order to take the hike you must be with a Pecho Coast Trail Guide. There is no public access on the road or the trails leading to the lighthouse due to the nearby power plant. The park is closed at dark. Van are used as transportation to the Lighthouse.

Point Bonita today is part of the largest urban national park in the United States, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. A secret jewel of the Bay Area, Point Bonita is still an active lighthouse. The U.S. Coast Guard maintains the lighthouse and the National Park Service provides access to visitors. Point Bonita Lighthouse is reached by a half mile trail that is very steep in parts. Discover Point Bonita's wild landscape, geology and fascinating history. The tunnel halfway to the lighthouse is open only during visiting hours: Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast.

This historic lighthouse located around Point Sur is now a state park.

Museum that houses many artifacts and documents related to local history.

Drenched in fog most of the year, this lighthouse is one of the foggiest in the country, and is a great whale-watching spot in the fall and spring.

The Point Arena Lighthouse stands as an iconic figure on the American Pacific Coast. No other lighthouse offers such a fully interactive experience in the exchange between history, science and natural beauty. Sometimes brilliantly sunny, other times fog-shrouded and mysterious, always ruggedly beautiful, the lighthouse is a place to find something different, a place where the romance is real and the experience is profound. Surrounded by water on three sides, and shouldered adjacent to the Point Arena/Stornetta Public Lands, the Point Arena Lighthouse is the premier visitor destination in Mendocino County. Visit the Light Station Store and Outdoor Museum and celebrate our 150th year! It is also one of the best whale watching spots on the North Coast, with the annual Gray Whale migration from late November through May, Humpbacks throughout the year, the occasional pod of transient Killer Whales and even Blue Whales. Watch for the spouts, tails and breaches from the trails and gazebo.

This historic lighthouse, named after the carrier pigeon, is more than a century old.

From its vantage point overlooking the spectacular Golden Gate, Fort Point protected San Francisco harbor from Confederate and foreign attack during and after the U.S. Civil War. Its beautifully arched casemates display the art of the master brick mason from the Civil War period.