The over 100-year-old hospital at Fort McDowell (aka East Garrison) on Angel Island is in decay. Its crumbling concrete walls convey a sense of history that spanned both World Wars and the Cold War. Military prisoners from the Army Prison on Alcatraz were used as labor to build the hospital in 1911.

Walking in a post-apocalyptic world, your footsteps are the road. There are no roads. There is no particular path to follow. The way is made by walking. This is the struggle my heroes are facing. It’s a different kind of walking – not for relaxation or cleaning your mind.

Once hidden between rocks, the graffiti-covered remnants of a former military triangulation and observation station now rest atop a cliff at the Pacific Coast Highway. It was originally built during World War II as part of the harbor defense of San Francisco.

While looking for abandoned places in the Amargosa Desert, I recently noticed a plane wreck somewhere in the nowhere. It is resting next to the big bright yellow Angel’s Ladies Brothel sign, located along Hwy 95 near Beatty, NV.

Generations of sailors and fishermen have feared the waters at the Point Reyes coastline. Before the construction of the lighthouse in 1870, the region was a burial ground for ships due to the strong currents, sharp cliffs, high winds, and dense fog.

Start all over again - what would it be like? The spirit of adventure and enthusiasm brought many men to the Bodie Hills east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Mono County.

The Bienwald, a forest in the Southern Palatinate region of Germany, is marked by trenches and bunker ruins from World War II. The bunkers are not accessible to the public, since the massive concrete structures suffer from decay, begin to sink and could collapse.

Time slips like sand between our fingers. Although that time never returns, you can witness right now a reverse process on Ocean Beach. The old times of San Francisco just came back through shifting sands that revealed mysterious structures like the cobblestone stairs and seawall near Taraval Street on the beach.

There is always a uncertainty of outcome in life. Rhyolite used to be the third largest town in Nevada during the early 1900s. The gold rush settlement grew from a two-man camp in January 1905 to a town of 1,200 in two weeks, and reached a population of 2,500 by June. If you read through old newspaper articles of the Rhyolite Herald, you get a feeling of its glory days.

Death Valley usually is just rocks, soil, and barren land. After the gold-mining boom in the early 1900s, towns were left behind. You find many abandoned settlements in the area. The ghost towns, and sandstorms in the wide open space of the desert are perfect for my research, but this year I was aiming for something else - I wanted to see the extreme rare wildflower blossom.