Point Pinos Lighthouse

In 1855, shortly after the ratification of California's statehood, Congress appropriated funds to build six lighthouses along the coast including the Point Pinos Lighthouse. The Pacific Grove lighthouse is on the northernmost tip of the Peninsula. It's the oldest continually operating lighthouse on the west coast and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The building, lenses, and prisms in this Pacific Grove lighthouse are all original and it's still an active aid to navigation. Before constructing the lighthouses this point had proved dangerous to sailors who mistakenly believed they had reached Monterey Bay. Whale oil fueled the light at Point Pinos first, in 1880 the lighthouse shifted to kerosene, and in 1919 it became fully electrified. There's a fee to enter the lighthouse. A small shop behind the lighthouse sells lots of little trinkets, including a passport where you could get stamps as you visit different lighthouses along the coast.