At the bottom of the Bay you find Mount Hamilton with its white buildings, most days gleaming in the sun. This are the cupolas of the Lick Observatory, and even it looks as if you could just reach out to touch them it is a surprisingly long drive to get there.
That is the thing with mountain roads, they don't invite you to drive fast. But when you do drive there, imagine you were going up there with a donkey cart with building materials - or with the big lens for the telescope. After the first two lenses broke during transportation from France you wouldn't want to be responsible for breaking the third, would you?
Even if you don't stay the night and get a chance to actually use the telescope - or meet Lick's ghost (he is buried under the telescope) - you can still enjoy the amazing views and the fantastic story about how this place came to be.
If you are going in June/July, you may come across Tarantulas. The big, hairy spiders live happily in these mountains.
If you go in winter, you may find the roads slippery from snow. But that has been a while...