Before he was America’s most famous preservationist, John Muir was an ingenious mechanical inventor.

Under the right circumstances, this waterfall in Yosemite briefly turns a luminescent fiery orange.

Four hundred granite steps were built into this massive rock by the National Park Service.

This naturally heated mountainous creek has created a group of neon blue pools of potentially deadly boiling water.

Eons old volcanic activity created one of the most stunning rock formations in the United States.

NASA's leading space science lab started by a co-founder with deep ties to the occult.

The granddaddy of English geoglyphs dates back to the late Bronze Age.

Home to the most complete dodo remains known - one head, and one foot.

Ancient Egyptian wigs, South American feather headdresses, a bounty of anthropological artifacts in Oxford.

The Origin of On the Origin of Species.

Home of the "Father of Forestry."

Explore an early California pioneer's rancho hidden in LA's manufacturing hinterland.

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.

A one-of-a-kind collection of a unique medium.

A stellar example of Art & Crafts architecture, and a movie set to boot.

According to legend it was a nap taken under this tree that kicked off the California Gold Rush.

Each year these high desert hills are absolutely covered with poppy flowers in a surreal show of nature.

Exotic feline breeding compound and conservation center.

Smooth basaltic rocks tell a tale of ancient glacial waterfalls.

Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.

The hundreds of movies and television shows shot in this high desert town are commemorated in a unique museum.

One of the few remaining carousels built by master amusement park carver Charles I.D. Looff.

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

Once thought to be the oldest living tree in the world, Methuselah was germinated before the Egyptian pyramids were built.