Macabre astrological automaton clock dating to the late 1400s.

A surreal statue honoring Prague's favorite literary son.

The hidden lair of an alchemist rediscovered in a 2002 flood.

An optical illusion found amid a logged redwood forest.

A trash dump made beautiful by nature's power.

Trails through lava-carved tube-caves display sparkling bacteria and a rich history.

The long, arduous journey of the stones of the Abbey of New Clairvaux.

This massive redwood tree has a hole in the base big enough to drive through.

The Old Mill shown in the opening credits of “Gone With the Wind” is actually fairly new, and was never a mill at all.

Grandpa Rainbow felt the neighborhood needed some color, so he picked up a paintbrush and went to work.

Natural time capsule containing an alien ecosystem.

The smallest country in the world.

A tree bears footwear on the loneliest road in America.

One of the most unusual geological features, recognizable from a dozen hit movies.

These millipedes glow not out of attraction, but as a not-too-subtle warning.

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

The rocks in this arid basin leave trails of movement behind them.

The highest dunes in California are the most likely place in the area to hear the Singing Sands.

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

One of the oldest reform schools in the United States, home to wayward boys such as Merle Haggard, now abandoned.

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

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

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

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.