A restored 1920s cascade stairway provides one of the best views of Oakland's Lake Merritt.

A glimpse into the lives of the the Miwok and Paiute people in Yosemite National Park.

This museum boasts the ninth-largest collection of insects in North America.

The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California."

A creepy steel gremlin has protected the Bay Bridge since 1989.

Recovered from the brink of extinction, at home in the Financial District.

This odd California folly seems like it was almost designed to accumulate urban legends.

This little museum has an exhibit devoted to the elusive forest denizens.

The California capital city once stood 10 feet lower than it does today.

Colorful Native American paintings are hidden within this small cavern.

Its dark depths conceal millions of rare, delicate crystal formations.

An amazing collection of fantastic reptiles, amphibians, spiders, and insects.

Celebrating the transformation of trash into objects of beauty.

Swarms of butterflies cannot compare to the awe inspired by the publicly-funded nakedness once displayed in this sunken garden.

An abandoned Jazz Age dream home and con man's hideout in Death Valley.

This stockpile of junked electronic and mechanical gadgets is a favorite among Hollywood prop masters.

A grove of "candelabra redwoods" deep in California's Lost Coast.

Smooth basaltic rocks tell a tale of ancient glacial waterfalls.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

An L.A. traffic island where the faces of locals have been carved into massive granite eggs.

What began with a single, 357-pound chunk of the Canyon Diablo meteorite grew to be an impressive collection. 

A popular tourist cave with a dark past.

Inside an old airplane hangar, friends and strangers alike play on a massive trampoline.

Home to the "Circus" trees created by Axel Erlandson.