This Pringle-shaped ledge makes for the perfect photo op.

Sunset-colored dunes of volcanic ash make taking a poor photo impossible.

Smooth basaltic rocks tell a tale of ancient glacial waterfalls.

An abandoned, unfinished mansion on grounds strewn with lava rocks.

The unedited photograph called "Bliss" has graced the screens of over a billion computers.

Another of California's unused Cold War missile defense complexes has become a graffiti gallery.

Where there's quartz, there must be gold. Thus is the story of the mines of Julian, and the titillating times of the Gold Rush.

Discover for yourself what Herb Caen referred to as "the best kept secret in the Bay Area."

A pair of large white marble lions guard this stretch of the Mojave Desert, and it is utterly mysterious how they got there.

Beautiful Victorian buildings from L.A.'s forgotten architectural past.

Coastal dunes, site of buried Egyptian movie set and former utopian colony.

The mysterious round rocks of Schooner Gulch.

The interior of the Overlook Hotel in "The Shining" was based on this Yosemite original.

Dive bar built out of the remains of a whaling ship.

Along a California highway is a kind of Jurassic Park made of metal.

Ten 25-foot-tall, beehive-shaped kilns, abandoned in Death Valley.

The giant pair of sexy legs sticking out the window of this costume store have become its main draw.

A giant donut stands as a popular symbol of Los Angeles iconography.

This dark, quiet forest on the outskirts of San Diego is dense with rumor and lore.

The fossilized remains of ancient California redwoods.

A playground built by the kids that is a child's wonderland, and a helicopter parent's nightmare.

The haunting ruins of Jack London's dream house.

"Only the devil could play golf here."

The ruins of the castle that chemicals built.