This giant temperature attraction created some giant electric bills.

George Lucas donated this park to honor the birthplace of his two biggest movie franchises.

A massive hydrovolcanic explosion left a half-mile wide crater in Death Valley.

Here, visitors can swing with the waves of the Pacific Ocean.

Perhaps the most unique of any Frank Gehry design for one simple reason: Gehry himself actually lives here.

A stranded woman lived alone on this remote island for 18 years, inspiring the great children's novel "Island of the Blue Dolphins."

The rustic cabin-like decor of this Arts and Crafts-style church reflects the love of nature central to its little-known theology.

The first life claimed by this record-breaking peak wasn't lost to exposure or a fall but rather lightning.

A ghost town originally established and governed solely by Black Americans seeking a place of their own, free from discrimination.

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

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

The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

From the Difference Engine to the Cray-1, all under one roof.

A free library to stumble across, one of many placed worldwide if you know where to look.

It's not your typical library, memorial, or book store.

This little valley along Highway 1 is engulfed by thousands of lilies during the spring season.

The peaceful gravesite of a rugged wild west gunman echoes the touching story of his last days.

The only thing stranger than stumbling onto these philosophical musings is the story of the homesteader who created them.

One woman's Viking Castle on Lake Tahoe.

The largest Star Wars collection in the world is its own galaxy of collectibles.

The show's fictional Korean medical camp was created in the Santa Monica hills.

This former stomping grounds of the most eminent astronomers of the early 20th century.

An ultra-modern vista that has been featured in so many films the house is a celebrity in its own right.

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