Renaissance villa and gardens complete with a tormented colossus.

When ecosystems collide in the arid Southwest.

Wondrous sandstone hoodoos where Native Americans collected clay for pottery, 9,000 years ago.

Crystal clear lake with a shoreline of travertine located in a Colorado canyon.

Strange red rock formations that have been attributed to a higher power for hundreds of years.

The largest source of fossilized insects anywhere.

An optical illusion found amid a logged redwood forest.

An underground mansion with fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface of central California.

A popular tourist cave with a dark past.

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

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

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

A 140-year-old castle with underground caves hidden in San Francisco.

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

The old Niles Canyon Aqueduct in the San Francisco Bay Area is a bemusing and secret trail through nature for wayward travelers.

An ominous concrete cube cuts a dystopian silhouette atop this California mountain.

Once close to extinction, there is no shortage of elephant seals on the beaches of Año Nuevo State Park.

A hidden world of exotic succulents and cacti.

A sudden forest of traditional Papua New Guinean art works is hidden in a corner of Stanford University.

San Francisco Bay's ghost town.

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