The world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory continues to report on the stars.

A herd of 150 bison live on California's Santa Catalina Island and are at the heart of an ongoing debate between environmental protection and economic expansion.

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

Marta Becket's hand-painted theater in the desert.

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

Honoring the famed folktale author, this California museum looks like it belongs in the Black Forest.

“It's the quality” (but probably also the drive-through donut tunnel) that has attracted diners since 1968.

A charming desert roadside bakery that produces 10 times more bread daily than it has residents in its town.

A popular winter vacation destination for migrating monarch butterflies.

A surreal, Gaudi-inspired play space near an Anaheim community center.

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

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

Haunting and beautiful trees, doomed to die.

Offering commanding views of the California coastline, this restaurant was a hub for the artists and bohemians of Big Sur.

The last orange grove of the San Fernando Valley is owned and protected by CSU Northridge.

The only museum of sake in the United States is nestled in an unlikely California college town.

Law-protected wreckage serves as a peculiar memorial for an almost forgotten World War II tragedy.

Huge otherworldly domed rocks on the shore of a deadly lake.

This corn maze so big you may want to pack a lunch, and possibly a flaregun.

A dwindling menagerie of anthropomorphic oil derrick animals still dot the barren California landscape.

A brooding mansion of clinker brick stands out among the Victorian houses of Pacific Heights.

A Bicycle Path in the Sky.

This symbol of peace is appropriately positioned overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Barely visible foundations remain where Stow Lake’s “observatory” once welcomed visitors.