Trails through lava-carved tube-caves display sparkling bacteria and a rich history.

The ghost town that ended up on Ebay.

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.

This abandoned Navy base was transformed into an off-grid alternative living community for thousands of people.

The "world's biggest dinosaur" once housed a creationist museum in its abdomen.

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

A hand-built folk art installation covered with messages of God's love.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

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

Under the right circumstances, this waterfall in Yosemite briefly turns a luminescent fiery orange.

Where the alchemists dream of transmuting base metal into gold was actually achieved.

This subtle Berkeley paving stone actually marks off a lawless tube of air that extends into space.

The century-old bell and clock tower at UC Berkeley is the third-tallest in the world, and has fossils.

A shape-shifting buy-sell-trade bookstore, born to Beatnik Era spirit.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

The oldest burial ground in the city, final resting place of city founders, Ohlone natives and murderers alike.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

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