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

Nuclear waste dump site now an environmental sanctuary.

The stones that traveled from Spain to eventually become a holy place for San Francisco's nature worshippers.

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

One woman's Viking Castle on Lake Tahoe.

Millions of years of oxidation make a drive down this winding Death Valley road surprisingly colorful.

Smooth basaltic rocks tell a tale of ancient glacial waterfalls.

The rocks in this arid basin leave trails of movement behind them.

The highest dunes in California are the most likely place in the area to hear the Singing Sands.

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

These millipedes glow not out of attraction, but as a not-too-subtle warning.

Once thought to be the oldest living tree in the world, Methuselah was germinated before the Egyptian pyramids were built.

Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.