The beauty and the beast of hydraulic mining is on full display at this California Historic State Park.

Fake rail crossings mark the site of an influential doctor's demise.

The oldest U.S. Government building in California, and it's State Historic Landmark #1.

Steinbeck's old stomping grounds, immortalized in Cannery Row.

View the California coastline (and the home of Barbara Streisand) inch by inch with stunning, government-sanctioned aerial photography.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

World's largest collection devoted to one fruit.

Get up close to emus and ostriches, or buy their tasty meat.

This dormant volcanic crater has been converted from a roiling pit of magma to a pleasant hiking spot.

The largest dune field in the Mojave offers a chance of hearing the 'singing sands.'

This unlicensed collection of fast-food memorabilia sits on the site of the first ever McDonald's restaurant.

A former utopian healing center created by a huckster and built by derelicts.

The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California."

Stripes of flowers bloom each spring in a 50 acre rainbow of color.

A large sculptural artwork and garden in Escondido, California.

A massive volcanic plug is now a protected area that hosts a number of bird species.

This stretch of beach along California's central coast is a busy highway for the largest seal in the northern hemisphere.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

Version of the French Riviera destroyed by the sea.

Erroneously called the world's tallest flagpole, this landmark is devoted to "good neighborliness."

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

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

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

Along a California highway is a kind of Jurassic Park made of metal.