An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

The one-time watch house for incoming ships at the Golden Gate now stands abandoned and hidden in trees.

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

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

A nondescript building that's been functioning as a speakeasy for nearly a century and a half.

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

Finale of "William Tell Overture" can be heard as drivers pass over grooves in the road.

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

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

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

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

A land of debatable treasure.

Back in 1952, you could get a mushroom cloud chaser with your atomic cocktail.

Twelve plaster figures inspired by da Vinci's famed painting haunt the desert landscape above a real-life ghost town.

The second-largest gold nugget in existence, displayed in a Las Vegas casino conveniently named the Golden Nugget.

Singing sand that stands as the final remains of an ancient lake.

Officially named the "Loneliest Road in America," this barren stretch of Nevada road offers almost nothing but sky and open fields.

The most magnificent bottle house in a town strangely full of them.

Water of undetermined depth has attracted rare fish and cult leaders alike.

A mining town once rife with murderous disputes over its copious treasures now creates income as a popular spot for photo shoots.

This symbolic piece of New Orleans architecture is also home to a few ghastly stories.

This knobby, drooping New Orleans oak is a favorite place both for climbing and for meeting giraffes.

An extraordinary mixture of natural beauty and man-made phenomena.

Despite a legend that says this highest peak in Oregon was climbed in high heels scores of people have died on its slopes.