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

San Diego's most historic and haunted home.

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

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

The ghost town that ended up on Ebay.

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

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

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

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

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

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

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

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

World-famous, Pink's still manages to keep its prized cult fetish status.

The private clubhouse for the members of the Academy of Magical Arts.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

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

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

An incredible collection of Mesoamerican art assembled by one of Mexico's great artists.

A 16th-century monastery boasts a lush array of plants native to Mexico’s most biodiverse region.

One of the oldest scientific gardens in Britain, containing more than 13,302 plant species in its core collection.