A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

This ultra-modern California span is actually a titanic solar clock in disguise built by famed architect Santiago Calatrava.

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

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

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

One woman's Viking Castle on Lake Tahoe.

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

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

Dentist's hated concrete colossi are now beloved icons of the community.

One of the most elaborate displays of Jellyfish is on display at the aquarium.

Home to the "Circus" trees created by Axel Erlandson.

'Cause the fence start shaking, the earth was quaking.

Once close to extinction, there is no shortage of elephant seals on the beaches of Año Nuevo State Park.

A New England-style lighthouse along California's beautiful Highway 1 gets a re-do.

A plaque outside the San Jose airport commemorates the insect's arrival to the West Coast.

Rodin's famous depiction of Dante's 'Inferno', amidst a sculpture garden of many of his other works.

A store that sells all manner of bones, insects, and animal curiosities.

One of the best absinthe distilleries in the United States.

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

Once the largest windmill outside of Holland, with enormous 114 foot sails.

Depicting scenes of everyday life - and specific individuals - in Great Depression era San Francisco.

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

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.