Bits and pieces from the ill-fated Donner Party's winter cabins.

An abandoned Jazz Age dream home and con man's hideout in Death Valley.

Nursery with extensive collection of flesh-eating plants operated by the author of "The Savage Garden."

Come crisp December nights, this fairly plain neighborhood becomes a holiday dream world.

This print shop boasts one of the largest pinball arcades in San Francisco.

From Japan to Italy, this California park explores the world's cultures through their gardens.

The liveliest ghost town in the state.

A historic hotel that made a cameo in Hitchcock's classic film has no intention of letting guests forget its fame.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

An eclectic trailer park retreat in the middle of the California desert.

A volcanic tunnel illuminated by natural skylights offers a shaded respite from the desert sun.

Visible below the waves are memorials to the city's Gold Rush dead.

An underground mansion with fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface of central California.

This strange seaside tower got its name from a wealthy eccentric who would hide coins among its stones.

A look into the Church of Scientology's deeply unfavorable view of psychiatry.

Behind this beachfront shop lies a spectacular, colorful sea cave with an equally colorful past.

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

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

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

The history of funerals and funerary customs.

Moving, mind-blowing metal sculpture work of an outsider artist.

A onetime gangsters' hideaway where you can dine on steaks, fine wines, and cigars just like they once did.

Taxidermy, Cigar Store Indians, A Model of a New York Tenement and Delicious Draft Root Beer.

An exhibit of items from the mental institution where Mary Todd Lincoln lived after her son conspired to have her committed.