Ten 25-foot-tall, beehive-shaped kilns, abandoned in Death Valley.

A sign at the end of the Santa Monica Pier marks the traditional end of the legendary American highway.

"Only the devil could play golf here."

The unedited photograph called "Bliss" has graced the screens of over a billion computers.

Named after a bandit and the star of several Hollywood prehistoric landscapes, these sandstone formations are a historical part of the Los Angeles natural landscape.

One of the most unusual geological features, recognizable from a dozen hit movies.

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

One of the ghostly stops along Route 66.

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

The lowest point in North America is home to an undrinkable pool surrounded by fields of geometric salt flats.

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

The ghost town that ended up on Ebay.

Abandoned bridge hidden deep in the San Gabriel Mountains.

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

This Big Sur waterfall drops 80 feet directly into the Pacific Ocean, and inspired the hillside house up top.

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

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

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

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

Each year these high desert hills are absolutely covered with poppy flowers in a surreal show of nature.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.

A renowned Civil War veteran, this Bald eagle now presides over the Wisconsin State Assembly.