A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

The interior of the Overlook Hotel in "The Shining" was based on this Yosemite original.

A giant donut stands as a popular symbol of Los Angeles iconography.

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

A world-class observatory in the California desert.

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

The liveliest ghost town in the state.

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.

The giant pair of sexy legs sticking out the window of this costume store have become its main draw.

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

A former utopian healing center created by a huckster and built by derelicts.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

One of the ghostly stops along Route 66.

This massive redwood tree has a hole in the base big enough to drive through.

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.

Abandoned bridge hidden deep in the San Gabriel Mountains.

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

The ghost town that ended up on Ebay.

A ghost town at the airport is now a refuge for blue butterflies.

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

Historic funicular railway, believed to be the shortest railroad in the world.

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

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