Eons old volcanic activity created one of the most stunning rock formations in the United States.

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

The one-time watch house for incoming ships at the Golden Gate now stands abandoned and hidden in trees.

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

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

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

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

A museum befitting the city responsible for supplying the majority of the world's LSD.

Resting place of Hollywood's immortals is also site of summer film screenings.

Remants of foundations, streets, and streetcar tracks inhabit the cliffs where a landslide occurred in 1929.

Bring your own cardboard to the slippery slopes of concrete hidden in a neighborhood park.

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

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

For divers and music lovers, the Florida Keys' Underwater Music Festival provides the best of both worlds.

These remote Florida islands have a history of sea turtles and sunken treasures, and one of the world's largest coastal brick fortresses.

This statue inspired by Renoir's famous painting embodies the jovial spirit of Key West.

The grandest stage for the world's foremost masters of invisible instruments.

This giant sculpture made of trash is a critique of society's wastefulness.

California's own medieval Italian castle, authentic down to the 300-year-old iron maiden in the dungeon.

This corn maze so big you may want to pack a lunch, and possibly a flaregun.

Visitors to this library are in for a real-world education in modernist architecture.

This quiet park's strange sedimentary spires were named after Kodak's color film.

An easy-to-miss garden in Boston's North End honors the mother of JFK and others who lost children in WWII.

This massive tea kettle was once a promotional stunt for the Oriental Teashop.