World's first "penitentiary," meant to be humane, drove men insane.

America's most famous museum of medical oddities is home to the remains of Albert Einstein's brain.

A cooled lava flow from the Haleakalā volcano formed these surreal-looking columnar basalt structures.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

One woman's Viking Castle on Lake Tahoe.

Curiously, this large sporting goods store features 14 wax representations of American presidents.

Beneath a Virginia City bar is the entrance to an abandoned gold mine.

These once-beautiful historic graveyards are set against the barren Virginia City hills.

The only surviving prototype of Buckminster Fuller's revolutionary car.

Bill Murray bowled three straight strikes here at Reno's "Taj Mahal of Tenpins."

The old Niles Canyon Aqueduct in the San Francisco Bay Area is a bemusing and secret trail through nature for wayward travelers.

A monument to the art of slicing people open.

During prohibition, corrupt city officials ran drinking dens under the streets of Downtown Los Angeles.

A strange house built only at night, with rumored mystic inspiration.

A modern mechanical planetary system, part of a 10,000 year clock.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.

Canyon walls shrouded in ferns.

A botanic garden full of trees twisted into fantastic shapes and positions.

Treehouse motel and treehouse-building school.

This little museum has an exhibit devoted to the elusive forest denizens.

This strange hill on Old Fort Road where gravity works in reverse has been fascinating locals for years.