Before it was abandoned and left to rust alongside the road, this riverboat starred in a John Wayne movie.

This ultra-modern California span is actually a titanic solar clock in disguise built by famed architect Santiago Calatrava.

A showcase of engineering might that was also symbolic of westward expansion.

Rising out of miles of farmland, these buttes are sometimes called the world's smallest mountain range.

The oldest orange tree in California spawned a generation of citrus farmers.

Hidden inside a gift shop that doubles as a museum, this gargantuan yo-yo can only be operated by crane.

Home of what was the largest hydraulic mine in the world, producing gold and the first diamonds in the U.S.

The long, arduous journey of the stones of the Abbey of New Clairvaux.

The granddaddy of all tourist traps, built on ice water, jackalopes, and a giant dinosaur.

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

Scores of vintage street lamps shine along L.A.’s Miracle Mile.

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

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

A trash dump made beautiful by nature's power.

A winding path built in secret on the edge of the continent.

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

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

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

A natural dome made of volcanic glass in Inyo National Forest.

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

Under the right circumstances, this waterfall in Yosemite briefly turns a luminescent fiery orange.

A glimpse into the lives of the the Miwok and Paiute people in Yosemite National Park.

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

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