This monster board rode a monster wave to break two world records.

Rusty industrial city full of oxidized distillation towers.

Happy harbor seals frolic and snooze on this warm, sandy stretch of coast.

A popular winter vacation destination for migrating monarch butterflies.

Honoring the famed folktale author, this California museum looks like it belongs in the Black Forest.

In the country around Buttonwillow, California, a marker commemorates a revealing moment in the story of a water colony from the fictional Kcymaerxthaere that sought independence.

A chain of bells connect the California Missions and honor the legend of the "King’s Highway."

An alley covered with 20 years of bubble gum.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

A massive volcanic plug is now a protected area that hosts a number of bird species.

Thousands of migrating monarchs overwinter clustered amongst the eucalyptus trees.

Coastal dunes, site of buried Egyptian movie set and former utopian colony.

The California capital city once stood 10 feet lower than it does today.

One woman's Viking Castle on Lake Tahoe.

An eccentric millionaire's personal curio collection includes at least one shrunken head.

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

The arch that celebrated the completion of the Lincoln and Victory highways.

An iconic 1960s theater with a Buckminster Fuller-style geodesic dome.

Its founder calls it a "proletariat art renaissance".

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

Eastern zen meets Western grit in these four little trees growing out of a rock on Lake Tahoe’s Nevada shore.

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

Back in the day everyone who was anyone played this historic western theater.

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