A crumbling wizard is one of the final reminders of a roadside Middle Earth.

A hard-to-reach oasis in a desolate corner of Death Valley National Park.

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

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

An abandoned Jazz Age dream home and con man's hideout in Death Valley.

An offbeat angle on the ocean viewed through an antiquated lens.

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

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

In a city filled with Frank Gehry buildings, one stands out as one of the architect's weirder works.

A house built from trash known as the poor man's Hearst Castle.

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

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

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

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

The remains of a ruined mansion memorialize the 1906 earthquake.

This naturally heated mountainous creek has created a group of neon blue pools of potentially deadly boiling water.

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

Rainbow-hued local gem in Venice.

The abandoned personal amusement park of the King of Pop.

World-famous, Pink's still manages to keep its prized cult fetish status.

An outdoor sculpture park of giant pink robots and post-apocalyptic Christmas scenes.

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

Trails through lava-carved tube-caves display sparkling bacteria and a rich history.

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