This eagle-topped spire remembers the military commander who snatched up California for the United States.

Enormous crabs, bioluminescent jellies, and other amazing creatures from the ocean’s depths—some of which are in an aquarium for the first time ever.

Steinbeck's old stomping grounds, immortalized in Cannery Row.

One of the most elaborate displays of Jellyfish is on display at the aquarium.

Like a kitschy mirage in the Mojave, this eatery serves up classic 50s-style diner meals and a dinosaur sculpture garden.

A collection of anti-communist sculptures stands watch in the Mojave Desert.

One of the ghostly stops along Route 66.

A pair of large white marble lions guard this stretch of the Mojave Desert, and it is utterly mysterious how they got there.

The ghost town that ended up on Ebay.

The remains of a boarding school designed to forcibly assimilate Native American children.

Don't blink or you'll miss it.

A classic Route 66 landmark that was built with scrap lumber and is held together with kitsch and puns.

Bootleggers ran booze beneath this building before (and after) Route 66 appeared beside it.

Ute tour guides have been sharing the ancient dwellings and rock art inside this large park with visitors for more than 40 years.

The ancient dwellings of the Puebloans, located in the cliffs of majestic mesas.

This spectacular track has run continuously since 1882.

A hotel with a rich Wild West history of miners and bootleggers.

A riverside tiny house with books and other treasures galore.

The hallowed remains of a 900-year old Ancestral Pueblo great house.

Seemingly grown on some other world, these New Mexico rock formations look like a disused science fiction set.

A phenomenal assembly of pueblos in New Mexico is the most complete example of ancient ruins north of the border.

Red sandstone structures dominate this landscape, which has been inhabited for some 5,000 years.

See massive fossils that are over 200 million years old in northeastern Arizona.

This rusted car found in Petrified Forest National Park's Route 66 exhibit may be the most photographed abandoned car in the country.