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

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

Massive prehistoric mammals used these stones as oversized scratching posts.

Hand-powered race of alternative forms of transportation.

California's own majestic geyser is powered by a subterranean volcano.

The fossilized remains of ancient California redwoods.

A veteran Disney animator turned his gift for storytelling to a museum devoted to his love of a California city.

California's own medieval Italian castle, authentic down to the 300-year-old iron maiden in the dungeon.

Nursery with extensive collection of flesh-eating plants operated by the author of "The Savage Garden."

A ruined hotel with an unlucky history and an eerie present.

A working model of the entire San Francisco Bay and much of the Sacramento River Delta, complete with regular tides that change every 14 minutes.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

Internationally-recognized arts center housed in a century-old former military barracks.

Of all the origin stories for weed's secret code, this one likely has the goods.

Law-protected wreckage serves as a peculiar memorial for an almost forgotten World War II tragedy.

A B-17 bomber stands as a memorial to the residents of Tulare County who served in World War II.

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

These millipedes glow not out of attraction, but as a not-too-subtle warning.

The Zalud family experienced a number of tragedies in one decade, giving rise to rumors that the 19th century house is haunted.

A ghost town originally established and governed solely by Black Americans seeking a place of their own, free from discrimination.

An underground mansion with fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface of central California.

Abandoned landscape once home to "the world's largest winery."

Once the largest winery in the world, this castle-like building now sits abandoned on the San Pablo/San Francisco Bay shore.

A B&B on a Victorian lighthouse station in San Francisco Bay.