One of the oldest reform schools in the United States, home to wayward boys such as Merle Haggard, now abandoned.

The largest permanent Monopoly board makes one of the longest games even bigger.

A life-sized mammoth sculpture marks the spot where the remains of a Columbian mammoth were discovered in 2005.

This giant shopping mall still holds signs of its automotive past.

This quaint archive of the silent era preserves and pays homage to a seminal moment in film history.

The outcropping is graffitied with the name of the beloved musical Muppet television series.

San Francisco's most expensive hotel suite includes a secret passageway rumored to have been used by JFK.

This abandoned motel doesn't welcome guests anymore, but decay and a creepy atmosphere still call it home.

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

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

The writing studio of an American adventure author, built in the style of a medieval castle.

This lesser known Hearst estate is a fairytale village built from the stolen bones of historic European buildings.

The largest self-built castle in the U.S., six decades in the making.

The oldest continuously operating church in California.

Haunting and beautiful trees, doomed to die.

One poet's handmade, anachronistic home.

Offering commanding views of the California coastline, this restaurant was a hub for the artists and bohemians of Big Sur.

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

Graffiti-covered ruins that were once part of a farm owned by a mental hospital.

Rusty industrial city full of oxidized distillation towers.

Hidden in the back of a disused small town hotel is a dive bar shellacked with over a million pennies.

Acres of natural wonders left behind by a socialite-turned-gardener.

A deserted hodgepodge of experimental structures designed by nearby university students.

An alley covered with 20 years of bubble gum.