The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

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

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

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

The lowest point in North America is home to an undrinkable pool surrounded by fields of geometric salt flats.

Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.

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

Canyon walls shrouded in ferns.

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

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

Hollywood's most famous landmark, the "temporary" sign that has stood for decades longer than intended.

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

A trash dump made beautiful by nature's power.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

This historic national park is covered in the stunning ruins of red rock pueblos.

Dramatic river bend surrounds a natural red-rocked pedestal.

A tiny wilderness cemetery commemorates the deadliest episode of the Klondike Gold Rush.

The facade of this relic from the Klondike gold rush is decorated with over 8,800 pieces of driftwood.

A classic gold rush hotel can be expected to pick up some ghosts along the way, and the Golden North is no exception.

A historic freight system that found the true gold rush is in tourism.

An Alaska livestock farm devotes itself to harvesting wool from creatures that once ran with mammoths and sabertooth tigers.

A rare chance to get up close and personal with a 13-mile ribbon of ice near downtown Juneau.

Upside-down trees serve as natural flower pots in this hanging garden of Alaska.