This small museum gives visitors a chance to soak up the history of the "sponge capital of the world."

This historic estate on the east shore of Lake Tahoe was home to an eccentric millionaire (and his pet elephant, Mingo).

A mining town once rife with murderous disputes over its copious treasures now creates income as a popular spot for photo shoots.

The drama of nature in full effect in this Nevada State Park.

Dyed by iron oxide over centuries, these sandstone rocks rise thousands of feet into the sky.

A 16th century chapel decorated with bones, skulls, and entire bodies hanging from the wall.

Largest cave system in Africa.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

A favorite haunt of dinosaur loving children and hallucinogen loving hippies alike.

The only theatre in the world constructed specifically for sound movement.

Standing in for the first ship to navigate the Northwest Passage.

This Japanese treats shop may have been the first business to mass-produce fortune cookies in the United States.

Shoot for par over the bodies of the dead on this cemetery-cum-golf course.

Depicting scenes of everyday life - and specific individuals - in Great Depression era San Francisco.

Chevron maintains one “Standard” brand station per state so it doesn’t lose the trademark.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

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

Visible below the waves are memorials to the city's Gold Rush dead.

The randomness of this wall of lava lamps helps encrypt up to 10 percent of the internet.

In this century-old literary safehouse, print is alive and well.

A still functioning vaudeville carousel that has operated for over a century boasts a colorful menagerie and past.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

This lake in the Cascades lives up to its name, disappearing down a hole every spring.