Centuries of crashing waves carved out this small hole in the rock, which lights up at certain parts of the year.

This stretch of beach along California's central coast is a busy highway for the largest seal in the northern hemisphere.

A sign at the end of the Santa Monica Pier marks the traditional end of the legendary American highway.

This well-traveled chess park offers scenic views of the pacific and a colorful, eclectic clientele.

A Looff creation in Santa Monica best described as “a California-Byzantine-Moorish-style fantasy.”

A second generation sun-powered marvel lights up the night.

One woman's Viking Castle on Lake Tahoe.

A charming desert roadside bakery that produces 10 times more bread daily than it has residents in its town.

Once thought to be the oldest living tree in the world, Methuselah was germinated before the Egyptian pyramids were built.

This secluded date farm can be reached only by following a bumpy, single-lane desert road.

Where the rich wintered in Pasadena.

This once bustling boomtown hotel is now the hottest spot in Nevada for ghost hunters.

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

Millions of years of oxidation make a drive down this winding Death Valley road surprisingly colorful.

This crumbling Death Valley mining complex was known for its use of giant, 20-mule team wagons.

A brothel nestled amongst ghost towns, with an abandoned plane wreck to greet you.

Odd outsider art installations surround a Gold Rush-era ghost town.

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

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

An extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.

This quiet park's strange sedimentary spires were named after Kodak's color film.

The interior of the Overlook Hotel in "The Shining" was based on this Yosemite original.

The founder of a utopian religious community based on the Golden Rule laid his son to rest on this grassy hill.

Sleep beneath the big screen at this old-school movie theater.