The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

This corn maze so big you may want to pack a lunch, and possibly a flaregun.

Puzzling...this tree looks like an assemblage of dismembered monkey limbs.

A tiny survivor of the Donner Party disaster.

The California capital city once stood 10 feet lower than it does today.

The fossilized remains of ancient California redwoods.

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

Bits and pieces from the ill-fated Donner Party's winter cabins.

This historic California cemetery holds the bodies of veterans of both the Civil War and the Donner Party.

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

The now-abandoned tunnels were built for the transcontinental railroad on the route where the first wagon train entered California.

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

Despite being a perfectly pleasant place to be, Loyalton can't seem to attract any visitors.

A huge work of Burning Man-inspired outsider art on the grounds of a California winery.

A watering hole where the options for seating include a bar, patio, or subterranean cave.

Hidden in a hotel parking lot is a strange historical plaque erected by an obscure fraternal society.

The beauty and the beast of hydraulic mining is on full display at this California Historic State Park.

This historic steamboat is scuttled just a few hundred feet from where it was built over a hundred years ago.

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

Each winter this underground cave forms a dazzling ice palace.

Shakespeare has been brought to life in this open air theater for the better part of a century.

One of the largest Buddhist communities in the West sits on the site of an old hospital.

A raised boardwalk winds through a thicket of stunted, century-old trees no more than nine feet tall.

A chance to sleep among the firs and pines of the Oregon forest.