Bonsai garden in Oakland is curated by the first non-Japanese female bonsai master in the United States.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

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

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

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.

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

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

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

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

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

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

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

This Elizabethan hedge maze is one of only six in North America.

In Northeastern Iceland lies something of an oxymoron: a steaming desert.

Cairns built to bring travelers good luck stretch across the land like miniature stone mountains.

A modern Nordic Pompeii on the Icelandic island of Heimaey.

The picturesque birthplace of Icelandic democracy is drenched in the blood of its brutal past.

This beautiful, historic church looks like something out of a simpler past.

A giant concrete orb in far north Iceland marks the ever-shifting boundary.

The Arctic Circle runs through this isolated spot north of Iceland.

This stunning concert hall has become a symbol of Iceland's national recovery.

These concrete domes were installed on an Icelandic bluff to honor a very specific musical tradion.

Two volcanic lakes in an enormous crater formed in a prehistoric eruption.