About 80% of all U.S. avocados are descendants of Rudolph Hass's glorious tree.

The Route 66 institution that inspired Taco Bell also served as an important headquarters for Mexican-American social movements.

Abandoned bridge hidden deep in the San Gabriel Mountains.

This midcentury LA bar was the birthplace of tiki culture.

Megachurch turned Catholic church comprised of 10,000 glass panes.

This strange seaside tower got its name from a wealthy eccentric who would hide coins among its stones.

The site of murders and Satanic cult gatherings.

A non-native grove of 241 redwoods in Southern California.

A shockingly detailed small scale recreation of the temples of Abu Simbel.

Mexican food and folk art.

This California tree is the single source of the state's entire orange industry.

The Citrus Variety Collection at UC Riverside contains two trees of each of the 1,000+ varieties of citrus.

The only museum and archive west of the Mississippi that is dedicated to the study of Abraham Lincoln.

This temple, built by an eccentric religious leader before his death, sits guarded and in ruins.

The last Americana on Route 66.

Nationwide network of co-ownership underground catastrophe shelters.

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

Like a kitschy mirage in the Mojave, this eatery serves up classic 50s-style diner meals and a dinosaur sculpture garden.

The set location for a 1987 cult classic draws international film buffs to the middle of the Mojave Desert.

The ghost town that ended up on Ebay.

A pair of large white marble lions guard this stretch of the Mojave Desert, and it is utterly mysterious how they got there.

This dormant volcanic crater has been converted from a roiling pit of magma to a pleasant hiking spot.

An abandoned 1920s-era stretch of cabins now overshadowed by the 66 Motel.

Windswept and remote, this island was once the home of a rare mammoth and today is home to a rare tree.