A nostalgic bibliographic gem.

The former home of Samuel Clemens and family remembers the happiest period of the author's life.

A hard-to-reach oasis in a desolate corner of Death Valley National Park.

Along a California highway is a kind of Jurassic Park made of metal.

A spiritual vortex among the red rocks in Sedona.

Ten 25-foot-tall, beehive-shaped kilns, abandoned in Death Valley.

This dark, quiet forest on the outskirts of San Diego is dense with rumor and lore.

The "3rd largest" city in California is an empty mirage of suburbia in the middle of nowhere.

The location of the last stand of Charles Manson's doomsday cult.

"Only the devil could play golf here."

Even Henry David Thoreau found this glacial pothole irresistible.

The liveliest ghost town in the state.

A world-class observatory in the California desert.

This impressive tunnel was dug entirely by hand over the course of 36 years.

The highest dunes in California are the most likely place in the area to hear the Singing Sands.

Named after a bandit and the star of several Hollywood prehistoric landscapes, these sandstone formations are a historical part of the Los Angeles natural landscape.

Thanks to a quirk of elevation this gift shop produces magic doughnuts that are found nowhere else on Earth.

One of the most unusual geological features, recognizable from a dozen hit movies.

The world's largest mountain carving could fit all of Mount Rushmore inside it many times over.

One of nature's most well-scheduled phenomenons resides in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park.

This sculpture by artist Fritz Keonig survived the 9/11 attacks and now stands as a monument to the victims.

Legends surround this jagged rock formation in the New Mexico desert.

The oldest Italian café in Boston, this spot also serves as a veritable museum of vintage coffee ephemera.

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