An extraordinarily ornate museum in San Diego holds wondrous anthropological treasures.

A Swedenborgian glass church surrounded by redwoods sits perched atop a massive landslide area.

This rare example of a "tidefall" is a spectacular drop from the cliffs down onto the beach.

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

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

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

This glamorous old building is said to have inspired the Tower of Terror.

Eons old volcanic activity created one of the most stunning rock formations in the United States.

A modern mechanical planetary system, part of a 10,000 year clock.

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

The randomness of this wall of lava lamps helps encrypt up to 10 percent of the internet.

Carved by a waterfall in a hard-to-reach rock formation, this heart-shaped rock has inspired romantics for decades.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

One of the last remnants of the city's Chinese nightclub scene is now a dive bar selling killer mai tais.

A Mysterious Masonic tomb in San Luis Obispo.

The abandoned train depot now doubles as a well-placed rest stop for those who take the road less traveled.

A house built from trash known as the poor man's Hearst Castle.

A world-class observatory in the California desert.

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

The liveliest ghost town in the state.

An optical illusion found amid a logged redwood forest.

Every weekend, the parking lot of this Buddhist temple turns into a Thai street-food paradise.