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

Happy harbor seals frolic and snooze on this warm, sandy stretch of coast.

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

Celebrating the transformation of trash into objects of beauty.

An "anarchical" no man's land, complete with garbage sculptures and a hobo-run "Landfillian Library."

Over 315,000 preserved amphibians and reptiles in jars.

This infamous prison has a store where you can buy goods crafted by incarcerated people.

An eccentric folk art landmark made out of discarded bottles by an inspired "grandma."

An abandoned, unfinished mansion on grounds strewn with lava rocks.

A hidden world of exotic succulents and cacti.

The graffiti-covered remnants of a former triangulation station are balanced precariously on this California peak.

Gorgeous purple flowers drape from the world's largest blossoming plant.

The rusting remains of the largest assembled WWII fleet on the West Coast.

Millions of years of oxidation make a drive down this winding Death Valley road surprisingly colorful.

On a barren hillside in the Yucca Valley, the recently restored Desert Christ Park has attracted pilgrims and kitsch hunters for over 50 years.

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

The overgrown ruins of a once thriving World War I-era copper mine.

The lighthouse central to the 1980s horror classic "The Fog" is, in fact, located in one of the foggiest areas of the Pacific Coast.

Nursery with extensive collection of flesh-eating plants operated by the author of "The Savage Garden."

From the sky, a kaleidoscope of color brightens the grey landscape of the San Francisco Bay.

The largest dune field in the Mojave offers a chance of hearing the 'singing sands.'

No one's quite sure why there's a metal megaphone bolted on two rocks in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

This “living museum” at UCLA exhibits thousands of plant species from all over the world.

Coastal dunes, site of buried Egyptian movie set and former utopian colony.