Beneath the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge is the “Gibraltar of the West Coast,” a fort built to protect the San Francisco Bay from naval attack.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

This crumbling Death Valley mining complex was known for its use of giant, 20-mule team wagons.

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

"Only the devil could play golf here."

The lowest point in North America is home to an undrinkable pool surrounded by fields of geometric salt flats.

Experience a quartz crystal sound bath inside a storied, all-wood sound-chamber.

A music-filled, booze-soaked oasis in the desert.

A fake town founded by Western movie stars is now becoming a hip desert community.

One of the largest trees of its kind in California.

A hidden courtyard houses early 20th-century plaster masterpieces.

Swarms of butterflies cannot compare to the awe inspired by the publicly-funded nakedness once displayed in this sunken garden.

Flashy signs from Las Vegas’s past find their final resting place at this unusual graveyard.

The bullet-riddled wall from the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, bloodstains enhanced for your viewing pleasure.

An exotic wildlife habitat right off The Strip.

This mosaic dedicated to John Lennon was tended for years by a Beatles super-fan.

Infamous marsh filled with toxic waste, World War II-era London rubble, and dead mobsters galore.

This unassuming retro burger joint was billed as “diner of the future” at the 1939 World's Fair.

New York's southernmost subway station is whimsically wavy.

Legend says a primate-like cryptid prowls this otherworldy sliver of the Louisiana bayou.

By day this New Orleans square is for pedestrians, but by night it is a kingdom of kittens.

The second oldest continuously operating bar in Louisiana.

A unique post-modern public space in the middle of the Warehouse District in New Orleans.

This Birdsill Holly fire hydrant is the remnant of a very different type of hydration innovation.