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

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

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

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

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

Each year these high desert hills are absolutely covered with poppy flowers in a surreal show of nature.

Historic funicular railway, believed to be the shortest railroad in the world.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

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

An underground mansion with fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface of central California.

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

The rocks in this arid basin leave trails of movement behind them.

The private clubhouse for the members of the Academy of Magical Arts.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

World-famous, Pink's still manages to keep its prized cult fetish status.

Crypt mausoleum in cathedral's basement contains relics of third century Roman martyr, Saint Vibiana.

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

Hollywood's most famous landmark, the "temporary" sign that has stood for decades longer than intended.

America's most famous piece of self-built architecture.