This sun-scorched lakebed contains samples of half the natural elements known to humankind.

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

This unique graffiti art from the 1940s has become a staple of this local landscape in the remote California desert.

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

The liveliest ghost town in the state.

The second-largest giant sequoia in the world.

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

Visit a remnant California's Gold Rush, which locals claim is haunted by spirits from the past.

His discovery kicked off the Gold Rush. One of the hands on this commemorative statue points to the spot where he found the precious metal.

The first U.S. town to secede from the Union, only to vote themselves right back in.

Built to hold Gold Rush wealth, this building has withstood the test of time.

Once the largest town in eastern Yuba County now sits abandoned.

The flow from this waterfall sometimes comes out of springs below its rim.

Rising out of miles of farmland, these buttes are sometimes called the world's smallest mountain range.

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

A 10,000-square-foot museum of operating model trains.

This Oakland fairytale kingdom, fiercely devoted to childlike whimsy, was an early inspiration for Disneyland.

A ghost town originally established and governed solely by Black Americans seeking a place of their own, free from discrimination.

Where a railroad loops under or over itself to rise or drop more than 70 feet in a short distance.

Thousands of turbines whir at the origin of North American wind power.

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

Built by one man in the '20s, this site is now a museum representing the Great Basin cultures.

A dry lake is what remains of a community founded on a real estate scam.

The remnants of a failed socialist commune can still be found just off a California highway.