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.

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

Abandoned Air Force base that has fallen into disrepair.

Where there's quartz, there must be gold. Thus is the story of the mines of Julian, and the titillating times of the Gold Rush.

Costumed elves and mountain bikers co-exist peacefully at this abandoned Christmas-themed adventure park.

The "Fun Spot of the Desert" is now a haunting ruin, and a reminder that putting a water park in a desert is a bad idea.

Abandoned hotel with adjacent lake and golf course.

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

Rare collectibles from automated musical instruments to 250 unique automobiles.

Rusty industrial city full of oxidized distillation towers.

A world-class observatory in the California desert.

Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.

Smooth basaltic rocks tell a tale of ancient glacial waterfalls.

A former ironworks that was the first UNESCO industrial site.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

Abandoned bridge hidden deep in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Version of the French Riviera destroyed by the sea.