A fine mixture of the old and the new topped with an art deco neon spire.

An abandoned lot littered with concrete debris was once the home of the world's first female railroad president.

The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California."

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

This fully intact Neoclassical-Greek Revival style firehouse operated until 1938.

The first life claimed by this record-breaking peak wasn't lost to exposure or a fall, but rather lightning.

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

One woman's Viking Castle on Lake Tahoe.

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

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

A glimpse into the lives of the the Miwok and Paiute people in Yosemite National Park.

Under the right circumstances, this waterfall in Yosemite briefly turns a luminescent fiery orange.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

The echoes of a railroad town that solemnly mark the end of the line.

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

A charming desert roadside bakery that produces 10 times more bread daily than it has residents in its town.

The highest dunes in California are the most likely place in the area to hear the Singing Sands.

A museum dedicated to a sea that should have never been.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

A hand-built folk art installation covered with messages of God's love.

Burping, gurgling geothermal mud pots by the Salton Sea.

Huge otherworldly domed rocks on the shore of a deadly lake.

Erroneously called the world's tallest flagpole, this landmark is devoted to "good neighborliness."

Semi-recognized center of the world, with many oddities.