Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

Commonly referred to as the most photographed Victorian home in the United States.

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

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

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

The "world's biggest dinosaur" once housed a creationist museum in its abdomen.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

This naturally heated mountainous creek has created a group of neon blue pools of potentially deadly boiling water.

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.

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

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

This abandoned Navy base was transformed into an off-grid alternative living community for thousands of people.

This massive redwood tree has a hole in the base big enough to drive through.

This star-studded Old Hollywood restaurant is where fettuccine Alfredo made its United States debut.

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

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.

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

This Big Sur waterfall drops 80 feet directly into the Pacific Ocean, and inspired the hillside house up top.

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

Stripes of flowers bloom each spring in a 50 acre rainbow of color.

Canyon walls shrouded in ferns.

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

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

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.