A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

An alley covered with 20 years of bubble gum.

A deserted hodgepodge of experimental structures designed by nearby university students.

A massive volcanic plug is now a protected area that hosts a number of bird species.

Machinery left over from California's once thriving mercury industry now attracts artists and explorers.

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

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

The hundreds of movies and television shows shot in this high desert town are commemorated in a unique museum.

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

A massive hydrovolcanic explosion left a half-mile wide crater in Death Valley.

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

The interior of the Overlook Hotel in "The Shining" was based on this Yosemite original.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

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

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

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