Places melissabollman Wants to Go

A sculpture for the sun and stars, created by Nancy Holt.

A quirky old tree covered in tokens, cans, and bottles of wishes.

A subterranean haunt where wine and homemade biscottis are always on the menu.

The highest concentration of petroglyph sites in Gold Butte National Monument, plus an improbable early 20th-century dam.

An art gallery that celebrates Indigenous Maya practices and traditions.

This mural changes every few years.

In 1952, this restaurant began selling the Colonel's “secret” recipe.

Someone really, really wanted to save this fast-food icon from demolition.

Despite being a perfectly pleasant place to be, Loyalton can't seem to attract any visitors.

A unique museum where guests can rent and operate a locomotive.

A train tunnel that was made obsolete by the dam it helped create.

Bits and pieces from the ill-fated Donner Party's winter cabins.

The now-abandoned tunnels were built for the transcontinental railroad on the route where the first wagon train entered California.

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

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

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

Established in 1853, this crumbling cemetery sits forgotten on the corner of Church and Chapel in Gold Country.

The modest home of the very immodest dancer who cost a king his crown.

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

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

A grave dedicated to the pioneers who settled California.

The "Paris of the Prairies" wouldn't be complete without a replica of the iconic landmark.

The world's largest and most outstanding marl lake regularly changes color.

One of the stops along the fateful journey of the Donner Party.