Prone to disastrous fires, the city of San Francisco has the Guardian, a fireboat gifted by residents, to watch over them from the bay.

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

An historic and oft-filmed spot for musclebound iron pumpers on the Pacific coast.

There are lots of hands and feet stamped in the cement in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, but Mel left behind something extra.

One of the oldest reform schools in the United States, home to wayward boys such as Merle Haggard, now abandoned.

California's own medieval Italian castle, authentic down to the 300-year-old iron maiden in the dungeon.

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

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.

Hollywood's most famous landmark, the "temporary" sign that has stood for decades longer than intended.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

This Italian-style temple replica has been threatening to fall off the Irish coast for hundreds of years.

The ruins of this medieval castle in Northern Ireland have inspired artists from C.S. Lewis to Led Zeppelin.

Northern Ireland's Brobdingnagian stepping stones.

The atmospheric road was never meant to be so creepy.

A 6-mile-long lake created by an apocalyptic seismic event and the deadly chain reaction that ensued.

A beautiful geyser under environmental threat.

The largest hot spring in the United States is, as the name suggests, a stunning show of natural color.

One of nature's most well-scheduled phenomenons resides in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park.

A pair of giant legs paying homage to a poem, a king, and it would seem, socks.

A sculpture made of 10 Cadillacs as a monument to the “Golden Age” of the American automobile.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

A psychedelic labyrinth on the San Francisco bay.

A series of waterfalls and pools that flow through the 'Ohe'o Gulch and into the ocean.