California's oldest wind harp represents a historic piece of America's Danish history.

Haunting and beautiful trees, doomed to die.

A "gravitational anomaly" located in the redwood forests just outside of Santa Cruz, California.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

A still functioning vaudeville carousel that has operated for over a century boasts a colorful menagerie and past.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

A pair of mutilated bronze octopuses slump at the base of the monument honoring California's admission to the U.S.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

Floating man-made island and upscale restaurant.

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

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

The graffiti-covered remnants of a former triangulation station are balanced precariously on this California peak.

A giant chess set, minus the psychedelic drug trip.

This giant shopping mall still holds signs of its automotive past.

This mountaintop beacon is only lit three times a year but shines like some kind of all-seeing eye.

Half-size replica of the Taj Mahal.

This complex of vertically-excavated Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu monolithic temples in India's Maharashtra providence illustrates a spirit of tolerance characteristic of ancient India.

Scholar, adventurer, saint, and instigator of the Goa Inquisition.

A 90-acre park on former landfill that hosts an annual kite festival.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

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

A trash dump made beautiful by nature's power.

The deepest lake in the United States, and once the site of epic destruction that lives on in legends.

A roaring, awe-inspiring double cascade of icy water flows through woodland Oregon like something out of a Tolkien novel.