A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

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

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

The echoes of a railroad town that solemnly mark the end of the line.

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

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

This stretch of beach along California's central coast is a busy highway for the largest seal in the northern hemisphere.

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

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

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

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

This 19th century train workshop is a treasure trove of railroad history.

This municipal playground was co-created by the father of one of the most playful characters ever.

This remarkably simple jail went over a century without an escape.

The stately birthplace of California's statehood.

Steinbeck's old stomping grounds, immortalized in Cannery Row.

The rusting remains of the largest assembled WWII fleet on the West Coast.

A working model of the entire San Francisco Bay and much of the Sacramento River Delta, complete with regular tides that change every 14 minutes.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

Home to the "Circus" trees created by Axel Erlandson.

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

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

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

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