Burping, gurgling geothermal mud pots by the Salton Sea.

Honoring the famed folktale author, this California museum looks like it belongs in the Black Forest.

Salt is slowly eating away this abandoned saltworks town in the desert.

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

A large sculptural artwork and garden in Escondido, California.

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

It should come as no surprise that the world's largest artichoke lies in the town that calls itself the "Artichoke Center of the World."

A watering hole where the options for seating include a bar, patio, or subterranean cave.

A glimpse into the lives of the the Miwok and Paiute people in Yosemite National Park.

This graveyard is the eternal home of the residents of a vanished California town.

Four hundred granite steps were built into this massive rock by the National Park Service.

Haunting and beautiful trees, doomed to die.

This corn maze so big you may want to pack a lunch, and possibly a flaregun.

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

Made famous by cable TV, this oddball collection of antiques and collectibles is a cut above the rest.

Here, visitors can swing with the waves of the Pacific Ocean.

Antiques by the Bay.

This dormant volcanic crater has been converted from a roiling pit of magma to a pleasant hiking spot.

This giant spider sculpture made from the iconic car is one giant visual pun.

340 bicycles, 65 feet high.

The cluster of boulders near Fort Irwin is covered in military insignia.

The Route 66 institution that inspired Taco Bell also served as an important headquarters for Mexican-American social movements.

Abortion, prohibition, religion, war, and fear all play a part in the history of this idiosyncratic Pacifica castle.

The only thing stranger than stumbling onto these philosophical musings is the story of the homesteader who created them.