Places in California:

Diamond Match, Chico | Grounds of a former match factory. (20 photos - 2017)

Alabama Hills and Whitney Portal, | Incredibly scenic and underdeveloped natural area. (22 photos - 2010-2014)

Amador City California | 1849 gold rush town. (5 photos - 2011)

Amboy | Small remnant town and evaporation trenches on lake bed. (8 photos - 2013)

Angels Camp California | 1849 gold rush town. (5 photos - 2011)

Ballarat California | Mojave ghost town. (3 photos - 2011)

Bodie California | State historic park. Ghost town. (5 photos - 2011)

Bombay Beach, California | Small and strange community on the accidentally created Salton Sea. (3 photos - 2013)

Boron Air Station, | Post-apocalyptic, abandoned Air Force radar station and prison. (15 photos - 2014)

California City | Grandiose real estate development that grew much more slowly than planned - abandoned hotel. (3 photos - 2013)

Carrizo Plain National Monument | Vast grassland and dry lake. (6 photos - 2013)

Cartago | Small town on Owens Dry Lake with ruins of a soda plant. (5 photos - 2012)

Colusa | Old town with some nice old buildings. (2 photos - 2011)

Chinese Camp California | Semi-ghost town built by Chinese miners during the 1849 gold rush. (12 photos - 2011)

Old Sugar Mill, Clarksburg | 1935 Beet sugar mill reused for wine tasting and sales. (8 photos - 2017)

Columbia | 1849 gold rush town, preserved as a "history park". (5 photos - 2014)

Coulterville | Nice, underdeveloped gold rush town. (5 photos - 2014)

Crockett | Beautifully preserved, turn of the century factory (sugar) town. (18 photos - 2011)

Darwin | Small old mining town next to a large, closed, and gated off mining operation. (7 photos - 2014)

Death Valley National Park, | Amazing 5,270 square mile park with alien landscapes and lots of empty space. (31 photos 2011-2014)

Desert Center | Mostly deserted highway services area. (4 photos - 2013)

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, | PG&E grounds around the power plant are a nice place to walk along the ocean. (2 photos - 2011)

Donner Party Memorial | Memorial to the Donner Party, who killed and ate their native guides and then each other after getting stuck in the mountains. (1 photo - 2013)

Eagle Mountain | Large almost completely abandoned mining town which is fenced off and guarded. (7 photos - 2013)

El Centro | Largest US city in the Imperial Valley. (5 photos - 2013)

Elk Grove Promenade | Partially built shopping center that has sat empty for the last 5 years. (8 photos - 2012)

Empire Mine State Historic Park, | Preserved underground gold mine. (10 photos - 2017)

Fiddletown | 1849 gold rush town off of the main highway 49 tourist route. (7 photos - 2014)

Fort Bragg | Nice Coastal city with large vacant lumber mill and contaminated mill grounds. (7 photos - 2011)

Fort Ord, California | Large decommissioned Army base in varying states of decay and redevelopment. (24 photos - 2013)

Garlock | Small road-side ghost town. (7 photos - 1/17/2011)

Hercules California | Formerly a company town for a large explosives plant. Hercules is now enveloped by S.F. Bay area suburban development. (2 photos - 2012)

Isleton | Unique, historic, Sacramento Delta town with remnants of a once large Chinese community. (14 photos - 2014)

Jackson California | Bustling gold rush town with extensive remains of two large mines which closed in the 1940s. (23 photos - 2011-2014)

Jalama Beach - Point Conception | Great, undeveloped, isolated beach with ruined seawalls and tar/oil that oozes from the cliffs and rocks. (11 photos - 2011)

Keeler | Shrinking community battered by dust storms on the shore of Owens dry lake. (21 photos 2010-2014)

La Grange | Small gold rush town. (2 photos - 2014)

Lake Dolores Waterpark, | Abandoned 1990s waterpark. (7 photos - 2014)

Locke | Early 1900s rural Chinese ghetto in a remarkable state of preservation/arrested decay. (10 photos - 9/12/2010)

Lockhart | Site of ghost town, now a massive solar thermal power plant. (1 photo - 2013)

Ludlow | Small partially abandoned highway services area and ghost town. (7 photos - 2013)

Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park | Large 19th Century hydraulic mine, now a state park. (12 photos - 2015)

Manzanar War Relocation Center | Site of a large WWII Japanese internment center. (8 photos - 2012)

Mare Island Shipyards, Vallejo California | Major U.S. Navy ship building facility for 142 years. It closed in 1996 and is slowly being redeveloped. (39 photos - 1/29/2012)

Martinez | Nice older city with oil refinery and tanker port. (4 photos - 2011)

Marysville | Interesting historic city in the Sacramento Valley. (17 photos - 1/9/2011)

Mokelumne Hill | Small, 1848 gold rush town. (8 photos - 2011 - 2014)

Mono Lake California | Strange tufa formations around this beautiful, shrinking, high desert lake. (8 photos 2011-2012)

Montezuma Hills, California | Huge wind farm in the Sacramento delta. (5 photos - 2014)

Niland | Small, fading town in the Imperial Valley. (2 photos - 2013)

North Bloomfield | Preserved ghost town, Malakoff Diggins State Park headquarters. (12 photos - 2015)

North San Juan | Small gold rush town. (2 photos - 2015)

North Shore | Former resort town on the Salton Sea. (3 photos - 2013)

Owens Dry Lake | The Lake that Los Angeles drank (15 photos - 2012)

Owens River Gorge | Small, pretty canyon with abandoned and operating hydro-electric plants. (7 photos - 2013)

Plymouth California | Small, historic, gold rush town. (7 photos - 2010)

Preston Castle, Ione | Closed reform school with a large Romanesque Revival central building. (8 photos - 2017)

Port of Los Angeles | Vast port and industrial area. (7 photos - 2013)

Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant | Decommissioned nuclear power plant. (4 photos - 2012)

Randsburg California | This former gold mining town is not quite, but almost a ghost town (8 photos - 2011)

Rio Vista | Ex-urban housing development abandoned after the 07-08 real estate collapse. (3 photos - 2014)

Ruth Mine, | Abandoned mining camp. (6 photos - 2013)

Sacramento | Some snap shots taken at various locations around the city. (10 photos - 2011-2013)

Sacramento Valley Rice Mills, | Rice mills and silos in the Sacramento River Valley. (29 photos - 2017)

Salton City | The largest community on the shores of the dying Salton Sea. (5 photos - 2013)

Salton Sea | Shrinking, increasingly toxic, accidental sea in the desert. (6 photos - 2013)

Salton Sea Beach California | Small town with interesting mobile homes on the Salton Sea shore. (3 photos - 2013)

Samoa | A uniquely well preserved lumber mill company town. (13 photos - 2015)

San Andreas California | 1849 gold rush town with a nicely preserved central business district. (4 photos)

Scotia | A well preserved lumber mill company town. (8 photos - 2015)

Shasta | Roadside ghost town. (5 photos - 2014)

Stockton | Mid sized city hit hard by the real estate crash. (12 photos - 2011)

Sutter Creek | Kind of touristy 1849 gold rush town. (9 photos - 2010)

Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, (8 photos - 2011)

Taft | In the heart of one of California's biggest, oldest oil fields. (6 photos - 2013)

Trona | Bleak dying town in the desert with a massive chemical plant(7 photos - 2011- 2012)

Trona Pinnacles | Beautiful, desolate wilderness. (11 photos - 4/2/2012)

Volcano | A small, out-of-the-way, quiet, 1849 gold rush town with a few interesting attractions. (8 photos - 2014)

Walnut Grove | A well preserved, historic Sacramento delta town. (8 photos - 2011-2014)

Waterbird Regional Preserve | Nice park with a view of a refinery and biting ants. ( 8 photos - 2012)

West Sacramento | The remains of Lake Washington- an unused shipping channel with lots of interesting abandoned watercraft. (8 photos - 2011)

Yreka, | Nicely preserved gold rush town. (13 photos - 2014)

 

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