Each year these high desert hills are absolutely covered with poppy flowers in a surreal show of nature.

A common entry point to the Griffith Observatory trail holds its own wonders.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

The private clubhouse for the members of the Academy of Magical Arts.

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

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

Scores of vintage street lamps shine along L.A.’s Miracle Mile.

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

World-famous, Pink's still manages to keep its prized cult fetish status.

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

Crypt mausoleum in cathedral's basement contains relics of third century Roman martyr, Saint Vibiana.

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

Established in the '60s, a family-owned tropical drink bar founded by Ray Buhen, bartender to the stars.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

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

This weird abode has inspired everything from the "House On Haunted Hil" to a robot hunter's pad.

Resting place of Hollywood's immortals is also site of summer film screenings.

The abandoned zoo enclosures offer a perfect place to experience the other side of the bars.

The legendary building that needed ghostly approval before being built.