A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

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

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

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

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

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

One man's vast collection of artifacts and ephemera from matchbooks and postcards to vintage neon signs and cars.

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

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

A castle that was built stone by stone by an eccentric journalist.

There is no trying to fall in love with this Star Wars fountain, you just do or do not.

Left untouched since a double murder-suicide in the 1960s, Los Feliz murder mansion remains a neighborhood mystery.

A hand-built folk art installation covered with messages of God's love.

A look into the Church of Scientology's deeply unfavorable view of psychiatry.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

Behind this beachfront shop lies a spectacular, colorful sea cave with an equally colorful past.

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

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

A strange house built only at night, with rumored mystic inspiration.

A hospital closed seemingly in the middle of operations, leaving behind fodder for horror films and ghost hunters.

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

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