The L.A. Zoo has a secret garden of rare bootleg cycads, a palm specimen dating back 280 million years.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

San Franciscans leave gifts and messages for the magical beings that live behind the tiny, mysterious door installed on a tree in Golden Gate Park.

The site of murders and Satanic cult gatherings.

The neighborhood shop is a sort of tiny cactus museum full of exotic specimens you can take home.

An extraordinarily ornate museum in San Diego holds wondrous anthropological treasures.

This rare example of a "tidefall" is a spectacular drop from the cliffs down onto the beach.

Historic marionette theater features thousands of handmade puppets and free cups of ice cream.

An outdoor sculpture park of giant pink robots and post-apocalyptic Christmas scenes.

Most famous work of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's sons.

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

This grand mansion has starred in everything from Bones to Buffy.

Eons old volcanic activity created one of the most stunning rock formations in the United States.

An inconspicuous footbridge beloved by San Diego locals.

The tea room that pushed the boundaries of adorable straight into...we can't find the words.

A modern mechanical planetary system, part of a 10,000 year clock.

A ghost town at the airport is now a refuge for blue butterflies.

Stripes of flowers bloom each spring in a 50 acre rainbow of color.

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

The randomness of this wall of lava lamps helps encrypt up to 10 percent of the internet.

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

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

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