jillsalmon's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Yermo, California

Peggy Sue's 50's Diner & Diner-Saur Park

Like a kitschy mirage in the Mojave, this eatery serves up classic 50s-style diner meals and a dinosaur sculpture garden.
Solvang, California

OstrichLand USA

Get up close to emus and ostriches, or buy their tasty meat.
Carpinteria, California

Carpinteria Harbor Seal Preserve

Happy harbor seals frolic and snooze on this warm, sandy stretch of coast.
Los Angeles, California

Snow White Cafe

This Hollywood dive houses a mural painted by the artists who animated its namesake film.
Long Beach, California

RMS Queen Mary

The awe-inspiring ship from the golden era of cruising has an incomparable history and a reputation as one of the world’s most haunted places.
Calistoga, California

Calistoga Petrified Forest

The fossilized remains of ancient California redwoods.
San Diego, California

Harper's Topiary Garden

A couple turned their front yard into an artistic masterpiece.
Yermo, California

Calico Ghost Town

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.
Near Lake Arrowhead, California

SkyPark at Santa's Village

Costumed elves and mountain bikers co-exist peacefully at this abandoned Christmas-themed adventure park.
San Simeon, California

Hearst Castle

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.
Los Angeles, California

Musso and Frank Grill

This star-studded Old Hollywood restaurant is where fettuccine Alfredo made its United States debut.
Leggett, California

Chandelier Tree

This massive redwood tree has a hole in the base big enough to drive through.
Rancho Palos Verdes, California

Wayfarers Chapel

A Swedenborgian glass church surrounded by redwoods sits perched atop a massive landslide area.
San Diego, California

San Diego Museum of Us

An extraordinarily ornate museum in San Diego holds wondrous anthropological treasures.
Los Angeles, California

Hollywood Tower Apartments

This glamorous old building is said to have inspired the Tower of Terror.
San Francisco, California

Palace of Fine Arts

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.
Humboldt County, California

Avenue of the Giants

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.
Sequoia National Park, California

General Sherman

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).
San Luis Obispo, California

Madonna Inn

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.
Sponsored by Visit California
Los Angeles, California

Venice of America Canals

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.
Los Angeles, California

La Brea Tar Pits Dragonfly Fossils

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

Japanese Tea Garden

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.
Los Angeles, California

Hollywood Sign

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

Alcatraz Island

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.