America's most famous piece of self-built architecture.

A small, peaceful sculpture garden with a grim memorial to a disaster that took place a few blocks away.

Along a California highway is a kind of Jurassic Park made of metal.

L. Frank Baum wrote part of the "Wizard of Oz" series in this wooden Victorian beach resort.

Built for an exposition in 1915, these horticultural displays have stood the test of time.

A miniature train theme park, free to the public, laying at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains.

This stretch of beach along California's central coast is a busy highway for the largest seal in the northern hemisphere.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

Explore more than 130,000 new and used books in the "world's largest outdoor bookstore."

Coastal dunes, site of buried Egyptian movie set and former utopian colony.

Twin Peaks' real life Double R Diner has been restored to its damn fine television look.

A rotting tree in the middle of Seattle doubles as an elaborately-controlled art piece.

Wild West history in Hollywood style.

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

An unfortunate geological resemblance to Satan has labeled this Pasadena gorge as a passage to the underworld.

The world's first disc golf course has the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a neighbor.

A massive volcanic plug is now a protected area that hosts a number of bird species.

Hiding amid the largest camellia collection in the country lies a charming children's maze, donated by a secret admirer.

A Swedenborgian glass church surrounded by redwoods sits perched atop a massive landslide area.

Remants of foundations, streets, and streetcar tracks inhabit the cliffs where a landslide occurred in 1929.

World War II-era Nazi compound nestled in the Santa Monica hills.

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

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.