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

A faux European lane smack dab in downtown L.A.

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

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

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

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

Art Deco stylings conceal the true nature of this bridge.

I Street Bridge is the heaviest swinging center bridge in the United States.

The California capital city once stood 10 feet lower than it does today.

It is locally loved and ridiculed for literally looking like poop.

A giant chess set, minus the psychedelic drug trip.

The headquarters of a secretive order is also a beautifully-designed park.

An extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.

The graffiti-covered remnants of a former triangulation station are balanced precariously on this California peak.

A decommissioned Naval base now rents itself out for people who want to blow stuff up.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

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

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

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

Shoot for par over the bodies of the dead on this cemetery-cum-golf course.

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

Chevron maintains one “Standard” brand station per state so it doesn’t lose the trademark.

At HopCat, a marker honors fictional creatures with the ability to travel the missing dimensions of Kcymaerxthaere.

The origin of the Nixon tapes is rooted in technological incompetence as much as secrecy.