"Looks so real, it's scary!"

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

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

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

Canyon walls shrouded in ferns.

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.

A meditative space out of a fantasy story.

This serene oasis in an affluent Los Angeles neighborhood holds some of Gandhi's ashes and got Elvis into Eastern Philosophy.

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

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

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

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

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

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

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

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

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

Established in the '60s, a family-owned tropical drink bar founded by Ray Buhen, bartender to the stars.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

An underground mansion with fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface of central California.

This strange seaside tower got its name from a wealthy eccentric who would hide coins among its stones.

A favorite haunt of dinosaur loving children and hallucinogen loving hippies alike.

A pair of slides and a tree-lined stair corridor have been an urban oasis for nearly 40 years.

Crypt mausoleum in cathedral's basement contains relics of third century Roman martyr, Saint Vibiana.