The home of one of California's most important horticulturalists wilts amidst a lovely park.

This house is a mosaic of tiled artwork sourced from local artists.

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

A grove of "candelabra redwoods" deep in California's Lost Coast.

This conservation area is also home to many of the region's desert tortoises.

This rock formation named for its unique shape is one of many that call the Alabama Hills home.

This little valley along Highway 1 is engulfed by thousands of lilies during the spring season.

A 19th-century cabin built into a hollowed-out Sequoia tree.

A lawless town deep in Death Valley was famous for its riches and death rate.

Another of California's unused Cold War missile defense complexes has become a graffiti gallery.

Built by the inventor of the radio, this abandoned hotel has housed early radio employees, military men, and a dangerous cult.

The "Fun Spot of the Desert" is now a haunting ruin, and a reminder that putting a water park in a desert is a bad idea.

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

An ominous concrete cube cuts a dystopian silhouette atop this California mountain.

This old mining town, deep in the California desert, has a year-round population of one.

From Japan to Italy, this California park explores the world's cultures through their gardens.

Millions of years of oxidation make a drive down this winding Death Valley road surprisingly colorful.

In the middle of the desert, miles from any human life, sat an anomalous pay phone that still magically answers your calls.

This little blue house pokes out over the campus of UC San Diego, seven stories high.

A popular winter vacation destination for migrating monarch butterflies.

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

Left untouched since a double murder-suicide in the 1960s, Los Feliz murder mansion remains a neighborhood mystery.

This sculpture garden in Death Valley makes you feel like you've slipped into some alternate reality.

An inconspicuous footbridge beloved by San Diego locals.