A dry lake is what remains of a community founded on a real estate scam.

A modest reminder of treacherous waters at the Golden Gate.

This odd little museum holds exhibits on everything from blacksmith equipment to hair jewelry.

A stranded woman lived alone on this remote island for 18 years, inspiring the great children's novel "Island of the Blue Dolphins."

This simple highway curve has become a comedic pilgrimage site.

These four islands right offshore have waterfalls, colorful lights, fancy buildings, and a secret purpose.

An art collective teaching the more fiery, metal-y art forms.

Once the fastest ship from San Francisco to Tahiti, the Galilee now lays in pieces in three different cities.

A UFO scrapyard in the California desert.

This ultra-modern California span is actually a titanic solar clock in disguise built by famed architect Santiago Calatrava.

Housed in a memorial lighthouse, this museum relays the history of surfing, beginning with the antics of royal Hawaiian teenagers.

A second generation sun-powered marvel lights up the night.

A repository of Pasadena history.

This California tree is the single source of the state's entire orange industry.

Only hotel where you can legally launder money.

One poet's handmade, anachronistic home.

A shining, cold, black organ lies in San Francisco's financial district.

This subtle Berkeley paving stone actually marks off a lawless tube of air that extends into space.

Wheels of chrome by the thousands adorn this California Historical Landmark.

A Bicycle Path in the Sky.

The modest home of the very immodest dancer who cost a king his crown.

The mysterious, untimely death of a Canned Heat band member still haunts this unfinished home.

Wild West history in Hollywood style.

Once the largest winery in the world, this castle-like building now sits abandoned on the San Pablo/San Francisco Bay shore.