This rare tortoise skeleton has been hanging around the downtown Los Angeles museum for over a century.

The Southern California pop sounds of surf and sand were born right here.

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

This quirky UFO-shaped curiosity is often mistaken for the airport’s control tower.

An historic and oft-filmed spot for musclebound iron pumpers on the Pacific coast.

The short oil boom of Venice Beach, and its swift removal from the tourism-laden landscape.

Two men, two visionaries of Venice Beach, one little hotel that smells like cookies.

Where a great scandal unfolded with a famous female revivalist at its center.

In a city filled with Frank Gehry buildings, one stands out as one of the architect's weirder works.

One of the first skyscrapers in Santa Monica, and a famous getaway for the Hollywood elite of then and now.

Carved by a waterfall in a hard-to-reach rock formation, this heart-shaped rock has inspired romantics for decades.

These structures were inspired by both Native American shelters as well as, strangely, an ice cream shop.

The Route 66 institution that inspired Taco Bell also served as an important headquarters for Mexican-American social movements.

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

The Hopi-style structure was built by the man who discovered Desert Hot Springs' famous mineral water.

Travelers leave tea kettles in a remote part of Death Valley as part of a mysterious, decades-old tradition.

Odd outsider art installations surround a Gold Rush-era ghost town.

This small town was built around a marble quarry and named after one of the most famous sources of marble in the world.

The headquarters of one of Japan’s leading astronomy research institutions features several historic observatory facilities and a 2,000-year-old burial mound.

A mountain range on an active U.S. Navy base hides thousands of mysterious prehistoric rock carvings.

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

These millipedes glow not out of attraction, but as a not-too-subtle warning.

This massive statue of John Muir on the side of a California highway was carved from a redwood tree.

Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.