This Big Sur waterfall drops 80 feet directly into the Pacific Ocean, and inspired the hillside house up top.

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 nondescript building that's been functioning as a speakeasy for nearly a century and a half.

Trails through lava-carved tube-caves display sparkling bacteria and a rich history.

Canyon walls shrouded in ferns.

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

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

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

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

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

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.

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

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

A museum befitting the city responsible for supplying the majority of the world's LSD.

Rainbow-hued local gem in Venice.

A hospital closed seemingly in the middle of operations, leaving behind fodder for horror films and ghost hunters.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

A hand-built folk art installation covered with messages of God's love.

Hollywood's most famous landmark, the "temporary" sign that has stood for decades longer than intended.

The rocks in this arid basin leave trails of movement behind them.