An Italian restaurant became a rock-and-roll hangout and the lair of the "Hollywood vampires."

This graffiti-covered bridge is the quintessential vision of a place for disillusioned youth to escape the complexities of burgeoning adulthood.

The oldest pictographs on this decorated rock formation in California's Carrizo Plain date back as many as 4,000 years.

Machinery left over from California's once thriving mercury industry now attracts artists and explorers.

A unique local art exhibit that has continued to grow since 1989.

An alley covered with 20 years of bubble gum.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

San Francisco Bay's ghost town.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

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.

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

A 140-year-old castle with underground caves hidden in San Francisco.

A tiny theater hidden in an alley plays a constant stream of short silent films for anyone willing to peer through the peephole.

It would be a crime to miss it.

This historic graveyard was partially paved over to create a streetcar line.

One man's quest for the ultimate road trip vehicle.

A couple turned their front yard into an artistic masterpiece.

This sun-scorched lakebed contains samples of half the natural elements known to humankind.

Once America’s most beautiful army base, this abandoned military fort on the coast of Monterey Bay has been left to the elements.

At this 1940s-era neighborhood favorite, you can still drink a cherry phosphate.

Before it was abandoned and left to rust alongside the road, this riverboat starred in a John Wayne movie.

An abandoned Cold War missile radar site.

The most unique castle in all of Southern California, entirely constructed from repurposed materials.