Visible below the waves are memorials to the city's Gold Rush dead.

A modern mechanical planetary system, part of a 10,000 year clock.

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

The randomness of this wall of lava lamps helps encrypt up to 10 percent of the internet.

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

Canyon walls shrouded in ferns.

The one-time watch house for incoming ships at the Golden Gate now stands abandoned and hidden in trees.

This serene oasis in an affluent Los Angeles neighborhood holds some of Gandhi's ashes and got Elvis into Eastern Philosophy.

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

A meditative space out of a fantasy story.

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.

This strange seaside tower got its name from a wealthy eccentric who would hide coins among its stones.

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

Behind this beachfront shop lies a spectacular, colorful sea cave with an equally colorful past.

A "gravitational anomaly" located in the redwood forests just outside of Santa Cruz, California.

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

A strange house built only at night, with rumored mystic inspiration.

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

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

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

Giant Redwood-themed cafeteria operates under the golden rule, "Dine Free Unless Delighted."

Its buzzing collection honors vibrator history.