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

A hidden subterranean installation offers a view of the sky.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

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

A modern day curiosity cabinet.

World-famous, Pink's still manages to keep its prized cult fetish status.

Historic funicular railway, believed to be the shortest railroad in the world.

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

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

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

An unfortunate geological resemblance to Satan has labeled this Pasadena gorge as a passage to the underworld.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

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

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

The private clubhouse for the members of the Academy of Magical Arts.

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

The last of its kind in the country.

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

Its buzzing collection honors vibrator history.

There is no trying to fall in love with this Star Wars fountain, you just do or do not.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

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

This shop specializes in oddities and Victorian-inspired wonders.