An amazing collection of fantastic reptiles, amphibians, spiders, and insects.

A vast city of the dead, where the deceased outnumber the living by more than a million.

This Oakland fairytale kingdom, fiercely devoted to childlike whimsy, was an early inspiration for Disneyland.

The lighthouse central to the 1980s horror classic "The Fog" is, in fact, located in one of the foggiest areas of the Pacific Coast.

Dive bar built out of the remains of a whaling ship.

L.A.'s oldest operating bowling alley is a beautifully restored homage to its speakeasy days.

Hidden above a drug store on a nondescript corner of Lincoln Heights is a private clubhouse for intrepid explorers.

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.

The "world's biggest dinosaur" once housed a creationist museum in its abdomen.

This abandoned Navy base was transformed into an off-grid alternative living community for thousands of people.

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

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

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

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

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

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

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

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

High on a hill overlooking Los Angeles lives a world famous, high power conical Tesla Coil.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

World's largest collection of serial killer artwork and other macabre exhibits.

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.