This shop and studio is dedicated to the art of the book, from letterpress to bookbinding.

With the touch of a button, you can read a randomly selected short story.

The L.A. Zoo has a secret garden of rare bootleg cycads, a palm specimen dating back 280 million years.

These millipedes glow not out of attraction, but as a not-too-subtle warning.

A multimedia experience that chronicles the atrocities of racism.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

San Franciscans leave gifts and messages for the magical beings that live behind the tiny, mysterious door installed on a tree in Golden Gate Park.

San Francisco Bay's ghost town.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

The oldest burial ground in the city, final resting place of city founders, Ohlone natives and murderers alike.

California's own medieval Italian castle, authentic down to the 300-year-old iron maiden in the dungeon.

A storybook European village in Berkeley.

Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.

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

One of the ghostly stops along Route 66.

An extraordinarily ornate museum in San Diego holds wondrous anthropological treasures.

Travelers exchange letters with woodland creatures at this mini post office.

This naturally heated mountainous creek has created a group of neon blue pools of potentially deadly boiling water.

This massive redwood tree has a hole in the base big enough to drive through.

The remains of a ruined mansion memorialize the 1906 earthquake.

This rare example of a "tidefall" is a spectacular drop from the cliffs down onto the beach.

The final resting place of a space program monolith.

The largest drain hole in the world.

The largest permanent Monopoly board makes one of the longest games even bigger.