A common entry point to the Griffith Observatory trail holds its own wonders.

A spiritual retreat in the heart of Los Angeles offers stunning gardens and a labyrinth to lose yourself in.

Canyon walls shrouded in ferns.

Carved by a waterfall in a hard-to-reach rock formation, this heart-shaped rock has inspired romantics for decades.

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

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

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

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

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

A meditative space out of a fantasy story.

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

One man's vast collection of artifacts and ephemera from matchbooks and postcards to vintage neon signs and cars.

Each year these high desert hills are absolutely covered with poppy flowers in a surreal show of nature.

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

A castle that was built stone by stone by an eccentric journalist.

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

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