The mysterious, fantastical woodland inspiration for "The Lord of the Rings."

Panorama exhibition hall in old silent theater with a beautiful backyard garden.

This weird abode has inspired everything from the "House On Haunted Hil" to a robot hunter's pad.

During prohibition, corrupt city officials ran drinking dens under the streets of Downtown Los Angeles.

A library of rare occult books in Los Angeles.

Established in the '60s, a family-owned tropical drink bar founded by Ray Buhen, bartender to the stars.

Crypt mausoleum in cathedral's basement contains relics of third century Roman martyr, Saint Vibiana.

One man's homage to the sun continues to grow like a glass fractal.

Bring your own cardboard to the slippery slopes of concrete hidden in a neighborhood park.

Julia Morgan's Moorish-Gothic labyrinth of fountains, trees, natural light and Oakland's notable dead.

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

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

A New England-style lighthouse along California's beautiful Highway 1 gets a re-do.

Hidden among the multi-million dollar mansions in the Santa Cruz hills is a sanctuary for troubled birds.

San Francisco Bay's ghost town.

An extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.

Under the right circumstances, this waterfall in Yosemite briefly turns a luminescent fiery orange.

Once thought to be the oldest living tree in the world, Methuselah was germinated before the Egyptian pyramids were built.

A beautiful Victorian-era cemetery, complete with a miniature village.

This peaceful Massachusetts graveyard was one of the first "garden-style" cemeteries in America.

Site of a famous 19th-century transcendentalist utopian community, now abandoned.

A historic bridge with a lovely acoustic anomaly.