The most beautiful Taco Bell in the world even has surfboard parking.

Once close to extinction, there is no shortage of elephant seals on the beaches of Año Nuevo State Park.

Hopeless romantics will swoon over the sweet story behind this bright and colorful home.

This odd California folly seems like it was almost designed to accumulate urban legends.

This dormant volcanic crater has been converted from a roiling pit of magma to a pleasant hiking spot.

This sculpture garden in Death Valley makes you feel like you've slipped into some alternate reality.

Barely visible foundations remain where Stow Lake’s “observatory” once welcomed visitors.

This former stomping grounds of the most eminent astronomers of the early 20th century.

This rare tortoise skeleton has been hanging around the downtown Los Angeles museum for over a century.

An offbeat angle on the ocean viewed through an antiquated lens.

Contemporary art inspired by natural history and science drawing on ancient techniques in a modern world.

A deserted hodgepodge of experimental structures designed by nearby university students.

One of the world's largest collections of rare and magnificent bird specimens.

Radioactivity still cause for concern at this urban explorer's paradise.

A dwindling menagerie of anthropomorphic oil derrick animals still dot the barren California landscape.

The most isolated mailbox in America lets desert travelers record their passing.

Once America’s most beautiful army base, this abandoned military fort on the coast of Monterey Bay has been left to the elements.

This desert oddity hides in plain sight thanks to a cartographic error and a desert explorer with a punny sense of humor.

An abandoned Cold War missile radar site.

This abandoned boat was left in place thanks to its rotting beauty.

Every year, over 25,000 monarchs overwinter in Pacific Grove.

Graffiti-covered ruins that were once part of a farm owned by a mental hospital.

Abandoned Air Force base that has fallen into disrepair.

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