Happy harbor seals frolic and snooze on this warm, sandy stretch of coast.

A pair of mutilated bronze octopuses slump at the base of the monument honoring California's admission to the U.S.

Rusty industrial city full of oxidized distillation towers.

Former 1954 Del Mar Train Station now serves signature cocktails and delightful culinary treats, and still operates as a Metro stop.

This San Diego museum is dedicated to preserving women’s historic achievements.

Junkbots and mud babies are the masterpieces in this fantastically sci-fi art museum.

The only thing stranger than stumbling onto these philosophical musings is the story of the homesteader who created them.

A three-story, three-dimensional hobo clown in a tutu welcomes CVS shoppers.

Four hundred granite steps were built into this massive rock by the National Park Service.

Successful artist residence program has filled this ranch with dozens of sculptures over the years.

Three vintage horses survived a 1976 inferno and found a home on a sister carousel.

An eccentric home stands out in an otherwise average neighborhood with mosaics, mini topiaries, and kinetic sculpture.

A popular winter vacation destination for migrating monarch butterflies.

Marta Becket's hand-painted theater in the desert.

Collective dedicated to restoring steam engines.

Where religious effigies, magic soaps, and occult candles are brought to customers at wholesale prices.

This graveyard is the eternal home of the residents of a vanished California town.

A museum, art project, and institution that demands we look at the world around us in a strange new way.

International delicatessen has been owned and operated by the same family for more than 110 years.

NASA's leading space science lab started by a co-founder with deep ties to the occult.

Offering commanding views of the California coastline, this restaurant was a hub for the artists and bohemians of Big Sur.

A B&B on a Victorian lighthouse station in San Francisco Bay.

The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California."

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