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

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

This hilltop park offers magnificent views and a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece.

A faux European lane smack dab in downtown L.A.

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.

Historic funicular railway, believed to be the shortest railroad in the world.

Scores of vintage street lamps shine along L.A.’s Miracle Mile.

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

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

America's most famous piece of self-built architecture.

Oldest building in California still in use.

An unexpected and peaceful oasis on a hillside.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

Yo, Adrian!

Dr Barnes' $25 billion private collection of art and arboretum.

This elaborate towering structure was once famed for its revolutionary height.

The fastest transatlantic ocean liner sat abandoned in a Philadelphia shipyard for decades.

This charming colonial alleyway is one of the oldest continuously used residential streets in the U.S.

The actual model from the original "Star Trek" series is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

A monument celebrating the idea of reaching inaccessible places.

While most wind tunnels test scale models, the "Cave of Winds" was large enough for actual airplanes.

The "lovely red Vega" of the legendary record-settling pilot.

A pride of the state, this working museum crafts pottery mosaics in the style of Pennsylvania's earliest European settlers.

Eccentric concrete mansion and museum designed and built by hand from the inside out.