A cozy bookstore is tucked within an old gold mine shaft beneath the cafe and ice cream shop.

The huge granite obelisk that towers over a small California town.

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

Dozens of lights dangle from the branches of what may be the brightest tree in Los Angeles.

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.

Sister store to the Echo Park Time Travel Store.

Pay your respects to a folk-punk legend.

The Southern California pop sounds of surf and sand were born right here.

A 90-acre park on former landfill that hosts an annual kite festival.

A shape-shifting buy-sell-trade bookstore, born to Beatnik Era spirit.

The century-old bell and clock tower at UC Berkeley is the third-tallest in the world, and has fossils.

This subtle Berkeley paving stone actually marks off a lawless tube of air that extends into space.

The Laureates here get something even more coveted than a Nobel Prize: free parking for life.

This incredible college library is a visual masterpiece of mosaic art. It also looks kind of like a giant boombox.

A tiny survivor of the Donner Party disaster.

A replica of the first public theater built in California.

The California capital city once stood 10 feet lower than it does today.

A massive ultra-modern church presents a science-fiction view of Catholicism's inclusive future.

An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.

A restored 1920s cascade stairway provides one of the best views of Oakland's Lake Merritt.

A massive hydrovolcanic explosion left a half-mile wide crater in Death Valley.

Shoot for par over the bodies of the dead on this cemetery-cum-golf course.

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

A winding path built in secret on the edge of the continent.