Places Calmmseas Wants to Go

A unique collection of old miners' cave homes carved in to the hillside cliffs near Death Valley.

This hiking/biking/horse trail along an old railroad grade features trestles, tunnels, and a roadless stretch through the scenic Susan River canyon.

This bright and bubbly Palm Springs hotel was the brainchild of an iconic drag queen.

A sparse, solitary sequoia still stands as a living tribute to the famous conservationist who planted it—but it's dying.

A bomb shelter and some fireplaces are all that remain of the house Fred Roberts tried so hard to keep standing.

The tallest bridge in California was constructed for a project that was eventually cancelled.

At the western edge of Palm Springs, a rugged desert canyon trail leads to a waterfall at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains.

A fire lookout atop a glacial pinnacle is reached by climbing three vertiginous flights of stairs.

The oldest pictographs on this decorated rock formation in California's Carrizo Plain date back as many as 4,000 years.

Windswept and remote, this island was once the home of a rare mammoth and today is home to a rare tree.

You don't have to be a diplomat to visit the so-called Camp David of the West.

While you're unlikely to find riches here these days, this remote mine is a time capsule of the Gold Rush era.

Built in 1899, this luxurious home was part of one of the first gated communities in Los Angeles.

Beneath the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge is the “Gibraltar of the West Coast,” a fort built to protect the San Francisco Bay from naval attack.

Frank Lloyd Wright died a year before construction on his largest public project even began.

A miniature train theme park, free to the public, laying at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains.

A hidden courtyard houses early 20th-century plaster masterpieces.

Guarded by the Angel of Grief, the Stanford family tomb attracts an odd mix of halloween revelry and somber contemplation.

Malibu's first beach home features an astonishing trove of ceramic tiles.

60 feet of towering steel balances gracefully.

Built by one man in the '20s, this site is now a museum representing the Great Basin cultures.

This massive redwood tree has stood in Northern California for nearly 2,000 years.

Artist Jack Pierson made this surreal sculpture in honor of Wonder Valley, a countercultural community on edge of civilization.

The first all glass and steel residence in the United States.