Places embeekrais Wants to Go

A famous alternative culture epicenter and where Joplin serenaded young hippies.

The location of the last stand of Charles Manson's doomsday cult.

A burnt orange monolithic dome structure perched on a hillside near Interstate 280.

Russian history in San Francisco.

A hard-to-reach oasis in a desolate corner of Death Valley National Park.

An L.A. traffic island where the faces of locals have been carved into massive granite eggs.

At this California chicken ranch, four bucks will get you 18 eggs and a chorus of dancing animatronic poultry.

Inside an old airplane hangar, friends and strangers alike play on a massive trampoline.

America's oldest Italian restaurant is a San Francisco institution.

This little valley along Highway 1 is engulfed by thousands of lilies during the spring season.

The haunting ruins of Jack London's dream house.

Travelers leave tea kettles in a remote part of Death Valley as part of a mysterious, decades-old tradition.

The remains of a 12th-century chapter house in Golden Gate Park.

A popular tourist cave with a dark past.

One of the world's longest murals depicts the history of diversity in Los Angeles.

A raised boardwalk winds through a thicket of stunted, century-old trees no more than nine feet tall.

A world-class observatory in the California desert.

Two rocks in a perpetual kiss and one of "the most romantic spot in America."

What began with a single, 357-pound chunk of the Canyon Diablo meteorite grew to be an impressive collection. 

The abandoned train depot now doubles as a well-placed rest stop for those who take the road less traveled.

Ten 25-foot-tall, beehive-shaped kilns, abandoned in Death Valley.

A carousel trades in its classic horses and calliope for endangered species, native flora and fauna, and a modern soundtrack.

L. Frank Baum wrote part of the "Wizard of Oz" series in this wooden Victorian beach resort.

Neither Spanish settlers nor anyone since has been able to tell who built these strange California rock walls.