Places gdm584 Wants to Go

Bits and pieces from the ill-fated Donner Party's winter cabins.

An extraordinary final resting place full of oversized art, amazing statues, and dead celebrities.

The so-called "Statue of Liberty of Los Angeles" is on a one mutant mission to keep L.A. weird.

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

Arcadia is home to a haven for nature geeks and 80s TV lovers alike.

A vast city of the dead, where the deceased outnumber the living by more than a million.

Once strictly off-limits, this lower level housing curious and priceless vehicles of the Petersen Automotive Museum is now open to the public.

Mexican food and folk art.

A pair of slides and a tree-lined stair corridor have been an urban oasis for nearly 40 years.

The fossilized remains of ancient California redwoods.

An extraordinarily ornate museum in San Diego holds wondrous anthropological treasures.

Ancient human, animal, and geometric figures drawn in the earth.

Lucha Libre (Mexican Wrestling) themed taco shop.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

The "Fun Spot of the Desert" is now a haunting ruin, and a reminder that putting a water park in a desert is a bad idea.

Ingenious bakery opens up the first Cupcake ATM at their flagship location in Beverly Hills.

Rainbow-hued local gem in Venice.

The programmatic glory of LA's giant whiskey barrel building has become an upscale reminder of the city's kitschy roadside past.

Home to the "Circus" trees created by Axel Erlandson.

The last of its kind in the country.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

Each year these high desert hills are absolutely covered with poppy flowers in a surreal show of nature.

A century-old tradition has culminated in a small but singular collection of feline effigies.

A gaudy painted elephant stands in memory of south Florida's fallen carnies.