Places hopemch Wants to Go

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

An increasingly eccentric apartment building, topped with winged beasties.

The restored and active Victorian-era final resting place of San Francisco.

The giant pair of sexy legs sticking out the window of this costume store have become its main draw.

A collection of memorabilia from the Beat era in the back of a San Francisco bookstore.

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

These millipedes glow not out of attraction, but as a not-too-subtle warning.

California's own medieval Italian castle, authentic down to the 300-year-old iron maiden in the dungeon.

Sister store to the Echo Park Time Travel Store.

Crypt mausoleum in cathedral's basement contains relics of third century Roman martyr, Saint Vibiana.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

During prohibition, corrupt city officials ran drinking dens under the streets of Downtown Los Angeles.

This one-room schoolhouse in rural Arkansas dates to the 1920s, but looks like it could be the 1820s.

This haunted hotel built on natural springs once served as a hospital for a quack doctor promising a cure for cancer.

The graffiti-covered ruins of an abandoned trading post in the middle of the Navajo Nation.

This huge dam across the Colorado River caused an armed standoff between two U.S. states.

This oasis-like spring in the Sonoran Desert is home to unique, endangered species.

This scrap yard doubles as a naive art gallery full of found art and farm animals.

One of the oldest Mexican restaurants in the United States air-dries its trademark beef in a dangling outdoor cage.

Hidden on a cattle ranch in Arizona, this bookstore has been celebrating Southwest literature for more than 40 years.

From working out of his garage to the James Beard semifinals, one Tucson baker has kept his fan base—and his grains—local.

Some of Arizona's best spit-roasted tacos al pastor can be found here.

The lost ruins of the forgotten ferry lie hidden beneath the silt.

An incredible airplane graveyard sits outside this small museum dedicated to preserving aviation history.