Places sierrawest Wants to Go

A unique piece of graffiti offers a little slice of local history and mystery.

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

An abandoned car and strange wooden debris are among the scattered remains of the old sand and gravel quarry.

Oakland's beautiful monumental cemetery.

A creepy steel gremlin has protected the Bay Bridge since 1989.

This Oakland fairytale kingdom, fiercely devoted to childlike whimsy, was an early inspiration for Disneyland.

The memorial to the victims of the Jonestown Massacre carries the names of 918 lost, including one name people wish wasn't there.

Dive bar built out of the remains of a whaling ship.

Julia Morgan's Moorish-Gothic labyrinth of fountains, trees, natural light and Oakland's notable dead.

A historic beacon built in the aftermath of the worst maritime disaster on the Great Lakes.

A six-story-tall golden pyramid, surrounded by a moat.

Recognized the world over as the home of the McCallisters in the 1990 movie "Home Alone."

A river with some unusual, and occasionally dangerous, habits.

The study has wall paneling from a 17th century ship.

This deceivingly ordinary warehouse hides an enormous collection of pop culture treasures.

The world’s largest collection of angel figurines includes 600 black angels donated by Oprah Winfrey.

The city of Rockford, Illinois is symbolically protected by a quartet of fittingly stony sentinels.

The palatial McDonald's that inspired Wesley Willis.

A Museum of Holography frozen in 1974.

What was once one of the country's largest confectionary plants is now an abandoned ruin, but is still pretty sweet.

An actual 1957 Cadillac De Ville, encased in 15 cubic yards of concrete.

G.V. Black, the Father of Modern Dentistry, keeps an eternal eye on Chicagoan’s teeth from his perch in Lincoln Park.

This awkward aquarium sculpture is one of the strangest statues in Chicago.

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.