Places WindupMan Wants to Go

This weird abode has inspired everything from the "House on Haunted Hill" to a robot hunter's pad.

The old Niles Canyon Aqueduct in the San Francisco Bay Area is a bemusing and secret trail through nature for wayward travelers.

An underground mansion with fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface of central California.

A massive hydrovolcanic explosion left a half-mile wide crater in Death Valley.

A volcanic tunnel illuminated by natural skylights offers a shaded respite from the desert sun.

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

Stripes of flowers bloom each spring in a 50 acre rainbow of color.

Eons old volcanic activity created one of the most stunning rock formations in the United States.

Named after a bandit and the star of several Hollywood prehistoric landscapes, these sandstone formations are a historical part of the Los Angeles natural landscape.

The highest dunes in California are the most likely place in the area to hear the Singing Sands.

An overlooked and unassuming engineering marvel.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

A Swedenborgian glass church surrounded by redwoods sits perched atop a massive landslide area.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

This rare example of a "tidefall" is a spectacular drop from the cliffs down onto the beach.

The graffiti-covered remnants of a former triangulation station are balanced precariously on this California peak.

Bring your own cardboard to the slippery slopes of concrete hidden in a neighborhood park.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

A regular looking rock with an unbelievable history.

A pair of large white marble lions guard this stretch of the Mojave Desert, and it is utterly mysterious how they got there.

A watering hole where the options for seating include a bar, patio, or subterranean cave.

This spaceship-like Serbian monument reaches for the stars in celebration of the fallen fighters of fascism.

A grand Yugoslav memorial to the group of partisans who fought and died resisting western Serbia’s Nazi occupation.

A lovers' beach, tucked below the surface of the island, provides a safe haven for romance.