Places zydeko Wants to Go

Law-protected wreckage serves as a peculiar memorial for an almost forgotten World War II tragedy.

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.

A sign at the end of the Santa Monica Pier marks the traditional end of the legendary American highway.

A crumbling wizard is one of the final reminders of a roadside Middle Earth.

Smooth basaltic rocks tell a tale of ancient glacial waterfalls.

A working model of the entire San Francisco Bay and much of the Sacramento River Delta, complete with regular tides that change every 14 minutes.

In a city filled with Frank Gehry buildings, one stands out as one of the architect's weirder works.

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

Gold Rush-era tombstones line the park's paths.

While exploring the desert, you can stop by the home of a fictional heretic from a parallel universe.

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

The largest permanent Monopoly board makes one of the longest games even bigger.

This brightly made over hotel hides decades of suicide, serial killers, and mysterious deaths.

Half of a house.

A fake town founded by Western movie stars is now becoming a hip desert community.

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

Where there's quartz, there must be gold. Thus is the story of the mines of Julian, and the titillating times of the Gold Rush.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

This glamorous old building is said to have inspired the Tower of Terror.

Abandoned hotel with adjacent lake and golf course.

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

A 300-ship graveyard, with a few still visible at low tide.

The rusting remains of the largest assembled WWII fleet on the West Coast.

A playground built by the kids that is a child's wonderland, and a helicopter parent's nightmare.