California

Offbeat Landmarks and Oddities

Choice field reports and tips. Or check out: Complete list of California attractions.

• Adelanto: Miraculous Giant Healing Buddhist Statue [tips]
• Aguanga: Metal Sculptures of Ricardo Breceda
• Alameda: Carrier USS Hornet, Prints of Moon Men
• Alpine: Dead Dolly Lane [tips]
• Altadena: Bunny Museum
• Amboy: Roy's Cafe Motel: Famous Sign [tips]
• Antioch: Statue of the Cannery Lady [tips]
• Apple Valley: 24-Foot-Tall Trigger, Roy Rogers' Horse [tips]
• Aptos: Egg Machine with Robot Chickens [tips]
• Atwater: Castle Air Museum: Parking Lot Jets [tips]
• Auburn: Ken Fox's Great Statues of Auburn
• Auburn: The Coolie - Ken Fox Statue
• Avalon: Statue of Old Ben, Hungry Sea Lion [tips]
• Baker: World's Tallest Thermometer
• Baker: Alien Fresh Jerky [tips]
• Bakersfield: Big Shoe Repair - Shoe-shaped Building
• Bakersfield: Muffler Man: Indian Warrior [tips]
• Bakersfield: Merle Haggard's Boxcar Home, Black Gold Oil Exhibit [tips]
• Baldwin Park: Replica of the First In-N-Out Burger
• Barstow: Route 66 Mother Road Museum [tips]
• Barstow: Vehicles from Hell [tips]
• Barstow: Giant Fire Helmet
• Bellflower: Big Doughnut in Bagel Disguise [tips]
• Bellflower: TV's Emergency! Firetrucks [tips]
• Big Bear Lake: Time Bandits Movie Pirate Ship [tips]
• Bishop: Ghost Town and Freak Lamb [tips]
• Bodie: Bodie State Historic Park - Ghost Town [tips]
• Bombay Beach: Bombay Beach: Odd Art [tips]
• Bonita: Glarfs: Folk Art Dinosaurs [tips]
• Boonville: Where People Speak Boontling [tips]
• Boron: Borax Visitor Center
• Boron: Twenty Mule Team Museum
• Borrego Springs: Beasts of Borrego Springs
• Buellton: Mendenhall's Museum of Gas Pumps and Petroliana [tips]
• Buena Park: Independence Hall Replica [tips]
• Burbank: Batman Statue [tips]
• Cabazon: Claude Bell's Dinosaurs
• Calistoga: Old Faithful Geyser of California
• Cambria: Nitt Witt Ridge
• Campbell: Delta Queen Car Wash
• Cardiff-by-the-Sea: Cardiff Kook Surfer Statue [tips]
• Carlsbad: Legoland [tips]
• Carlsbad: Craftsmanship Museum: Tiny Machines
• Cassel: Large Junk Art Sculptures [tips]
• Castroville: Giant Artichoke
• Chiriaco Summit: General Patton Memorial Museum
• Cholame: James Dean Memorial [tips]
• Coalinga: Restored 1934 Richfield Gas Station [tips]
• Coalinga: Prehistoric Snail, Earthquake, Town History
• Colma: Emperor Norton Grave [tips]
• Colma: Circus Showfolks of America Memorial
• Coloma: Towering Grave of California's Gold Discoverer
• Compton: Big Doughnut - Dale's Donuts [tips]
• Costa Mesa: 25-Foot-High Doughnut [tips]
• Costa Mesa: Hitler's Car [tips]
• Cotati: Accordion Master of Cotati
• Crockett: Crockett History: Sugar, Sturgeon, Switchboard
• Culver City: Museum of Jurassic Technology
• Culver City: Holy Cross Cemetery - Graves of the Stars [tips]
• Culver City: Cold War: The Wende Museum
• Culver City: Al Jolson's Flashy Tomb
• Davis: Toad Hollow - Tunnel for Toad Traffic
• Davis: Bookhead
• Death Valley: Scotty's Castle [tips]
• Death Valley Junction: Amargosa Opera House [tips]
• Death Valley National Park: Uhehebe Crater: Volcano!
• Desert Hot Springs: Cabot's Old Indian Pueblo Museum
• Downey: World's Oldest Operating McDonald's [tips]
• Downieville: California's Only Public Gallows
• East Los Angeles: Giant Aluminum Can Man [tips]
• El Cajon: Unarius Academy of Science
• El Cajon: Giant Mary and Toddler Jesus
• El Monte: Statue of Liberty Replica [tips]
• Encinitas: Surfing Madonna
• Encinitas: Neptune's Portal
• Escondido: Lawrence Welk Statue and Museum
• Escondido: Muffler Man - Joor Man
• Escondido: Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden
• Escondido: Deer Park Winery and Auto Museum [tips]
• Fairfax: Museum of Bicycling [tips]
• Fairfield: Jelly Belly Factory Tour and Museum
• Felicity: Official Center of the World
• Felton: Bigfoot Discovery Museum
• Felton: Redwood Cross-Section of Time
• Fish Camp: California Tunnel Tree [tips]
• Folsom: Folsom Prison Museum
• Forestville: Muffler Man - Bunyan [tips]
• Fort Bragg: Triangle Tattoo Museum [tips]
• Fort Irwin: Painted Rocks - Military Boulders [tips]
• Fort Irwin: Hi Jolly Exhibit and Human Leg Bone
• Fort Irwin: In the Box Tour: Battles in Fake Iraq
• Fortuna: Chapman's Gem and Mineral Museum
• Fremont: Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum [tips]
• Fresno: Forestiere Underground Gardens [tips]
• Fresno: Soul Consoling Japanese Internment Tower [tips]
• Garberville: Famous One Log House [tips]
• Gardena: Big Doughnut, Donut King II [tips]
• Geyserville: Isis Oasis Temple and Retreat
• Geyserville: Coppola Winery Movie Museum
• Gilroy: Circus Trees at Gilroy Gardens
• Glen Ellen: Jack London's Grave, Wolf House Ruins
• Glendale: Big Gold Mall Statue of D-Day Dead
• Glendale: Museum of Neon Art [tips]
• Glendale: Stained Glass Last Supper [tips]
• Glendora: Rubel Castle
• Guadalupe: DeMille's 10 Commandments Buried Here [tips]
• Guerneville: Pee Wee Golf
• Half Moon Bay: Pumpkin Farm, Labyrinth, Gladiator Battles [tips]
• Half Moon Bay: English Pub With Double Decker Bus, Giant Pumpkin
• Happy Camp: Surreal Bigfoot Sculpture [tips]
• Hat Creek: Big Roy, Muffler Man [tips]
• Hawthorne: SpaceX Dragon Rocket Monument
• Hayward: Big Mike the Muffler Man
• Hayward: Muffler Man: Happy Halfwit Hollywood
• Hayward: Wagon Ho Pioneer Giant
• Hayward: Muffler Man Cowboy - Big Don
• Hayward: Muffler Man - Paul Bunyan No. 2
• Hayward: Doggie Diner Heads [tips]
• Hayward: Firefighter Giant - Muffler Man [tips]
• Healdsburg: 26-Foot-Tall Coyote
• Healdsburg: Lord Snort: Giant Boar of Junk [tips]
• Hollywood: Hollywood Forever Cemetery
• Hollywood: Museum of Death
• Hollywood: RockWalk - Handprints Of Rockers
• Hollywood: Johnny Ramone Grave [tips]
• Hollywood: Atlas Missile Grave Marker
• Hollywood: Hollywood Museum
• Huntington Beach: International Surfing Museum: World's Largest Surfboard
• Huntington Beach: Statue Of Old Sarge - Dog Hero of World War II [tips]
• Indio: Shields Date Garden: Date Capital of the World [tips]
• Inglewood: Big Doughnut, Randy's Donuts
• Inverness: Point Reyes Lighthouse: The Fog
• Irwindale: Tour the Sriracha Hot Sauce Factory
• Jacumba: Desert View Tower
• Joshua Tree: Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum [tips]
• Joshua Tree: Metal Dinosaurs [tips]
• Joshua Tree: Big Josh: Cowboy Muffler Man [tips]
• Julian: Eagle Gold Mine Tour
• Keene: Grave of Cesar Chavez [tips]
• Kettleman City: Bravo Land
• Klamath: Trees of Mystery: Giant Bunyan and Babe
• Klamath: Tour-Thru Tree
• Klamath: Radar Station B-71: Farmhouse Disguise
• La Jolla: Gift Shop Built Over a Sea Cave [tips]
• La Jolla: House Teetering on Edge of Roof
• La Jolla: The Scripps Turd [tips]
• La Jolla: Giant Snake Mosaic Walkway
• La Jolla: Teddy Bear Made of Boulders [tips]
• La Puente: Drive-Thru Donut: The Donut Hole
• Lafayette: Hill Of Crosses - Iraq War Dead Soldiers
• Lake Balboa: Valley Relics Museum [tips]
• Lake Hughes: Quail Run Ostrich Ranch [tips]
• Lancaster: The Musical Road [tips]
• Landers: The Integratron [tips]
• Landers: Giant Rock [tips]
• Lathrop: Crashed UFO at the Grocery Store
• Lee Vining: Upside Down House [tips]
• Leggett: Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree
• Lemon Grove: World's Largest Lemon
• Lemoore: Giant Transformer Robot [tips]
• Lemoore: Creepy Farm People Dummies [tips]
• Livermore: Longest Continuously Burning Light Bulb
• Livermore: Muffler Man - Rodeo Season [tips]
• Lodi: A&W Burger Family [tips]
• Lone Pine: Nightmare Rock [tips]
• Lone Pine: Movie Road [tips]
• Lone Pine: Lone Pine Film History Museum [tips]
• Long Beach: Queen Mary
• Long Beach: Giant Lincoln Penny
• Los Angeles: 50-Foot-Long Woman with Visible Organs
• Los Angeles: Icons of Darkness
• Los Angeles: Academy Museum of Motion Pictures [tips]
• Los Angeles: Simon Rodia's Watts Towers
• Los Angeles: Bronson Caves - Batman's Bat Cave [tips]
• Los Angeles: Muffler Man - Sergio [tips]
• Los Angeles: Chicken Boy: Muffler Man
• Los Angeles: La Brea Tar Pits
• Los Angeles: Giant Italian Chair [tips]
• Los Angeles: Urban Light - 202 Lit Lampposts
• Los Angeles: Mount Wilson Observatory [tips]
• Los Angeles: Cosmos-Themed Encounter Lounge [tips]
• Los Angeles: The L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition [tips]
• Los Angeles: Statue of Businessman With Head Stuck In Building [tips]
• Los Angeles: Petersen Auto Museum [tips]
• Los Angeles: Buried Face-Down Above Marilyn Monroe [tips]
• Los Angeles: Garden of Oz [tips]
• Los Angeles: Angels Flight: World's Shortest Railway
• Los Angeles: Forest Lawn Cemetery: Most Patriotic Place in LA
• Los Angeles: Space Shuttle Endeavor [tips]
• Los Angeles: LAPD Museum
• Los Angeles: Pierce Brothers Westwood Memorial Park [tips]
• Los Angeles: Hollywood Sign [tips]
• Los Angeles: Big Bronze Bruce Lee
• Los Angeles: Funko Hollywood
• Los Angeles: Phantasma Gloria at Randyland LA [tips]
• Los Angeles: Diorama Museum of Bhagavad-gita [tips]
• Malibu: Salsa Muffler Man
• Marysville: Museum of the Forgotten Warriors [tips]
• Mentone: Muffler Man - Paul Bunyan [tips]
• Mill Valley: Nike Missile Site SF-88L
• Mill Valley: Redwood Cross-Section of Time
• Mill Valley: Battery Townsley
• Monterey: Steinbeck's Spirit of Monterey Wax Museum
• Mountain View: Computer History Museum [tips]
• Myers Flat: Shrine Drive-Thru Tree
• Napa: Portal to Hell: Monticello Dam Drain [tips]
• Newhall: Horse Drawn Hearse Under Glass [tips]
• Newport Beach: Bunnyhenge [tips]
• Niland: Salvation Mountain
• Niland: Slab City [tips]
• Niland: East Jesus [tips]
• Norco: Pumpkin Rock [tips]
• North Fork: Stand on the Exact Center of California [tips]
• North Hollywood: Television Hall of Fame
• North Hollywood: Portal of the Folded Wings, Space Shuttle Memorial
• North Hollywood: Columbia, Challenger, and Criswell in Valhalla
• Novato: Olompali: Miwoks, Chosen Family, Grateful Dead
• Oakland: Champions For Humanity: Mount Rushmore of California
• Ocotillo: Coyote's Flying Saucer Retrievals and Repairs
• Olancha: Junk Art Sculptures - Give/Take [tips]
• Oro Grande: Elmer Long's Bottle Tree Ranch
• Oroville: Bolt's Antique Tool Museum
• Pacific Grove: Sandy The Gray Whale [tips]
• Pacific Grove: P.G. Butterfly House
• Pacific Grove: Tree Carved Octopus Attacking Ship
• Pacifica: Sam's Castle [tips]
• Palm Springs: Car Plunge into Water
• Palm Springs: Giant Marilyn Monroe [tips]
• Palm Springs: RoboLights Sculpture Garden [tips]
• Palmdale: Blackbird Park - Spy Plane Hometown [tips]
• Palo Alto: Body of Urban Myth [tips]
• Palo Alto: Naked Running Car Statue [tips]
• Palo Alto: Statue of Nikola Tesla [tips]
• Pasadena: Giant Fork
• Pearsonville: Uniroyal Gal [tips]
• Petaluma: Rancho Obi-Wan [tips]
• Petaluma: Military Antiques and Penry Museum
• Phillipsville: Chimney Tree, Old Hobbiton USA
• Piercy: Confusion Hill
• Placerville: Hanged Dummy at Hangman's Tree [tips]
• Point Reyes Station: 1906 Earthquake Trail
• Ranchita: Rancheti the Yeti [tips]
• Redcrest: The Eternal Tree House
• Redwood City: Pulgas Water Temple
• Rialto: Wigwam Village Motel No. 7
• Richmond: Rosie the Riveter Visitor Center
• Rio Vista: Foster's Bighorn - 300 Heads
• Riverside: Vietnam War Dog Memorial
• Riverside: Sanchez's Beer Bottle Chapel, Folk Art [tips]
• Riverside: Hand-Made Dinosaurs [tips]
• Sacramento: Alien Tourist Trailer
• Sacramento: One-Log Kevin Costner
• Sacramento: Pancake Circus: Clown-Themed [tips]
• Salinas: Giant Roadside Art of John Cerney [tips]
• San Anselmo: Indiana Jones and Yoda Statues
• San Bernardino: First Original McDonald's Museum
• San Carlos: Hiller Aviation Museum [tips]
• San Diego: Air and Space Museum: Nazi Flying Wing, Apollo 9 Capsule [tips]
• San Diego: Embracing Peace Statue
• San Diego: San Diego Police Museum [tips]
• San Diego: Our Lady of Shoes
• San Diego: A National Salute to Bob Hope and the Military
• San Diego: Presidents Museum in a High School [tips]
• San Diego: Model Railroad: World's Largest? [tips]
• San Diego: Louie Mattar's Fabulous $75,000 Cadillac
• San Francisco: Doggie Diner Heads
• San Francisco: Wave Organ
• San Francisco: Musee Mecanique
• San Francisco: Cupid's Span [tips]
• San Francisco: St. Francis Made of Melted Guns
• San Francisco: Tonga Room
• San Francisco: Paxton Gate - Taxidermy Art
• San Francisco: Crookedest Street in the World
• San Francisco: Famous Lounging Sea Lions
• San Francisco: Sutro Baths Ruins and Cave
• San Francisco: USS Pampanito Submarine Museum
• San Francisco: Albino Alligator
• San Francisco: Urge - Robot Mimics You
• San Francisco: Comic Rockstars Toilet Seat Museum [tips]
• San Francisco: Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Odditorium
• San Francisco: Magic Bus
• San Francisco: Cement Slides [tips]
• San Francisco: Real Crookedest Street in San Francisco
• San Francisco: Beach Chalet: WPA Frescos, Undersea Stairs
• San Francisco: 826 Valencia: Pirate Supply Store [tips]
• San Francisco: Ceramic Congregation: Internet Archive
• San Francisco: Madame Tussauds
• San Francisco: Japanese Tea Garden [tips]
• San Francisco: Urban Putt
• San Gabriel: Monster Park [tips]
• San Jose: Winchester Mystery House
• San Jose: Babe the Muffler Man
• San Jose: Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum [tips]
• San Jose: Olympic Black Power Statue
• San Leandro: 55-Foot-Tall Nude Woman [tips]
• San Luis Obispo: Bubble Gum Alley [tips]
• San Luis Obispo: Madonna Inn [tips]
• San Pedro: Battleship and Barbershop of Presidents
• San Pedro: SS Poseidon Model [tips]
• San Quentin: San Quentin Prison Gift Shop (and Museum) [tips]
• San Rafael: Museum of International Propaganda
• San Simeon: Hearst's Xanadu [tips]
• San Simeon: Watch the Elephant Seals [tips]
• Santa Clara: 32-Foot-Tall Steel Mary [tips]
• Santa Clara: Intel Museum
• Santa Clarita: Star Trek Gorn Battle Rocks - Vasquez Rocks [tips]
• Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz Mystery Spot
• Santa Cruz: Blue Whale Skeleton [tips]
• Santa Fe Springs: Oxman's Surplus Museum
• Santa Monica: Mushroom Cloud Made of Chains
• Santa Rosa: Menacing Goblins [tips]
• Santee: Creation and Earth History Museum
• Sebastopol: Demented But Lovable Dog Statue [tips]
• Sebastopol: Amiot's Junk Art Characters [tips]
• Sequoia National Park: Tunnel Log: Drive Thru a Fallen Sequoia
• Sequoia National Park: General Sherman: World's Largest (not Tallest) Tree
• Sequoia National Park: General Grant - World's 3rd Largest Tree [tips]
• Sequoia National Park: Home in a Log [tips]
• Simi Valley: Ronald Reagan Museum and Library
• Simi Valley: Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village
• Simi Valley: World's Largest Skateboard Collection [tips]
• Solvang: Ostrichland USA [tips]
• South El Monte: American Military Museum: Tanks [tips]
• South Lake Tahoe: Magic Carpet Mini Golf
• Stockton: Giant Buddha Statues [tips]
• Sunol: Bosco the Dog Mayor
• Sutter Creek: Muffler Man [tips]
• Sylmar: Nethercutt Collection: Rare Cars And Music Machines [tips]
• Taft: The Great Mouse Invasion - West Kern Oil Museum
• Taft: Giant Oil Worker Monument [tips]
• Temecula: Ronald Reagan Can-Do Statue [tips]
• Torrance: JFK Toilet Bowl Memorial
• Traver: Watch Cheese Made, Climb 7-Story Tree House [tips]
• Trona: Trona Pinnacles
• Truckee: Donner Party Monument: Cannibals!
• Tulelake: Lava Beds National Monument [tips]
• Turlock: Office Shaped Like Bulldozer
• Tustin: Two Giant Airship Hangars [tips]
• Twentynine Palms: End of the World Sign [tips]
• Twentynine Palms: Outdoor Collection of Vintage Neon Signs [tips]
• Ukiah: World's Largest Redwood Tree Service Station
• Ukiah: City of Ten Thousand Buddhas
• Valle Vista: Nightly Bat Swarm
• Vallecito: Moaning Cavern
• Vallejo: Mare Island Naval Missile Park
• Valley Village: Metropolitan Pit Stop: Niche Minicar Museum [tips]
• Van Nuys: Muffler Man - Kevin
• Venice: Clownerina - Giant Clown in Tutu
• Venice: Beach Bordello, Gargoyle-Encrusted
• Venice: Mosaic Tile House [tips]
• Ventura: Backyard Muffler Man [tips]
• Victorville: California Route 66 Museum - Hulaville Model [tips]
• Vina: Medieval Monastery [tips]
• Viola: Muffler Man Paul Bunyan [tips]
• Walnut Creek: Hand of Peace [tips]
• Weed: Living Memorial Sculpture Garden [tips]
• Weott: Charles Kellogg's Travel Log
• West Hollywood: Tail o' the Pup
• West Hollywood: Rocky and Bullwinkle
• Westminster: Vietnamese Boat People Memorial
• Westport: Westport Whale [tips]
• Willits: Muffler Man: Cowboy Willy [tips]
• Willow Creek: Bigfoot Capital: Museum and Statue
• Willow Creek: Community Building Bigfoot Mural
• Winterhaven: Remains of the Imperial Dunes Plank Road
• Winterhaven: Imperial Valley Sand Dunes [tips]
• Woodland Hills: Old Trapper's Lodge Statues
• Yermo: Calico Ghost Town [tips]
• Yermo: Peggy Sue's Diner and Diner-Saur Park [tips]
• Yermo: Liberty Sculpture Park: Crazy Horse, Tiananmen Square
• Yorba Linda: Richard Nixon Museum and Birthplace
• Yucca Valley: Desert Christ Park
• Yucca Valley: Sky Village Swap Meet Folk Art [tips]