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California

Find California travel tips, stories, maps, videos and news for unusual tourist attractions and sights.

New Reports

  • Hollywood Walk of Fame

    Hollywood Walk of Fame

    Hollywood, California

    Many of the entertainment industry's famous (and infamous) celebrities transformed into pink terrazzo stars you can walk on.

  • Giant Marilyn Monroe

    Giant Marilyn Monroe

    Palm Springs, California

    A full-color statue, 26 feet tall and 15 tons, mimics a famous publicity photo of Monroe standing atop a New York City subway grate, her dress billowing in an updraft.

  • Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park

    Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park

    Calabasas, California

    Eternal rest for Rudolph Valentino's dog, Mae West's monkey, a Leo the Lion, and "Room 8," famous school cat of the '60s.

Sights for Oddball Excursions

  • Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden

    Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden

    Escondido, California

    Colorful fantasy sculpture world of tiles and serpents. Massive work by sculptor and painter Niki de Saint Phalle.

  • Official Center of the World

    Official Center of the World

    Felicity, California

    Mayor Istel built his town smack over the Center of the World, now site of a pyramid, church and world history in granite.

  • In the Box Tour: Battles in Fake Iraq

    In the Box Tour: Battles in Fake Iraq

    Fort Irwin, California

    Fake Iraq and Afghan villages built for Army training employ actor-citizens and insurgents. Special attack tours.

  • Trees of Mystery: Giant Bunyan and Babe

    Trees of Mystery: Giant Bunyan and Babe

    Klamath, California

    Giant statues guard the entrance to classic Trees of Mystery, full of redwoods, corkscrew mutants and arboreal anomalies.

  • Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree

    Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree

    Leggett, California

    Drive-thru trees. The horror! The Wonder! Here's an Avenue of the Giants favorite.

  • Simon Rodia's Watts Towers

    Simon Rodia's Watts Towers

    Los Angeles, California

    An oft analyzed and revered monumental junk art construction of tall spires by outsider artist Sabato Simon "Sam" Rodia, built from 1922 to 1954.

  • Salvation Mountain

    Salvation Mountain

    Niland, California

    The late outsider artist Leonard Knight painted huge, divinely inspired visions on a desert dirt ridge he called Salvation Mountain.

  • Ken Fox's Great Statues of Auburn

    Ken Fox's Great Statues of Auburn

    Auburn, California

    Concrete colossi built by Auburn dentist-sculptor Ken Fox.

  • Beasts of Borrego Springs

    Beasts of Borrego Springs

    Borrego Springs, California

    Desert sculpture gallery of dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals, and at least one sea monster, scattered over three square miles.

  • Claude Bell's Dinosaurs

    Claude Bell's Dinosaurs

    Cabazon, California

    Over-photographed desert dinosaurs, immortalized in Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Built by Claude Bell, who ran the Wheel Inn on I-10.

  • Museum of Jurassic Technology

    Museum of Jurassic Technology

    Culver City, California

    A collection both cryptic and illuminating, dedicated to raising public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic.

  • Unarius Academy of Science

    Unarius Academy of Science

    El Cajon, California

    Headquarters of the Unarians, firm believers that 33 city-ships of the galactic Federation would arrive on Earth in 2001 (they didn't).

  • Jelly Belly Factory Tour and Museum

    Jelly Belly Factory Tour and Museum

    Fairfield, California

    The factory that makes the jelly beans that a President once made famous.

  • Bigfoot Discovery Museum

    Bigfoot Discovery Museum

    Felton, California

    The hairy biped, spotted between surfing beaches and Silicon Valley.

  • Pee Wee Golf

    Pee Wee Golf

    Guerneville, California

    The 36-hole course opened in 1948 may be the birthplace of Odd Golf Sculpture.

  • Big Mike the Muffler Man

    Big Mike the Muffler Man

    Hayward, California

    1960s vintage fiberglass Bunyan statue spent career in front of Hayward businesses before settling at a plastics fabrication business.

  • Museum of Death

    Museum of Death

    Hollywood, California

    Grisly romp through funeral customs, celebrity murders, freak animals, and art of the condemned.

  • Point Reyes Lighthouse: The Fog

    Point Reyes Lighthouse: The Fog

    Inverness, California

    300+ steps down to 1870 lighthouse at the cold, windy, foggy western reaches of Point Reyes National Seashore.

  • Tour-Thru Tree

    Tour-Thru Tree

    Klamath, California

    A living 800-year-old redwood you can drive thru for a few bucks.

  • Drive-Thru Donut: The Donut Hole

    Drive-Thru Donut: The Donut Hole

    La Puente, California

    A doughnut shop sandwiched between two giant doughnuts is the very definition of the drive-thru attraction.

  • Nike Missile Site SF-88L

    Nike Missile Site SF-88L

    Mill Valley, California

    NPS conducts tours through remarkably well-preserved Cold War facility, built to fire supersonic missiles at approaching Soviet bombers.

  • Battery Townsley

    Battery Townsley

    Mill Valley, California

    World War II era coast artillery bunker restored and open once a month for tours. Big guns, nuclear pressure tests, former teen burner hangout.

  • Steinbeck's Spirit of Monterey Wax Museum

    Steinbeck's Spirit of Monterey Wax Museum

    Monterey, California

    The history of Monterey unfolds in wax: prostitutes, Indians, a bull and a bear in a bloody death struggle, and John Steinbeck. Closed in 2023.

  • Shrine Drive-Thru Tree

    Shrine Drive-Thru Tree

    Myers Flat, California

    One of California's original drive-thru tree attractions is along the Avenue of the Giants.

  • Columbia, Challenger, and Criswell in Valhalla

    Columbia, Challenger, and Criswell in Valhalla

    North Hollywood, California

    Portal of the Folded Wing, space shuttle memorial, and remains of the Amazing Criswell.

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