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Anacapa Island

Anacapa Island

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9:48
A Slice of Pizza at Tony's and a Ride on the Ojai Trail

A Slice of Pizza at Tony's and a Ride on the Ojai Trail

Video
6:56
Andria's Seafood

Andria's Seafood

Video
2:19
Crème Caramel LA: How to Make Leche Flan

Crème Caramel LA: How to Make Leche Flan

Video
2:11
Alchemy Craft: Beers and Wine in Montebello

Alchemy Craft: Beers and Wine in Montebello

Season 3 Episode 1
7:57
Los Originales Tacos Árabes de Puebla: Secret Family Recipe

Los Originales Tacos Árabes de Puebla: Secret Family Recipe

Season 3 Episode 2
7:59
Babes of Wellness: Health & Community in Compton

Babes of Wellness: Health & Community in Compton

Season 3 Episode 3
7:08
The Tree Yoga Cooperative: Find Wellness in South LA

The Tree Yoga Cooperative: Find Wellness in South LA

Season 3 Episode 4
7:40
Obet and Del’s: The Coffee Shop Rocking Hollywood

Obet and Del’s: The Coffee Shop Rocking Hollywood

Season 3 Episode 5
8:09
Episode 5: The Calling

The Calling

Season 4 Episode 5
53:05
When Whales Could Walk

When Whales Could Walk

Season 51 Episode 1
53:31
Tuberculosis: The Forgotten Plague

Tuberculosis: The Forgotten Plague

Season 6 Episode 5
26:49
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SoCal Wanderer

A Slice of Pizza at Tony's and a Ride on the Ojai Valley Trail

Rosey meets Bruce Barrios of Surfers Point favorite Tony's Pizzaria. She then takes the 16-mile bike path that runs from Ventura to Ojai and rides into the valley with city council member Suza Francina.
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Explore Southern California
Pineapple Mama Vintage
Pineapple Mama Vintage in East Hollywood is a vintage clothing store offering resale and consignment items, many of which are one-of-a-kind.
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Raspados Don Manuel #2
Raspados Don Manuel #2 is one place in Boyle Heights where you can get authentic Mexican shave ice in a variety of fruit flavors, as well as other frozen desserts.
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Cesar Chavez Avenue murals
Many colorful murals, both historic and contemporary, can be seen painted on various building façades along Cesar Chavez Avenue in Boyle Heights.
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Estrada Courts
Estrada Courts is a housing complex in Boyle Heights that is considered to be the birthplace of the Chicano Mural Movement. Murals visible from public areas include "We Are Not a Minority," which is visible from the sidewalk along Olympic Boulevard.
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Mariscos Linda
Mariscos Linda is one of the food trucks serving up tacos along Olympic Boulevard in Boyle Heights.
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Compton/Woodley Airport
At Compton/Woodley Airport, young aspiring pilots learn how to take flight and help make aviation more diverse.
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Patria Coffee Roasters
Patria Coffee Roasters serves up coffee slushes, flash brews, Mexican mochas and more — which you can use to wash down a gooey chocolate chip cookie.
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Planet Health Compton
Planet Health Compton is a community hub in Compton consisting of a juice bar (The Juice Trap), vegan restaurant (Planet Health), wellness shop (House of Self), and streetwear retail (Vegan State of Mind Clothing). <br/>
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Augustus F. Hawkins Nature Park
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Coffee del Mundo
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The Beehive (former Goodyear Plant)
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Baba's Vegan Cafe
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Riverside Art Museum
Located just one block down from The Cheech, RAM is housed in the circa 1929 former YWCA designed by Hearst Castle architect Julia Morgan.
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The Mission Inn
Riverside's castle-like hotel began as a tiny adobe boarding house and expanded, wing by wing, until it took up an entire city block when it was completed in 1931.
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Barstow-Daggett Airport
Barstow-Daggett Airport was officially built in 1933, but its beginnings date back to 1930 – when air flight wasn't so common, so it was outfitted with a radio beacon and used as a Desert Airways Communication Station to help pilots navigate.
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Santa Anita Racetrack
In 1942, racing was suspended at Santa Anita, and its facilities were used as a Japanese internment camp, per Executive Order 9066 signed by FDR.
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Chocolats du Cali Bressan
Chocolatier Jean-Michel Carré spent 40-some-odd years as a French chef at his own restaurant in France – and now he brings that haute cuisine sensibility to his chocolate-making at his own shoppe, Chocolats du Cali Bressan.
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Letterpress Chocolate
What happens when a Hollywood graphic designer who volunteers at the International Printing Museum gets interested in cacao? You end up with Letterpress Chocolate
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Desert View Tower
The very top of Desert View Tower is known as the "Hurricane Deck," used during WWII to look for Nazis who might be crossing the border from Mexico.
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Compartés
Compartés has been making chocolate in L.A. since 1950 – but what it offers now under the leadership of upstart owner Jonathan Grahm isn’t your grandmother’s candy bar.
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Elvis Festival
For a free, all-day tribute to The King – near the anniversary of his death, look no further than Garden Grove.
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Azteca Restaurant and Lounge
At Azteca Restaurant and Lounge, “The King” is everywhere. Memorabilia doesn’t just cover all the walls – it’s on the ceiling, too.
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Elvis “Honeymoon Hideaway”
After eloping in Vegas to escape paparazzi in 1967, Elvis and Priscilla spent six months as newlyweds at the Alexander Estate, colloquially known as "The House of Tomorrow."
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Chocovivo
Taking a bite of the dark chocolates at Chocovivo – which sources all its cacao beans from a farm in Tabasco, Mexico – is like tasting the nectar of the Mayan gods.
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Paramount Pictures
Take the Paramount Pictures Studio Tour to walk in Elvis’s footsteps from his time as a Hollywood movie star.
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Velveteria
L.A.’s own velvet art museum, Velveteria, has dedicated an entire corridor to the patron saint of velvet paintings.
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Walker Canyon, Lake Elsinore
The most reliable spot in Lake Elsinore to peep our poppies is Walker Canyon.
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Borrego Springs
The rest of the year, California’s largest state park is a well-kept secret. But during wildflower season, it’s one of the best places in Southern California to reliably see a good burst of color.
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Diamond Valley Lake, Hemet
One super bloom destination that’s not open any other time of year is Riverside County’s Wildflower Trail at Diamond Valley Lake.
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Apricot Lane Farms
Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark is probably a real-life version of the romanticized vision that most people have of farms, farmers and farming.
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Ventura County Farm Day
Ventura County Farm Day is an agricultural festival on steroids – a one-day bonanza of produce, hayrides, free samples and demonstrations.
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Santa Paula Agriculture Museum
An outpost of the Museum of Ventura County, the Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula is a destination for both historical exhibits on farming (and ranching) and also a window into the region’s current agricultural focus.
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The Flower Fields
In its current location since 1965, The Flower Fields is notoriously open for a narrow seasonal window – usually early March through Mother’s Day (this year May 12).
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Earthworks Farm Community Garden
Situated in what’s conventionally considered a “food desert,” Earthworks Farm & Community Garden is an agricultural oasis among fast food and freeways.
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Mt. Hollywood
Not to be confused with Mt. Hollywoodland, Mt. Hollywood is another of Griffith Park’s most popular destinations.
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Mt. Wilson
At nearly 6,000 feet above sea level, you can take a peek at the world below from its edge, as you hike along the Sturtevant Trail to Echo Rock.
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San Vicente Mountain
San Vicente Mountain Park is a former NIKE Missile Control Site (LA-96C), located above an unpaved portion of Mulholland Drive between Bel Air and Encino.
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Mt. Lukens
The tallest peak in the City of Los Angeles is named after two-time former Pasadena mayor Theodore Lukens.
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Powers Place
If you find yourself between the Victorian mansions of the South Bonnie Brae Tract Historic District and Alvarado Terrace Historic District, don’t blink – or you’ll miss the 13-foot-long brick-paved streetscape known as Powers Place.
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Riverside Roundabout
L.A. got its first modern roundabout – and so far, its only one – just two years ago, in 2017.
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The Abandoned Right-of-Way to Self-Realization Fellowship
Venture to the corner of Marmion Way and Avenue 43 and you’ll spot the original terminus of the Los Angeles & Mt. Washington Incline railway at the bottom of the mount.
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Point Fermin Lighthouse Historic Site and Museum
Constructed out of California redwood, Point Fermin Lighthouse is one of three remaining Stick-style Victorian lighthouses in the U.S.
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Angel’s Gate Lighthouse
At the end of a breakwater that curves and stretches out for two miles from the shore of San Pedro, you’ll find a tiny black and white lighthouse, known colloquially as Angel’s Gate Lighthouse.
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Point Vicente Lighthouse
The grounds may have the feeling of an abandoned military site, but the light at Point Vicente is still a working lighthouse – its beacon is essential to mariners in the Catalina Channel.
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Old Point Loma Lighthouse
The San Diego harbor's historic first lighthouse can be found on the San Diego peninsula known as Point Loma, within the bounds of Cabrillo National Monument.
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Anacapa Island Light Station
Anacapa Island Light Station was first lit by lighthouse keeper Frederick Cobb in 1932.
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Tejon Ranch
Strategically positioned between mountains, valley, and desert, much of Tejon Ranch has been conserved and remains relatively undeveloped.
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Iverson Movie Ranch at Garden of the Gods
This old Wild West set is located near Redmesa Road, within the Garden of the Gods park.
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Cold Spring Tavern
Cold Spring Tavern was a stagecoach stop starting in 1868, while the Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez Turnpike Road Company was still building the old stagecoach route.
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Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge
At 400 feet above the canyon floor, it’s the highest arch bridge in the country and the highest of any bridge in California.
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Cachuma Lake Recreation Area
When driving north from Santa Barbara to Los Olivos or Santa Ynez, it’s hard not to notice the big, glimmering body of water over to the right. That’s Lake Cachuma, Santa Barbara County’s second-largest reservoir.
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Cottonwood Springs
Ditch the lines at the Park Boulevard North Entrance to the park and take the 10 Freeway to Exit 168 for Cottonwood Springs Road.
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Cholla Cactus Garden
Still in the southern end of the park in Pinto Basin – but farther north up Pinto Basin Road – is perhaps the prickliest hike you can take in JTNP.
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Pine City
At the Pine City site there is a remarkably dense population of pinyon/piñon pines.
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Warren Peak, Black Rock Canyon
One of the “back doors” into Joshua Tree National Park is Black Rock Canyon, which leads to many hiking trails.
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The NoMad Hotel, The Giannini Building
Formerly the Bank of Italy headquarters (named after its founder, Amadeo Giannini), the palatial, 12-story Giannini Building was dedicated in 1923 and opened to much fanfare.
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Hotel Figueroa, former YWCA
When it was originally built as a YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association) “hostelry” in 1926, Hotel Figueroa was the largest commercial building funded by women for women.
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William Mulholland Memorial Fountain
At the corner of Riverside Drive and Los Feliz Boulevard in Los Feliz, spitting distance from the Los Angeles River, you’ll find a shrine to the “Father” of L.A.’s water system, William Mulholland.
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Electric Fountain, Beverly Hills
The L.A. area’s first electrified water fountain – in fact, the first in the nation to feature underwater lighting – is the Electric Fountain in Beverly Hills.
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Electric Fountain, Pasadena
Besides its City Hall, one of the most recognizable icons of Pasadena may be the monumental, electrical power-generating Glenarm Power Plant.
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“Youth Triumphant” Fountain
One of the USC campus’s staggering 30 fountains – count ’em all! – is “Youth Triumphant” by Bavarian sculptor Frederick William Schweigardt.
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Charlie Brown Farms
Charlie Brown Farms offers everything you could ask for on a long car ride – not the least of which includes roadside dinosaurs, a gnome village and BBQ worth standing in line for.
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Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center
Completed in 2014, this three-story, modern marvel evokes an old airship hanger (like those at the Tustin MCAS) more than a railroad depot.
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Angels Flight Railway
If you want to soar to the heights of Bunker Hill, look no further than "The Shortest Railway in the World,” Angels Flight.
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Angel Stadium
It may be in Orange County, but Angel Stadium represents the City of Angels with its major league baseball team, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It’s worth a visit to the home of Angels Baseball, even if only to check out the display of Imagineering behind the left-center field fence.
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Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall
Angelenos may know The Shrine better as a concert venue or as one of the historic past locations of the Academy Awards ceremony, but take one look at the building, and it comes as no surprise that its roots are Masonic in nature.
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Glendale Narrows
The "soft bottom" Glendale Narrows has returned to the wild after the rushing waters broke apart the concrete that had been poured into it to control and channelize floodwaters.
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The Bowtie Project
The Bowtie Project is an 18-acre post-industrial lot along the east bank of the L.A. River, on the other side of Glendale Narrows.
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Los Angeles River Center & Gardens
Near where the Los Angeles River meets the Arroyo Seco — perhaps known better as where the 5 meets the 110 — you’ll find an entire event center dedicated to the L.A. River.
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Olinda Oil Museum
There's a forgotten town within Brea that's all but disappeared, except for a museum that marks the spot where, by 1898, ten oil wells had been drilled into the hillsides — putting Olinda (at least briefly) on the map.
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Arlington Garden in Pasadena
Park on the street and take your time exploring the statuary, reading the messages on Yoko Ono’s “Wish Tree” or walking through a formal allée of olive trees and a pine forest. You can also amble through an oak grove and meadow, and take it slow through the rock labyrinth just before you get to the compost garden.
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Radford Art Walk
Located along the east side of Radford Avenue just outside the CBS Studio Center gate — and just a stone’s throw from the Los Angeles River Bike Path and the Valleyheart Greenway — you’ll find a series of sculptures by Studio City’s own assemblage artist Karl Johnson.
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Pierce Brothers Valhalla/Portal of the Folded Wings
There’s plenty to explore through this park-like space, including the cremated remains of several pioneers of flight — including stunt pilots, balloonists, the second female pilot to be licensed in the U.S. and the Wright Brothers' mechanic. It also houses a scaled-down space shuttle model to commemorate the lost crews of the Challenger and Columbia missions.
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Bob’s Big Boy Broiler, Downey
Carhop dining has been available at this location since 1958.
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Paramount Drive-In
Paramount Drive-In Theatres was originally known as the Roadium (see #2 below) when it opened in 1947 — but was rechristened in 1948 after the City of Paramount. Since reopening six years ago, one screen has been devoted to family-friendly programming.
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Roadium Open-Air Market and Drive-In
First opened in 1950 and built among the abundant strawberry fields that once could be found throughout Torrance, Gardena, Hawthorne and more, this was the second Roadium to open in the Los Angeles area.
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Vineland Drive-In
Located on Vineland Avenue between the 10 and 605 freeways in the San Gabriel Valley, the Vineland Drive-In opened in 1955 with a screening of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” in CinemaScope. It’s been a family-oriented venture from the beginning.
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Mission Tiki Drive-In
The 9-acre, single screen "Mission Drive-In," as it was then known, opened in 1956. Upon its 50th anniversary in 2006, it was rebranded the Mission with a tiki theme.
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Skyline Drive-In
Skyline is located on Old Highway 58 near an old alignment of Route 66/National Trails Highway on Main Street.
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Van Buren Drive-In Theatre
Double features run on all three screens, seven days a week. You don’t have to commit to both showings, though — you’re welcome to exit once the first movie is over.
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Rubidoux Drive-In
The Rubidoux was triplexed in 1983 and still shows double features, including some nostalgic favorites like “The Goonies” and “The Karate Kid.”
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South Bay Drive-In
Originally opened in 1958 as the Bayview Drive-In, the South Bay (since 1960) is located in Imperial Beach, about three miles north of the Mexico border. It is open seven days a week, 362 days a year.
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LAPD Police Academy
The Los Angeles Police Academy is one of the most recognizable landmarks of Elysian Park.
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Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Facility
Elysian Park’s Art Deco monolith by renowned architect Stiles O. Clements has been used as a firefighters’ training facility and drill tower since the Los Angeles Fire Department first leased it from the Navy starting in 1994.
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Barlow Respiratory Hospital
Founder Dr. Walter Jarvis Barlow built the Barlow Sanatorium in the Elysian Valley in 1902. The surrounding hillsides seemed to trap the clean air in the meadow — conditions that would be ideal for TB patients.
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"Frank Glass and Grace E. Simons Memorial Sculpture"
With its heavenly views, the scenic hilltop of Angel’s Point is home to the Frank Glass and Grace E. Simons Memorial Sculpture — a 28-foot-tall public art installation created by Echo Park-born and -based artist, Peter Shire.
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Montecillo de Leo Politi Park
Montecillo de Leo Politi Park is devoted to the memory of Leo Politi, a Fresno-born artist and author who was trained in Italy and made his mark on Los Angeles .
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Elysian Park Adaptive Recreation Center
This spot is worth a visit to see the memorial rock and palo verde tree commemorating the President and Founder of Los Desterrados Former Residents of Chavez Ravine, Louis H. Santillan.
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Chavez Ravine Arboretum
Declared Los Angeles Historical-Cultural Monument #48 in 1967, Chavez Ravine Arboretum was founded in 1863 by Los Angeles Horticultural Society to transform 10 acres of Elysian Park’s western canyon into an exotic forest. Rare trees from around the world are planted here.
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California Broadway Trade Center/Former Hamburger & Sons
In 1908, Downtown Los Angeles became home to the largest department store west of Chicago. It was a giant Beaux Arts-style edifice, nicknamed "The Great White Store" for its glazed terra cotta tiles. The flagship location of Hamburgers, it was almost like a self-contained city.
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The State Theatre
The Spanish Renaissance-style theater, designed by San Francisco-based firm Weeks and Day, is just one part of a 12-story Beaux Arts style office building known as the United Building — the largest brick-clad building in all of L.A.
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Clifton’s Cafeteria
Clifton’s Cafeteria is the sole survivor of a chain of restaurants that once had 10 locations throughout the Los Angeles area. Founded by Clifford Clinton, Clifton’s was a cafeteria-style eatery offering meals on a "Pay What You Wish" basis.
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Burlington/Former Bullock’s
Located on the northwest corner of Broadway at 7th Street, the seven-story structure designed by John Parkinson and G. Edwin Bergstrom dates back to 1906 when it was built at the behest of Bullock’s founder John G. Bullock.
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Palace Theatre
The Palace Theatre opened in 1911 as a vaudeville theater for the Orpheum circuit, subsequently converting to movies and at one point or another operating as the Palace Newsreel Theater and a cinema specializing in Spanish-language film.
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Los Angeles Theatre
The exterior by architect S. Charles Lee gives only a hint as to the explosion of French Baroque decor that adorns the palatial interior lobby, which was reportedly modeled after the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in France.
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Broadway Arcade Building
Built in 1924, the Broadway-Spring Arcade Building isn’t just one building, but actually two towers connected by an alley that runs between Broadway and Spring Street that was converted into a three-story, glass-roofed atrium.
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Roxie
Admire the Art Deco stylings of the Roxie — Broadway’s only theater in that architectural style.
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Cameo Theatre
The Cameo Theatre was originally a project of Hollywood producer W.H. Clune, whose name once sparkled in incandescent lights on a rooftop sign, dazzling passersby. By the 1970s, it was open all night, running quadruple features as a grindhouse.
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Biddy Mason Memorial Park
“Aunt” Biddy’s story — from her birth to her death as one of L.A.’s wealthiest women in 1891, with several real estate holdings — is told on the memorial wall in an installation by artist Sheila Levrant de Bretteville called “Biddy Mason's Place: A Passage of Time.”
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Arcade Theatre
Admire the masterwork of architects Morgan & Walls at the Arcade, which opened as a vaudeville theatre and got renamed as a hat tip to the nearby Arcade Building. Renowned theater architect S. Charles Lee renovated its façade in the 1930s but today, you can still see the original “PANTAGES” lettering.
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Grand Central Market
Grand Central Market has been providing public gathering space centered around food since 1917, when it opened on the ground floor of the Homer Laughlin Building.
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Million Dollar Theatre
Having opened with a tiny stage and a sizeable orchestra pit, the Million Dollar was designed to show silent movies — not stage shows. Inside, it touts a seating capacity of more than 2,000 — which was used for Spanish-language cinema screenings and church services.
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Pacific Southwest Railway Museum, San Diego County
This museum offers scenic train rides out of its Campo facility in the Mountain Empire region of Southern California.
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Southern California Railway Museum, Perris
This sprawling, 100-acre outdoor campus lends itself to exploring rail history at one’s leisure.
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Echo Park Lake Swan Boats
Wheel Fun Rentals offers the chance to ride a larger-than-life swan boat across Echo Park’s historic lake and around its central cascading fountain.
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Irvine Regional Park Water Tricycles, Orange County
Pedal a water tricycle at Irvine’s large regional park.
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Legg Lake Pedal Boats at Whittier Narrows Recreation Area
Here, you can rent pedal boats for either two or four passengers.
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Redondo Beach Pier Pedal Boats
If you’re looking for the pedal boats that once graced the surface of Echo Park Lake until being replaced by oversized swans, look no further than the Redondo Beach Pier.
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Roadium Open-Air Market and Drive-In, Swap Meet
First established in the 1960s, the swap meet has grown to host 500 vendors from dozens of countries who sell new merchandise — like clothing and toys — as well as antiques and other secondhand items.
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Gardena Willows Wetland Preserve
This marshland is part of the 110-square-mile Dominguez Watershed — a last remaining bit of the Laguna Dominguez Slough (or "swamp") that’s teeming with life.
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Chino Hills State Park
Located 10 miles northwest of the city of Corona, Chino Hills State Park offers more than 14,000 acres of open space with a variety of habitats and even microclimates.
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Carrizo Plain National Monument
While the wildflowers start to dwindle farther south, you can venture north to the Central Valley – namely, at the Carrizo Plain National Monument.
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Lancaster, Antelope Valley
The Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve in Lancaster has had impressive displays in years past – super bloom or no super bloom.
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Big Horn Mine
The former mining camp is accessible on foot by hiking along an old wagon road, built by California Mining Company, which purchased Big Horn Mining Company in 1901.
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Wall Street Mill and Lost Horse Mine
To see a largely in-tact stamp mill for milling gold ore, embark to Wall Street Mill and Lost Horse Mine in Joshua Tree National Park.
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Borax Visitor Center
Among the displays outside the Borax Visitor Center are original ore carts, headframes, and a 190-ton truck tire from a 739 Cat truck.
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Searles Lake
There are plenty of other ways to explore Trona’s mining history.
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Ghost Towns of Owens Lake
There are plenty of mining ghost towns in the Owens Valley.
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Mammoth Consolidated Mine
To understand Mammoth today, you have to go back to its mining days.
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Stout Research Center Laboratory and Collection Hall
Join the Anza-Borrego Desert Paleontology Society for one of their public events – including an annual open house at The Stout Research Center Laboratory and Collection Hall at park headquarters.
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Cactus Loop Trail
For true cacti, explore the Cactus Loop Trail, off Yaqui Pass Road, just north of Highway 78 between Lizard Canyon and Stag Cove.
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Ricardo Breceda Sculptures
With most of them concentrated on a private estate known as Galleta Meadows right in the town of Borrego Springs, these larger-than-life sculptures are the work of local artist Ricardo Breceda.
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The Palms at Indian Head
The original architect of The Palms at Indian Head is unknown – but its design can hold its own among the creations of other desert modernists like Cliff May, William Cody, and Albert Frey.
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Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area
Although technically a separate state park property, the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area is Anza-Borrego’s friendly next-door neighbor that allows ATVs and high-clearance.
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Mt. Lee
Did you know that Mt. Hollywoodland – now known as Mt. Lee, where you can find the Hollywood Sign – originally sported a rounded top?
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Mt. Lowe
There are various hiking routes you can take to hike to Mt. Lowe – either from Echo Mountain or elsewhere.
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Eldred Street
Eldred Street is the steepest street in all of California and the third-steepest street in the nation.
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Baxter Street
Most L.A. streets clock in at no more than a 15% grade – at least since the rules changed in the 1950s. But Baxter is at a 32% grade.
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Stoney Point Park
The popular spot for climbing, walking and trainspotting is right off the 118 freeway, near Topanga Canyon Boulevard.
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Pioneer Church at Oakwood Memorial Park
After its relocation in 1965, the church is now in Oakwood Memorial Park in a nook of the Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park, close to the Andora trailhead off Andora Avenue.
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Chatsworth Historical Society at The Homestead Acre
The only remaining homestead cottage of the San Fernando Valley is located within Chatsworth Park South.
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F-1 Engine at Aerojet-Rocketdyne
This rocket engine, the same kind that helped humans get to the moon, now graces the entrance of Aerojet-Rocketdyne’s De Soto Avenue site.
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Saint Francis Dam Disaster National Memorial
The St. Francis Dam marks the site of California's second-worst disaster in terms of fatalities – right behind the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires.
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Mulholland Dam
Like the St. Francis Dam, the Hollywood Reservoir dam was designed by William Mulholland on behalf of the Bureau of Water Works and Supply.
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Lower Van Norman Dam at the Los Angeles Reservoir
This was the site of the former Lower Van Norman Dam, named after Harvey Arthur Van Norman, a William Mulholland employee and friend.
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Hansen Dam
The Hansen Dam Recreation Area includes the dam itself and surrounding park facilities, all of which are managed by the Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation.
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Baldwin Hills Reservoir at Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area
The 338-acre park is what survives of another LADWP reservoir and dam, built upon hills that had been formed by uplift from seismic activity along the Newport-Inglewood fault.
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Embarcadero
The first place to go in Morro Bay is the most obvious one – the bay, whose harbor was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1940s.
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Marina
Although you can rent and launch from the harbor, you’ll find more peace and quiet at Morro Bay State Park.
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Montaña de Oro State Park
Learn about human history at Montaña de Oro State Park by chatting with a ranger or docent at the Spooner Ranch House Museum and General Store (circa 1892).
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Monarch Butterfly Migration
Morro Bay Golf Course provides habitat for migrating monarchs.
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Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival
The Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival provides both locals and travelers a one-stop shop to explore the vast natural area and spot over 200 species of birds in one big bonanza.
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Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
Considered the birthplace of the L.A. region, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is also where Pío Pico was born in 1801.
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Pío Pico State Historic Park
The most accessible, historically preserved and culturally rich resource to learn about Pío Pico’s life is “El Ranchito.”
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Pico House
Architect Ezra F. Kysor designed the Italianate-style Casa de Pico (or Pico House, as it’s still known), which became the first building with indoor plumbing (and bathtubs!) when it opened in 1870.
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Mission San Luis Rey
Pico had a family history with Mission San Luis Rey in North San Diego County, as his father José María Pico had become corporal of guard there in 1798.
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El Campo Santo
Pío Pico’s remains are forever interred at an 1850s-era private family cemetery located at the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum.
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Methuselah, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest
The oldest individually growing organism on the planet is the bristlecone pine, and we’ve got a whole forest of them on the slopes of the White Mountains.
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Champion Lodgepole Pine
The biggest Lodgepole pine tree – not just in California, but in all of the world – can be found at the Bluff Lake Preserve near the mountain community of Big Bear.
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Wally Waldron, Mount Baden-Powell
California’s oldest limber pine clocks in at 1,500 years old – and precariously clings to the spine of Mount Baden-Powell near its summit.
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Parent Washington Navel Orange Tree
California Historical Landmark No. 20 marks what many consider the beginning of the Southern California citrus explosion – the Parent Washington Navel Orange tree.
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California’s First Pepper Tree
In 1830, a sailor brought a seedling from Peru to Mission San Luis Rey in present-day Oceanside, and ever since, the tree has been known here as the California pepper tree.
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Thousand Palms Oasis
Located within the Coachella Valley Preserve, and tucked into the northern edge of the Indio Hills, Thousand Palms Oasis is fed by water that seeps out of the San Andreas Fault.
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Indian Canyons
Palm Canyon is where you can find the world’s largest California Fan Palm oasis.
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Dos Palmas Preserve
Dos Palmas is free to visit and open every day of the year. While it provides shade under the palms, most of the trails are exposed – so bring sun protection and plenty of water.
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Borrego Palm Canyon
Palm Canyon is impossible to miss, with its cluster of shaggy palms towering above the canyon floor – the largest of such palm oases in this state park.
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49 Palms Oasis
Joshua Tree National Park actually contains at least five different oases – some obvious and hard to miss and others more hidden and remote.
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Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park
These priceless paintings could be some of the oldest surviving art in the country – some images could date back as early as the year 1000.
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Knapp’s Castle
Tucked away in the former Santa Barbara Forest Reserve (now Los Padres National Forest), high above the Santa Ynez Valley, is the path to Knapp's Castle.
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Universal Studios Hollywood Studio Tour
Visit Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood, where you can come face-to-face with some of the most classic Universal Monsters.
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Natural History of Horror, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
An exhibit that’s been several years in the making, "Natural History of Horror" links science, history, and the art of movie making by exploring the inspirations for some of cinema’s most iconic monsters.
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The Paley Center for Media
The L.A. outpost of The Paley Center for Media provides more than just special public screenings, new television series previews and classic T.V. cast reunions.
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Halloween Horror Film Location Tour, Dearly Departed Tours
Every year for Halloween, Dearly Departed Tours offers a tour specifically for horror fans to visit famous horror film locations and other sites of significance for horror icons.
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Keys Ranch
Bill Keys managed to thrive on his 80-acre ranch long after Joshua Tree’s heyday of ranching. Today you can tour the ranch.
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Freehand, Commercial Exchange Building
Built as an office building during the economic boom of 1924, The Freehand was once a significant part of L.A.’s commercial core.
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Ace Hotel, United Artists/Texaco Building
The Ace, which opened on Broadway in 2014, actually occupies the former California Petroleum Corporation Building – known later as the Texaco Building
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The Biltmore Hotel
The Biltmore Hotel – part of the Millennium Hotels portfolio since 2009 – was originally built in 1923 as a "statement to the rest of the world that Los Angeles had arrived as an American metropolis."
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The Flight of Europa Fountain
Known for his Prometheus sculpture at Rockefeller Center in New York City, Paul Manship contributed the design for the bronze sculpture in a large fountain at Sunset and Vine in Hollywood, The Flight of Europa.
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La Bella Fontana di Napoli
This Neapolitan-type fountain, which was brought in from the East Coast, has now become synonymous with the charming beachside enclave.
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Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner
Peggy Sue's 50's Diner – a classic and original 50's diner from the actual 1950s (1954, to be exact) – was built out of railroad ties and mortar from the nearby Union Pacific rail yard.
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Tom’s Farms
More than just a tourist attraction since 1971, Tom Barnes’s produce stand has evolved into a bona fide amusement park on weekends.
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Surf Dog Events
“Surf Dog,” the premier competition on the dog surfing circuit, is held annually at Imperial Beach (as well as Huntington Beach).
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Blessing of the Animals
Blessing of the Animals expands upon the original practice of ensuring the health and fertility of livestock and bestows blessings upon any animal you can bring.
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Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens
The Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens is a visual treat. The then mansion was built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style and includes a tiled solarium room and an octagonal reading room surrounding a central courtyard.
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Rancho Calleguas and Adolfo Camarillo House
Rancho Calleguas and Adolfo Camarillo House was once the center of activity of cattle, citrus orchards, walnut trees, lima bean fields, and the mules that hauled the lima beans.
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Leonis Adobe Museum
You’ll find Los Angeles Cultural Monument No. 1, the Leonis Adobe Museum, in the West San Fernando Valley community of Calabasas.
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Heritage Park Village Museum
Heritage Park Village Museum is a permanent outdoor museum that features Oceanside historical landmark buildings.
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Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park
Leo Carrillo Ranch is a historic park owned and ran by the City of Carlsbad. It's considerably smaller than it was in Carrillo's time, but it still contains structures like the old caretaker's quarters.
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Anaheim Founder's Park
If you’re looking for “ground zero” of the original establishment of the Anaheim Colony, Anaheim Founders’ Park is a one-stop shop for early Anaheim agricultural history.
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Pearson Park
One of the park’s main attractions is its cactus garden and the rock-lined, duck-filled Pearson Pond.
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Anaheim Packing District
The Anaheim Packing District houses the landmark Anaheim Packing House, now a food hall and community meeting space that is an eclectic destination for locals and visitors alike.
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Anaheim Arena
This concrete shell dome opened in 1967 and originally housed the Anaheim Amigos basketball team during its inaugural season.
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Angels Point
A short hike you can take to get a heavenly view, not only from above Dodger Stadium, but also across to Downtown Los Angeles and even the Hollywood Sign.
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Angels Gate
You won’t find any pearly gates on the bluffs above San Pedro, but you will get a panoramic view of the Pacific Coast that will take your earthly breath away.
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Monastery of the Angels
If you’re looking to go a little off the beaten path in the angelic realm or indulge in some heavenly treats, head to Beachwood Canyon to visit the cloistered Dominican Contemplative Nuns of The Monastery of the Angels.
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Banc of California Stadium
Look beyond the corporate naming rights of the new home of Los Angeles Football Club, and you’ll see a physical manifestation of our angelic city — an open-air stadium shaped like a pair of angel’s wings.
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Geffen Playhouse
In the 1920s, having a Masonic clubhouse wasn’t an unusual amenity on college campuses throughout the U.S. but the association between freemasonry and UCLA was more prevalent back then.
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Scottish Rite Temple
The former home of the Freemasons of the Scottish Rite Order was briefly open to the public. A mysterious closure in 2019 adds to the building's eccentric history.
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Hollywood Masonic Temple/El Capitan Entertainment Center
This 1920s building still stands next to The El Capitan with its six granite columns out front and its Masonic symbolism and mystical inscriptions about brotherhood amidst the Free and Accepted Masons.
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Lodge Room
Completed in 1923, the brick-clad Highland Park Masonic Temple originally included street level retail shops. Now, it's a live music venue.
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Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Plenty of Angelenos have heard of the “Masonic Lodge” at Hollywood Forever Cemetery without understanding its esoteric origins.
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Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area
Upstream from the Sepulveda Dam, the L.A. River is a thriving, watery surprise with multiple creeks flowing into it and a soft river bottom that you can squish your toes into.
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North Valleyheart Riverwalk/Valleyheart Greenway
Stroll down the path along the Snake Wall, have a seat on the Butterfly Bench, take look at Kevin Carman’s “The Mighty Steelhead” mural and enjoy a shady, quiet respite from nearby Ventura Boulevard.
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Glendale-Hyperion Bridges
A pedestrian bridge was built atop the concrete footings of a former streetcar bridge, where Pacific Electric's Glendale/Burbank Red Car line ran until 1955. It runs alongside the historic Glendale-Hyperion Bridge.
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Rio de Los Angeles State Park/Taylor Yard River Park
Communities adjacent to the river can enjoy sports fields, playgrounds, hiking trails, native plants and wildlife viewing.
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Conejo Valley Botanic Garden
The highest point in Thousand Oaks is one of the best-kept secrets of Ventura County, featuring a natural habitat for birds and small animals, as well as a Butterfly Garden, Herb Garden and Japanese-style Tranquility Garden — all maintained entirely by volunteers.
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Mel’s Drive-In, Sunset Strip
Enjoy your meal on a window-mounted tray table as fifties music plays in the background.
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Mission Tiki Drive-In, Montclair
Now expanded to 27 acres, it shows double features of first-run movies on four screens, seven days a week — and will continue to do so at least through Summer 2020.
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Mel’s Drive-In, Santa Monica
This Armet and Davis-designed Santa Monica spot, built in 1959 as the Penguin Coffee Shop, is bringing back roller-skating waitstaff on a limited basis.
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Mel’s Drive-In, Sherman Oaks
This is one of three fifties-themed Mel’s Drive-In locations.
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Frisco’s Carhop Diner, City of Industry
You find servers rolling past at Frisco’s Carhop Diner, whose City of Industry location is available for event rentals and whose catering business offers the restaurant’s “world famous” carhops (the skaters) for off-site parties.
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Ruby’s Diner, Anaheim
The Downtown Anaheim location of Ruby’s Diner only just opened in 2010, but from the very beginning, it offered carhop service. It also featured roller-skating servers outfitted in retro, red-and-white pinstriped uniforms.
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The Donut Hole, La Puente
The Donut Hole has been in continuous operation in La Puente since 1968 and is one of the few remaining examples of “programmatic” roadside architecture — or a building shaped as the object it’s selling.
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Angelo’s Original Drive-In Hamburgers, Anaheim
Angelo’s Original Drive-In Hamburgers took over for one of the locations of the Burger Chef chain in Anaheim in the 1970s, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that it introduced carhop service, which it has been offering ever since.
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Broguiere's Farm Fresh Dairy, Montebello
A Southern California staple since 1920, Broguiere’s offers milk that’s so fresh, the slogan says, “The Cow Doesn’t Know It’s Missing.”
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United Oil Car Wash, Los Angeles
Designed by the Santa Monica-based firm Kanner Architects to resemble the feeling to a freeway ramp, this car wash is a Tomorrowland ride into the sky that takes the "drive-in" concept to a whole new, curvilinear level.
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Roy’s Motel and Café
Originally established because of its proximity to the chloride mine on Bristol Dry Lake in 1858, the entire town of Amboy in the Mojave Desert has been owned by Albert Okura since 2005.
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Emma Jean’s Holland Burger Café
Emma Jean’s Holland Burger Café is the oldest standing restaurant in the Victorville area.
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So Cal Corgi Nation’s Corgi Beach Days
Meet the corgis, watch them do the limbo, and even pose for photos.
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Basset Hound Picnic
The annual Basset Hound Picnic supports basset hound rescue and relief efforts in Southern California and unwanted bassets in need.
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Bulldog Beauty Contest
Billed as the largest gathering of English bulldogs in the world, the Bulldog Beauty Contest employs real-life beauty queens to determine which will be the “Bull of the Ball.”
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Wiener Dog Races
To witness the ultimate in the “running of the wieners,” visit Los Alamitos Race Course, which hosts the annual Wiener Nationals.
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Kroeger-Melrose Historic District
Subdivided in the late 1880s, the Kroeger-Melrose Historic District was home to landmark businesses like the Del Campo Hotel and the medical school Pacific Sanitarium & School of Osteopathy.
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Anaheim Cemetery
Founded in 1866, Anaheim Cemetery was the city’s first graveyard — and the oldest such burial ground in all of Orange County.
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Bob’s Big Boy, Toluca Lake
You can drive past its 70-foot neon sign and park under the canopy behind this Wayne McAllister-designed coffee shop for breakfast, lunch or dinner any day or night of the week.
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The Hoxton
The Hoxton occupies the 1922 Beaux Arts building that once served as the headquarters of Henry Huntington’s Los Angeles Railway Corporation (a.k.a. the “Yellow Cars”) and its successors.
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Herald-Examiner Building
The Julia Morgan-designed Herald-Examiner Building, commissioned by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst himself, is like a little tiny slice of Hearst Castle right in Downtown Los Angeles.
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Ace Hotel/The Theatre at Ace Hotel
The hotel, which opened in 2014, occupies the former California Petroleum Corporation Building — known later as the Texaco Building. Built by Walker and Eisen, the 12-story office tower was the tallest privately owned building in Los Angeles until 1956.
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Eastern Columbia Building
It's one of the Art Deco treasures of Los Angeles. Named after the Eastern Outfitting and Columbia Outfitting companies, for which it was built to serve as their flagship store, the Eastern Columbia features a turquoise-colored, terra cotta-tiled, gold-leafed exterior that’s one of L.A.'s most photographed and filmed.
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The Tower Theatre
The Tower Theatre is a bit of a curiosity on the strip of historic theaters along Broadway in Downtown L.A. It was built on a very small corner plot of land at Broadway and 8th, with its namesake tower rises rising high above a strip of retail businesses.
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The Orpheum Theatre
In 1926, the Orpheum Vaudeville Circuit found its fourth and final home at Broadway just north of 9th Street, in a Beaux Arts-style building designed by architect G. Albert Lansburgh.
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Urban Outfitters/Former Rialto
Although the circa 1917 theater has been gutted on the inside and, as of 2013, turned into a location of the retail chain Urban Outfitters, the Rialto’s historic marquee — one of Broadway’s longest — is a landmark in and of itself.
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Fillmore & Western Railway, Ventura County
This railway’s weekend scenic excursions run on Saturdays between a restored 1887 Southern Pacific Railroad depot in the town of Fillmore and the neighboring town of Santa Paula, a.k.a. the Citrus Capital of the World.
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Madrona Marsh Preserve and Nature Center
Throughout the preserve’s 43 acres — which may not be very “wet” until the spring — keep your eyes open for birds that flock to this vernal marsh at all times of the year.
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Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet
This market was the brainchild of the “King of the Flea Markets,” Jay Dauley, who helped it grow into the largest weekend swap meet in Southern California.
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The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture
"The Cheech" is a museum of Chicano art that's a public-private partnership between the city, Riverside Art Museum and comedian/actor Cheech Marin — known for assembling the finest collection of Chicano art in the country over the last 40 years.
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The Peter J. Weber House
Riverside has got plenty of historic architecture — from Victorian to Mid-Century Modern — but one of its most intriguing historic homes defies definition when it comes to architectural style.
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Tio's Tacos
At his restaurant, Tio's Tacos, Sanchez takes recycling to great creative heights.
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Heritage House
Riverside's Heritage House is a stunning showcase of what life was like for those who lived on the right side of the tracks at the turn of the last century.
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Ballona Lagoon “Lighthouse” Bridge
The Ballona Lagoon pedestrian bridge on the Marina Peninsula is a good place to start exploring the Ballona Lagoon Marine Preserve.
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Park to Playa
The Park to Playa Trail connects 13 miles of trail from Baldwin Hills all the way out to the Pacific Ocean at Playa del Rey — up and over the traffic zooming by on La Cienega.
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Red Car Pedestrian Bridge
The concrete footings of the former streetcar bridge support a this effort to connect both sides of the river (along the Los Angeles River Bike Path) and the communities that surround it — the Red Car Pedestrian Bridge.
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Venice Canals
You can explore some of the remaining canals on foot — including the Grand Canal (which the Ballona Lagoon connects to) and its four pedestrian bridges. Look for more pedestrian-only bridges between Carroll Court and Court D, Linnie Avenue and Howland Canal, and between Holly Court and Sherman Canal.
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Sunnylands, Rancho Mirage
What Camp David has been to U.S. presidents and other dignitaries on the East Coast, Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage has been on the West Coast. It's no wonder that U.S. presidents like to come to here – because, after all, what more peaceful or relaxing place is there to meet to discuss international relations, AIDS research, and homeland security? It’s certainly welcoming -- the kind of place where you could put your differences aside and really get something done.
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Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Although the library contains a number of artifacts — from campaign propaganda to a section of the Berlin Wall — the pièce de résistance is the Air Force One Pavilion, where you can see and board the fully equipped, commercial-sized jet that carried the president (along with his staffers and members of the media) around the world.
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Solstice Canyon
One of the easiest hikes for those that enjoy a bit of beautiful decay is in Malibu's Solstice Canyon, where the Paul R. Williams-designed "Tropical Terrace" burned down in the 1982 Corral Fire. Enough of the once-private estate remains to attract families, naturalists, and history hounds alike.
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Murphy Ranch Trail
This historic site has captured the imaginations of hikers and historians alike, because no one really knows what actually happened down there in the canyon. This parcel of Rustic Canyon is actually owned by the City of Los Angeles, though it's adjacent to Will Rogers State Park and Topanga State Park.
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St. Francis Dam Disaster Site
A historic monument, and the site of California's second worst disaster (right behind the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires), the remains of William Mulholland's career-ending engineering failure are a short walk down the closed portion of San Francisquito Canyon Road, north of Santa Clarita in the Angeles National Forest.
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Amir's Garden
This volunteer-run ornamental garden is a shady oasis from the sun-soaked pathways of the city’s largest urban park, where hikers, equestrians, and horses alike come for a free rest stop.
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'Moving Rocks' Mystery at Death Valley's Racetrack May Be Solved
For the first time ever the mysterious moving rocks of Racetrack Playa have been seen moving, and the scientists involved think they've figured out how they do it.
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App Shows How to Access All of Malibu's Beaches
The mobile guide maps all of the beaches, and more importantly, how and where to access them.
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Tahquitz Canyon
This isn't a particularly remote spot: the canyon and its famous falls are more or less in downtown Palm Springs.
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Amboy Crater
This 250-foot cinder cone of black lava, long a landmark for westward migrants on Route 66 and its forerunners, is an excellent place to get a glimpse of some of the youngest rock in the Mojave Desert.
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Trona Pinnacles
Starting around a hundred thousand years ago, tufa formations similar to those at Mono Lake began to form in the depths of Searles Lake, which was filled by runoff from the Ice-Age Sierra Nevada.
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Lost Coast Trail
Lost Coast is 60 miles of undeveloped California coast 225 miles north of San Francisco.
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Dockweiler State Beach
This three-mile-long beach bears way more than its share of L.A.'s metropolitan weight.
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Malibu Creek State Park
Okay, this isn't precisely within sight, sound, or smell of the coast, but as this park's eponymous name implies, there is an important connection to the ocean.
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Leo Carrillo State Park
Out here, 28 miles north of the Santa Monica Pier, and beyond the opulent communities of Malibu, are a surprising amount of unspoiled coast and wild lands.
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Anacapa Island
While you can see some of this “cliff island” from a viewing cruise (as well as by kayak), the only way to get in some good birding and wildflowering is to actually get off the boat and ascend over 150 steps to the top of the cliff.
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Kings Canyon National Park
It's possible to enjoy the quiet serenity of waterfalls, the calm beauty of ice-chiseled peaks and valleys and the slow rustle of Ponderosa pines as you hike.
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Island Fox
Channel Islands National Park is home to one of the biggest species comebacks in wildlife history.
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The Haunted Forest
You’ve got to walk through something nicknamed “The Haunted Forest” to reach the Sam Merrill Trail to Echo Mountain in Altadena – but you probably know it better by its more historical name, The Cobb Estate.
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Elfin Forest, Escondido
The site of the former Elfin Forest Vacation Ranch, this recreational reserve seems innocent enough, its trails commonly used by hikers, mountain bikers, and horses alike.
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Mt. Rubidoux
At the northwestern edge of Riverside, along the Santa Ana River whose water flow appears to be long gone, a hill has been designated Mt. Rubidoux – named after early Mexican land grant settler Louis Rubidoux, a successful rancher, miller, and winemaker.
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Valle de Guadalupe
Mexico has a wine region? Yes it does – in Baja, California!
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Highway 14
Wherever you’re going while you’re headed north up the 14 freeway, you may never get there if you discover how many wineries there are along the way.
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Automobile Driving Museum, El Segundo
Generally I’m averse to ranking the places featured in my travel roundups – but in terms of SoCal car collections, the Automobile Driving Museum is by far my number one.
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Vic’s Garage, Torrance
The “Vic” we're talking about here is Vic Edelbrock, Sr. – and Vic's Garage functions as both storage of the family vehicles and a tribute to Vic's early career working on cars before launching his performance parts empire.
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Marconi Automotive Museum, Tustin
In true only-in-California style, Dick Marconi made his fortune off a vitamin empire and weight-loss products – and it was enough of a fortune to mean he could afford to start collecting cars.
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Sandstone Peak, Santa Monica Mountains
Sandstone Peak was once 10,000 feet above sea level — but now, after 10 million years of erosion, it stands at a mere 3111 feet, which is still the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains.
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Eagle Rock, Topanga State Park
Eagle Rock in the Santa Monica Mountains is kind of a junior version of Sandstone Peak, but the trail to it also offers a great hike through Trippet Ranch.
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Bee Rock, Griffith Park
One of the more interesting natural landmarks of Griffith Park, a sandstone outcrop called “Bee Rock,” can also be a little tricky to navigate to and from.
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Pumpkin Rock, Norco
In a small town just north of Corona (hence, “Norco”), a pumpkin smiles down on Horsetown USA. Well, it’s not a real pumpkin — it’s a pumpkin-shaped rock, painted to look like a pumpkin.
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Painted Rocks, Fort Irwin National Training Center
These painted rocks have become a monument to the squadrons visiting Fort Irwin for training — in remembrance of how they braved the sun, the wind, the sand, and the heat in this "desert retreat".
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Easter Rock
Have a seat on Easter Rock — where Easter services were held at sunrise for many years, back in the Mount Lowe's heyday.
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Donner Memorial State Park
Exhibits include displays on the Donner Party, regional Native American history, construction of the transcontinental railroad through the Sierra by Chinese workers, and development of roadways over Donner Pass.
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Cucamonga Peak, San Gabriel Mountains
A strenuous 12-mile roundtrip hike with 3,939 feet elevation gain.
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Mendocino Headlands
In any season, a visit to the Mendocino Headlands will provide a memorable experience. What sites should you explore along the local rivers?
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San Jacinto Peak
Take the 11-mile roundtrip hike, all above 8,000 feet elevation. That mileage is due to a significant and fun way to skip the grueling first part.
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Mono Pass Trail, Yosemite National Park
This jaw-dropping trail starts about a mile into the park's Tioga Pass entrance.
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High Sierra Trail
This amazing trail is over 50 miles but can be broken into segments.
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Abbotts Lagoon at Pt. Reyes
This hike showcases California wildlife, from birds to wildflowers.
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Meditation Mount
Founded in 1971, Meditation Mount is a public meditation center run by a non-profit that’s dedicated itself "in service to humanity."
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Joshua Tree Retreat Center
This is where English journalist Edwin John Dingle – known as Ding Le Mei, upon returning from Tibet – chose to establish his "Institute of Mentalphysics."
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The Integratron
For an “out of this world” experience, go get a sound bath in the acoustically-perfect, wooden, sacred dome building known as The Integratron.
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The Wild Goose, Newport Beach
Registered as a historic landmark, you can actually take a cruise on the yacht that was John Wayne’s home-away-from-home from 1962 to 1979, though its history goes back long before that.
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LAMI TopSail, San Pedro
The Port of L.A. is home to two historic wooden brigantines – a.k.a. "tall ships" – that can be chartered for private parties, and the proceeds go to a good cause.
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Maritime Museum, San Diego
If you’re even remotely interested in boats, the Maritime Museum of San Diego is an absolute must-visit.
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S.S. Lane Victory, San Pedro
Originally launched in 1945 and built right in L.A., this National Historic Landmark entered service at the end of World War II but stuck around to serve in the Korean War, when she evacuated more than 7,000 Korean civilians (including one baby born on board). She then served in the Vietnam Conflict from 1966 to 1970.
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Harbor Cruise, Long Beach
Along the docks near Shoreline Village, next to the Long Beach marina, there are a variety of boats you can take out onto the water, from little powerboats to sailboats, giant yachts, and even a riverboat.
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Tule Elk State Natural Reserve
The only species of elk endemic to California is the tule elk (Cervus canadensis nannodes).
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Catalina Island Bison
If you're lucky, you can see the bison that descended from the working wildlife that Hollywood crews brought to Catalina Island and then left here to roam and reproduce.
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Wild Burros
Burros can be found throughout the Inland Empire, but some stay at places like Wild Burro Rescue in Olancha or Donkeyland in Riverside.
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Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes
At the Rancho Guadalupe Dunes County Park area, a paved access road leads you through the Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve and down to the beach, where you can see the ripples in the sand fields.
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Crystal Cove State Park Campgrounds
Crystal Cove is a holistic, preserved chunk of coastal Southern California, complete with a seaside colony of cottages dating back to the '30s.
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Chula Vista Wildlife
The main use for Sweetwater Marsh now is as the location of the Living Coast Discovery Center, where the green sea turtles munch on romaine lettuce and broccoli.
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Sculpture in Tijuana
Visiting Tijuana today, you’ll see how this border town has evolved and even been revolutionized by art and culture.
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Tecate Cave Paintings
The crown jewel of Baja California’s archaeological sites is at the Sitio Arqueológico El Vallecito in the La Rumorosa village.
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Chino-Latino Culture of Mexicali
Mexicali is home to Mexico's largest Chinatown, known as La Chinesca.
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Mount Baldy
If ski and snow haven’t brought you through the 1950s-era road tunnels in the San Gabriel Mountains to Mount Baldy, allow yourself to be lured by a scenic lift ride to the top followed by lunch at the Top of the Notch Restaurant and maybe even a quick zipline.
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Fossil Falls
Just off the 395 Highway, between the Sequoia National Forest and the Coso Mountains range, you’ll find a “dry waterfall” of sorts.
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Alabama Hills
Named after a Confederate warship named the CSS Alabama, these hills are about as old as the Sierra Nevada mountain range (one of Earth's oldest!).
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The Hollywood Sculpture Garden
Although technically this sculpture garden is artist Robby Gordon’s backyard in the Hollywood Hills, most of it is visible from the roads on either side of it.
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Old Trapper's Lodge Statues
A bunch of endangered old statues – handmade by amateur sculptor John Ehn, a descendent of pioneers who dubbed himself "The Old Trapper" – have found a safe haven in a little nook on the Pierce College campus in a suburban part of the Valley.
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Noah's Art
The “Noah’s Art” exhibit of assemblage art at the Outdoor Desert Art Museum in Joshua Tree is a must-visit.
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Desert Christ Park
Sculptor Frank Antone Martin brought his "Unwanted Christ" to the top of a hill in Yucca Valley, and over the next ten years, more statues followed.
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Jurupa Mountains Discovery Center
To find your own private Jurassic park, follow the marked “Dinosaur Trail” to the top of the hill, where you’ll find portrayals of prehistoric beasts made out of metal, burlap, and even Styrofoam.
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BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
Because it was only just built in 2002, it can take advantage of modern technology and energy efficiency, fusing traditional Indian architecture with modern construction techniques.
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International Society for Krishna Consciousness of Los Angeles
The Hare Krishna Cultural Center just north of Culver City isn’t just a place of worship. It’s actually a temple, a museum and a restaurant — and, to get the full experience, you've got to hit all three of them during your visit.
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Lu Mountain Temple
Tucked away in a residential neighborhood, and distinguishable not by its architecture but by its statuary out front, Lu Mountain Temple is a good place to visit if you want meditate, pray and eradicate your karmic obstructions while surrounded by walls covered in golden Buddhas.
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Wilshire Boulevard Temple
Wilshire Temple — in what was once the western boundary of the City of Los Angeles but now smack dab in the middle of K-Town — is the house that Hollywood built.
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Pico-Union Project
The former temple has now been turned into the interfaith headquarters for the Pico-Union Project, founded in 2013 by Jewish musician Craig Taubman and dedicated to the Jewish principle of "love your neighbor as yourself."
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King Arthur Carrousel
The King Arthur Carrousel is one of the few original rides from Disneyland's 1955 opening.
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Chase Palm Park Carousel
One of three carousels manufactured by Allan Herschell's company between 1915 and 1917 (specifically, this one in 1916), the carousel in Santa Barbara’s kid-friendly Chase Palm Park is one of Herschell's largest, ever.
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Balboa Park Carousel
The carousel in Balboa Park is a major throwback to the early 20th century, but it didn't start its life in San Diego.
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Formosa Cafe
This is one of the best-preserved examples of thematic dining in the L.A. area.
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Highland Theatre
When you consider the fact that Figueroa Street (formerly known as Pasadena Avenue) was a portion of Route 66 that actually became a freeway (the Arroyo Seco Parkway, or the 110) in 1940, Highland Park was the first of many communities to be bypassed by a new freeway being built or Route 66 being realigned.
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Skyspace: Dividing the Light
Not only can you find spellbinding architecture and fascinating flora here, but you can also pay homage to celebrated light and space artist James Turrell at his own alma mater, Pomona College.
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Historic Broadway Sign District
Miss all the glowing signage of Route 66 at night? Well, just head to the former terminus of Route 66 (from 1926 to 1936) at 7th and Broadway in Downtown LA, where the marquees and facades of the Los Angeles Theatre, The Theatre at Ace Hotel (formerly the United Artists Theatre), Clifton’s, and many other businesses – new and old – are lit up with "liquid fire."
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Dana Point Hike | Salt Creek Beach
The Dana Point headlands knuckle their way into the Pacific, creating a dramatic landform that has charmed visitors going back at least to Richard Henry Dana, who landed there in 1835. Today, the point makes for a refreshing place to amble along the beach.
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Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park
The local name for Alta Laguna Park, "Top of the World," kind of says it all. And a trailhead from that perch gives access to hikes where, for miles on end, you will be treated to sweeping views of the Pacific and Catalina Island. Take the 4 mile trail or the more challenging 11 mile hike.
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Crystal Cove Hike | Moro Ridge
The park offers numerous trails to choose from, of varying difficulties. But you could do worse than hiking Moro Ridge, a trail following the namesake ridge from Pacific Coast Highway to Bommer Ridge Road, and north to the park's entrance on the ridge.
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Morro Strand State Beach
Two miles south of Cayucos, this dune laden beach hides 85 campsites off of Trinidad Street.
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Morro Bay State Park
The 141 sites here, mostly RV spots, sit on the bay, not the ocean, giving a coastal experience tempered by the marshes and the bay.
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Gaviota State Beach
Located 33 miles west of Santa Barbara, this is the last stop before the highway cuts inland south of Point Conception.
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Jalama County Beach Park
Even for this stunning region, there's something magical about Jalama.
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Emma Wood State Beach
Though the coast here is beautiful, this RV-only campground with about 100 sites is near railroad tracks and the freeway.
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Faria County Park
Like Emma Wood State Beach, these neighboring RV campgrounds (both are part of Faria County Beach Park) are situated in a narrow coastal ribbon between the beach and the Pacific Coast Highway.
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The Vine
In Sierra Madre, you can find the largest flowering plant in the world, a wistaria plant that grew so fast and so much that it devoured its owners' house in the 1930s.
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Mugu Peak
Point Mugu State Park is also home to 1,200-foot Mugu Peak, a prominent mountain in a landscape of canyons, grasslands, and coastal scrub.
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Music Box Steps
Located near Laurel and Hardy Park, these steps are adorned with a commemorative plaque from their feature in the 1932 film, "The Music Box".
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Grier Musser Museum
A nice Queen Anne Victorian from 1898 and a Historic-Cultural Monument declared by the City of Los Angeles in 1987.
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The Bembridge House
Los Angeles is full of little bedroom communities that used to be cities – places that got gobbled up by a better-known neighboring municipality, and are now just a footnote on a historic plaque. Willmore City is one of those places.
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The Dr. Willela Howe-Waffle House and Medical Museum
The Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle House and Medical Museum was built (almost entirely of redwood) in 1889 as the home and office of physicians Alvin and Willella Howe-Waffle, though during World War II it was divided up into apartments.
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The Doheny Mansion
Oil baron Edward L. Doheny was one of the most prominent residents in the area, having purchased the 22-room mansion at 8 Chester Place (now known as The Doheny Mansion) in 1901 and renovated it extensively over the next year.
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Micheltorena Stairs
This beautiful painted staircase on Sunset Boulevard is lined with flowers and palm trees. Over the years it has been the source of many photographic opportunities for young, hip Angelenos and tourists.
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Gilmore Stadium, The Original Farmers Market
The annual Gilmore Heritage Auto Show is held the first Saturday of every June at The Original Farmers Market.
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Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook
At the bottom, the stairs are liberally spaced out and rise up higher than you might expect, though they become a bit more manageable as you trek upwards. Stairclimbers here range from slow novices to expert runners.
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Paramount Racetrack
The famed racetrack was only open for a few years, having been shut down in the late 1950s once fatalities on it had become too numerous.
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Legion Ascot Speedway
The Ascot Motor Speedway, near the border of Lincoln Heights and El Sereno, will go down in infamy for its death toll.
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Bonelli Ranch Stadium a.k.a. Saugus Speedway
The race car history along Soledad Canyon Road at Saugus Speedway may have ended in 1995 – when stockcar racing ceased because the grandstands were no longer stable enough to hold the crowds of spectators – but it started all the way back in the 1920s as the Baker Ranch Rodeo.
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Runyon Canyon Park
People say that there are two ways to hike Runyon Canyon: the hard way and the easy way. To take the supposed "hard way," turn right at the fork, and soon enough you meet a sign that warns of such steep slopes, you must be in good physical condition to take them.
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Irwindale Speedway
The Speedway has hosted everything from stock cars to midget cars on its "twin ovals."
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Los Angeles International Airport
With food, drink, shopping, architecture and history, LAX is its own destination.
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Hearst Castle
The creation of publishing baron William Randolph Hearst, it fits the bill in terms of lineage, opulence, sprawl, and drama – all the qualities you’d find in any good English castle. Built upon what Hearst named “Enchanted Hill,” the main building – Casa Grande – is actually only one of four places to sleep in the complex, which has a total of 165 rooms (58 of which are bedrooms).
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Mission San Juan Capistrano
Here are the five best ways to explore "The Jewel of the Missions" and the Orange County town that’s one of the oldest in all of southern California.
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L.A. County Fairgrounds
You might think the season for the Los Angeles County fairgrounds begins and ends in September, with the run of the actual fair. But there's more to the "Fairplex" than meets the eye.
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Knapp's Castle
Completed in 1920 by businessman and civil engineer George Owen Knapp, this mountain lodge was originally built on a parcel of land in the Santa Ynez Mountains along San Marcos Pass, known then as the Santa Barbara Forest Reserve. Twenty years later, only a month after the sprawling property was sold off, it burned to the ground in a forest fire.
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Rubel Castle
Michael Rubel turned a former water reservoir into a castle, thanks to labor and materials donated by his friends, rocks collected from the Azusa foothills, and tracks and ties scavenged from a local defunct gold-mining railroad. And it only took him 25 years to complete his fortress, which he lived in until his death in 2007.
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Scotty's Castle
Because of a mixup over land ownership, Scotty’s Castle was never actually finished. You can still see piles of tiles in the basement, and the beginnings of a giant outdoor swimming pool, which was never completed after the stock market crash at the onset of the Great Depression.
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Scientology Celebrity Center
L. Ron Hubbard himself established the former chateau as The Manor Hotel, a religious retreat for Scientologists. You can’t stay there unless you’re a Scientologist, but you can still visit the chateau – by dining at their Renaissance Restaurant, which is open to the public.
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The Magic Castle
With its labyrinth of hallways, secret passages, spooky phone booth, and piano-playing ghost, this former Victorian home is more akin to The Haunted Mansion or the Winchester Mystery House than it is a castle per se. There’s also a dress code that’s strictly enforced, and a secret phrase that must be uttered to gain access beyond the front lobby and gift shop.
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Rose Bowl Stadium
Opened in October of 1922, this National Landmark is the 17th largest stadium in the world. While known as a college football venue, the location is also used for hundreds of events throughout the year including the New Year's Day Rose Parade and is always open to those who'd like to run or stroll.
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Griffith Park & Southern Railroad Holiday Light Train
Winter is when the Griffith Park & Southern Railroad offers rides on their tiny train at night, with everything lit.
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Highway 58
All roads may not lead to Barstow, but at the very least, Highway 58 starts there.
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Murphy Ranch Trail
To see the remains of an intended Nazi command center, hikers need to walk a 3.85-mile roundtrip loop with a modest elevation gain.
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Jurupa Mountains Discovery Center
Although there are more than ten dinosaur sculptures, only a couple of them are near the entrance – so you’ve got to walk through some of the botanical gardens (of which there are nine acres) and up the Dinosaur Trail to find your own private Jurassic Park.
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Palm Springs Aerial Tramway
The Tramway, which has been hauling travelers up Mount San Jacinto since September, 1963, is a quick and painless way to escape the heat of the valley.
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Charlie Brown Farms
Charlie Brown Farms is a wacky roadside pit stop in the Antelope Valley, along a stretch of the Pearblossom Highway that doesn’t have much else by way of dining options, gifts, or dinosaurs. It started out as a humble fruit stand back in 1929, and now it’s got three buildings on six acres with an entire acre just for parking.
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Peggy Sue's Diner-saur Park
A classic and original 50's diner, Peggy Sue's was built in 1954 out of railroad ties and mortar from the nearby Union Pacific rail yard. Appropriately enough for its Calico-adjacent location, it was purchased by another former Knott's Berry Farm employee and reopened in 1987.
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The Getty Villa
You can go watch an outdoor show there in a comparatively modern setting, as you sit across from a recreation of a first-century Roman country house that’s full of antiquities.
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Grand Performances at California Plaza
Up on Bunker Hill, tucked between the two California Plaza towers and just behind the top station of Angels Flight Railway, you’ll find a "water court" that provides multiple performance spaces for the multi-cultural extravaganza known as Grand Performances.
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Santa Rosa Island
Santa Rosa island is incredibly diverse, from oaks, Torrey pines, and cypress to Island red buckwheat, Island red paintbrush, Island monkey flower, and everything in between.
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Spreckels Organ Pavilion
Although many buildings in Balboa Park that were built for the Panama-California Exposition of 1915-17 were intended to be torn down after two years, a couple of "anchor" structures were always meant to be permanent.
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Santa Cruz Island
This island is considered one of those great "day trip destinations" of the Channel Islands, despite requiring a 25-mile boat ride out just to get to the nearly 96-square-mile island.
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Coronado Island
Though technically a “tied” island connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land called the “Silver Strand,” it’s as isolated and distinct as any of our other “true” islands.
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Naples Island
Venice of America is perhaps the most famous home for southern Californian inland islands — famously paved over, that is. The island that once existed at Windward Avenue is no longer surrounded by water and is now the centerpiece of an automotive traffic circle.
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Santa Cruz Island Sea Caves
Out of all of the Channel Islands, Santa Cruz is probably the most famous for its sea caves – because not only is Santa Cruz the largest island of California, but it contains one of the largest (and deepest) sea caves in the world.
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Mitchell Caverns
If only more people knew how incredible these limestone caverns are.
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Circle X Grotto
To get to the talus caves at Circle X, you’ve got to take a reverse hike through the “Camp Circle X” former Boy Scout camp, once settled by Spanish rancheros, where sandstone formations loom in the distance.
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El Matador State Beach
There are beaches that are good for sunbathing, and there are beaches that are good for ocean swimming. El Matador is neither of those.
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Crystal Cave
Amidst the blooming cactus flowers at the former Sky Village Drive-In Theater in Yucca Valley (now known as the home of the Sky Village Swap Meet), you’ll find The Crystal Cave.
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Castle Park
After a successful stint designing rides for Knott’s Berry Farm, Wendell "Bud" Hurlbut opened Castle Park in 1976 — and today, he’s considered one of the country's first creators of the "theme park."
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Santa Monica Pier
Built in 1916 by amusement entrepreneur Charles Looff, it’s the oldest building on the former “Pleasure Pier” — and the landmark is pretty much the last of its kind, having survived fire, wear and tear, and threats of demolition.
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Redondo Fun Factory
Billed as the "largest indoor family entertainment center on the West Coast," the Fun Factory at the Redondo Beach pier is a blast from the past.
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Downtown Bakersfield
Yeah, you heard right. It's not as silly as it sounds. Even right downtown, Bakersfield still has darker skies than you'll find in the L.A. Basin.
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Wind Wolves Preserve
This 95,000-acre preserve operated by the Wildlands Conservancy just west of Grapevine closes daily at 5:00 p.m., so you might not think of it as a stargazing spot.
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Balboa Fun Zone
Technically, the seaside amusement park in the Balboa Peninsula area of Newport Beach in Orange County is the “Fun Zone” — and that’s where you’ll find the waterfront Ferris wheel as well as other rides and even an arcade. But if you want to step back in time to the turn of the last century, when Newport Beach made its mark on seaside recreation, visit The Balboa Pavilion, one of the last such waterfront recreational pavilions of the time to survive.
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Belmont Park
If find yourself on your way to SeaWorld in San Diego, take a small detour to the sandbar to the west — known as Mission Beach — where you’ll find plenty of seaside amusement at Belmont Park.
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Mount Pinos
Also in Kern County is the north face of Mount Pinos, the premier stargazing spot in Southern California.
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Kern National Wildlife Refuge
The Kern National Wildlife Refuge near Lost Hills is a counterintuitive spot for stargazing, we admit it. But it's big, and it's quiet.
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Red Rock Canyon State Park
This State Park tucked into the El Paso Mountains has skies as dark as the rest of the western Mojave did way back in 2003.
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Walker Pass
There are very few places in Southern California with virtually no light pollution. This is one of those places.
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Cabrillo Bridge
Although you can drive across it now, the Cabrillo Bridge (a.k.a. “El Prado”) was a concrete and redwood walkway built specifically for pedestrians to make a grand entrance into the California Quadrangle area of the Panama-California Exposition of 1915-17.
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Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge
The Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge is worth a detour — to cross it while driving on Highway 154 or even just to view it from below — when you’re in the Santa Barbara area, perhaps on your way to the Santa Ynez wine country.
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La Loma Bridge
The Colorado Bridge isn’t the only way to cross over the Arroyo Seco, but few people may know about the historic La Loma Bridge that runs 379 feet along La Loma Road above Lower Arroyo Park, connecting the Lower Arroyo neighborhood with San Rafael Heights.
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Venice Canal Bridges
Start your journey in your car by crossing the canals along Dell Avenue between South Venice Boulevard and 28th Avenue — but then park your car and finish exploring on foot along the Grand Canal, where there are four bridges you can cross.
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Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Back in 1999, the LA cardinal of the Catholic Church wanted to build a new, large-capacity cathedral that would be uniquely Californian and unlike the cathedrals of the “Old World.”
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Angelus Temple
Sister Aimee Semple McPherson founded the Foursquare Church and commissioned its home – the Angelus Temple – to be built as a kind of theater for her illustrated sermons, which were huge productions replete with props, actors, and sound effects.
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Wee Kirk O' the Heather
The Wee Kirk O' the Heather is just one of the attractions (or amusements) at Glendale’s Forest Lawn Memorial Park, which is also famous for its "Last Supper" stained glass and its display of the largest religious painting in the world.
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First Congregational Church of Los Angeles
This Gothic cathedral at the corner of Sixth and Commonwealth is actually the FCC's fifth home, completed in 1932.
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Wayfarers Chapel
If you happen to be anywhere in the South Bay on a Sunday morning, I can’t think of a reason why you shouldn’t swing by the Wayfarers Chapel.
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Fort Tejon State Historic Park
If you go at the right time, hiking your way through this mini ghost town of barracks and mess halls and other military facilities can seem particularly ghostly. And that’s not just because of the buried body of Peter Lebeck — who, according to lore (and his headstone), was killed by a grizzly bear.
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Red Rock Canyon State Park
Among the unincorporated communities up there, between the turn-of-the-last-century railroad town of Cantil and the watering hole of Indian Wells, lies an expansive California state park with stunning displays of red rocks, sites of paleontological significance and — if the weather cooperates — colorful wildflowers.
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Milpitas Wash
This is stargazing at its simplest and darkest.
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Midland Ghost Town, Riverside County
The Colorado River Astronomy Club holds its meetups here, and it's not hard to figure out why: this desert ghost town has nice dark skies (aside from the small light dome over Blythe) and it's accessible.
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Salton Sea
This State Recreation Area (SRA) sprawling along the east shore of the Salton Sea is unusual among State Parks properties: its "day use" areas are open 24 hours a day.
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Black Hills
If being five miles up a deserted canyon in the Palo Verde Mountains seems a bit too civilized for you, then the Black Hills is where you'll want to be.
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Bodie State Historic Park
The former gold mining camp of Bodie, now a state park in the Eastern Sierra near the Nevada border, is probably the best-preserved example of a “Gold Rush”-era ghost town.
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Mahogany Flat Campground
About a four hour drive from downtown Los Angeles, Mahogany Flat is a great destination for those weekends that start a little early, so that you can get there before the crowds arrive.
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Lone Pine Campground, Owens Valley
The Owens Valley car-camping experience doesn't get better than this.
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Nipton
In the 19th century, Nipton was at the nexus of both silver and gold mining in the Ivanpah Valley and of two intersecting overland wagon trails (one running north-south and the other running east-west).
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Calico
Nestled in the Calico Mountains, Calico is both a ghost town and an amusement park – but don’t let its overt commercialism keep you from visiting, because there’s plenty of history there, too.
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Daggett
Located east of Barstow, Daggett has fared only slightly better than its fellow Mojave Desert ghost towns, despite being located right off of the 40 Freeway and not having had any traffic circumvented away from it.
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The Tuna Club of Avalon
The Tuna Club is widely considered the birthplace of the sport of big game fishing — thanks to its founder, Dr. Charles Frederick Holder, catching a 183-pound bluefin tuna off these island shores in 1898.
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Aviation Museum of Santa Paula
Santa Paula has neither the biggest local airport nor the largest collection of interesting planes, but the no-frills air field and its hangars let the privately-owned vintage planes housed there shine. There’s a ton of hidden history you can’t see here, too: Santa Paula Airport was built on top of land that had been wiped clean by the St. Francis Dam flood.
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Sky Sailing
If you’ve ever wished that your pilot would hand the controls of the plane he’s flying over to you, then you must venture to East San Diego County to take to the skies with Sky Sailing. Experiences range from a gentle ride in a motor-less sailplane (also known as a “glider”) that gets towed up to cruising altitude to a motor glider and a “Super Spectacular Aerobatic Ride.”
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Madrona Marsh
You wouldn’t think that a 43-acre preserve in the middle of the City of Torrance — literally across the street from Del Amo Fashion Center — would be such a good birding area, but it is.
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Hangar 24 Brewery
This brewery is in an actual aircraft hangar across the street from the Redlands Airport – the very same hangar where master brewer Ben Cook (a former homebrewer) once gathered with friends for a post-flight beer.
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El Dorado Nature Center & El Dorado East Duck Pond
El Dorado Park is a historic, inland area of Long Beach along the San Gabriel River, east of the Long Beach Airport. Across the street from the former venue for archery competitions in the 1984 Olympics, you’ll find the El Dorado Nature Center, which provides access to a couple of miles of trails through over 100 acres that span different kinds of habitats.
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Japanese Gardens at Lake Balboa
When you go boating or fishing at Lake Balboa, you may not know it, but you’re making good use of water that would otherwise go to waste. You may want to put down your fork before reading about the source of Lake Balboa’s water. Ready? It’s the nearby Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, which processes some (but not all) of LA's wastewater (i.e. toilet water) that gets pumped in from the sewers.
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Palos Verdes
The Palos Verdes peninsula has a huge amount of protected land, a welcome refuge in the sprawl of the South Bay and the nearby ports of San Pedro and Long Beach.
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Corral Canyon
Corral Canyon resides in a nearly unblighted, 100-acre coastal stretch of Malibu, cleaved by a natural creek draining to the ocean.
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Solstice Canyon
Make a satisfying loop by combining the Solstice Canyon and Rising Sun trails on National Park Service land.
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Templin Highway, Angeles National Forest
The Templin Highway stargazing area has long been a popular spot among amateur astronomers.
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Point Dume
The point offers a wilder Malibu beach experience than most.
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Saddleback Butte State Park
Saddleback Butte State Park is an unsung gem in L.A. County's desert.
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Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve
Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve seems like an obvious spot for L.A. County stargazing, what with its being out in the middle of nowhere in the desert, and yet just an hour and a half from downtown Los Angeles.
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Topanga State Park
Closer to downtown, the Santa Monica Mountains offer some remarkably dark skies considering that the mountain range is hemmed in by the San Fernando Valley and the L.A. Basin.
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Malibu Creek State Park
A bit west of Topanga, and thus with a slightly darker sky, Malibu Creek State Park is another popular stargazers' hangout.
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Red Rock Canyon State Park
We listed this spot in our Kern County night sky listicle as well, and for good reason: it's an easy jaunt from Southern California's crowded urban core.
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Hole In The Wall, Mojave National Preserve
Even with the presence of other campers and the light from a nearby visitor center, this part of the preserve gets pretty dark.
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Grandview Campground
It's not easy to find a higher spot in the high desert than this favorite among Southern California astronomers, at 8,500 feet in the pinyon juniper forested slopes of the White Mountains, well into the Inyo National Forest.
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Bridgeport
Bridgeport, the Mono County seat, is a must-visit.
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Emigrant Campground, Death Valley National Park
Now we're talking. This campground nine miles west of Stovepipe Wells is not precisely "no-frills": it's got piped in water and flush toilets.
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Border Field State Park
Border Field State Park has a network of horse and hiking trails through the largest coastal wetland in Southern California.
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La Jolla Shores
You'll pass underneath the world famous Torrey Pines Golf Course and amble through Black's Beach, a spot famous for its beauty and powerful surf and infamous for its nude sunbathers.
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Bluff Trail
The famously enchanting rocky Central Coast coastline is on full display here, on the headlands between Avila Beach and Morro Bay. The Bluff Trail gives hikers a lovely taste of it all.
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Cave Landing
This is one of those hikes with a very high effort-to-reward ratio.
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Hazard Peak
At 1,076-feet, Hazard Peak is twice as tall as surrounding peaks, making it the ideal perch from which survey the coast and mountains.
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Hansen Dam
It may be hard to believe now, but flooding was once a major concern in the L.A. area – enough to channelize (translation: concretize) the verdant L.A. River and build other flood control measures. Located at the foot of the Angeles National Forest near Big Tujunga Wash, the massive horseshoe-shaped Hansen Dam was built after the catastrophic floods of 1938.
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Morro Strand Trail
Beginning from Cloisters Park in Morro Bay, this 3.5-mile round trip walk will lead you through wetlands, sand dunes, onto the beach and ultimately to the hulking mass that makes this stretch of coast so iconic.
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Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area
. Formed by the San Gabriel River’s flood control dam (whose steep rim you can trace by bike), this county park offers amazing views of the San Gabriel Mountains as well as a nature center that offers interpretive programs and displays about the biological communities present in the alluvial fan of the San Gabriel River (in the foothills of those mountains).
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Hazard Reef
The rocky point known as Hazard Reef hosts the best of both worlds -- rocky and sandy -- that make up most of the coast in this region.
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Headlands Trail
While not the most dramatic coastal landscape in the county, Harmony Headlands State Park embodies the rolling coastal terrain that makes up parts of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.
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Moonstone Beach Boardwalk
This path is a portal to the Cambria coast, another appealing mix of rocky shore and sandy beaches, easily accessible by this flat, 3-mile round-trip trail and boardwalk.
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Carpinteria Bluffs
This protected stretch of bluffs in south Santa Barbara makes for a convenient, easy, and lovely outing.
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Piedras Blancas Rookery
Wildlife is a defining factor of the Central Coast, from the Peregrine falcons of Morro Rock to the whales, dolphins, and the honking, stinking elephant seals of San Simeon.
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Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area
Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area offers an embarrassment of riches in the Valley – from wildlife viewing (and birdwatching) at the Wildlife Reserve to the cherry blossoms of Lake Balboa, The Japanese Garden of the water reclamation plant, and the model airplane field, archery range, and cricket fields of Woodley Park.
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Inspiration Point
Rest assured this lookout point, the 1,800-foot summit of a peak in Los Padres National Forest, will live up to its name.
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Arroyo Burro Beach
Also known as Hendry's Beach, Arroyo Burro Beach is another classic bluff-and-beach area.
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Lizard's Mouth
This reptile-shaped sandstone formation basks in the sun above Santa Barbara, with its mouth agape.
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Bill Wallace Trail
If you like hiking high above the beach, into easy-to-reach backcountry with spectacular views of the coastline and the Santa Ynez Mountains, then this trail will be your cup of tea.
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Refugio State Beach
Again, this is the type of beach Santa Barbara it littered with: bluffs, intermittent stretches of rocky and sandy beaches, and serene ocean views.
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Gaviota Peak
Ocean views hardly get more dramatic than from the 6-mile Trespass Trail.
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Gaviota Wind Caves
The hills above Gaviota State Beach are a wind-sculpted sandstone dreamscape.
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Dearly Departed
Dearly Departed specializes in bus tours and walking tours of L.A.’s most famous sites of murder, celebrity death and burial, and horror film locations — but they’ve also got a storefront on Sunset Boulevard that’s a combination museum and gift shop.
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Mesquite Springs Campground
For many westerners, winter camping in the California Desert means Death Valley National Park.
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Panamint Springs
If even Mesquite Springs campground is full -- which does happen on weekends -- there's another option in the environs of Death Valley National Park that may yet have spaces available: the privately owned Panamint Springs Resort just 70 miles away.
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Hollywood Wax Museum
This museum doesn't intend to be a scary place, but it’s downright terrifying. And that’s before you even descend into the “Horror Chamber” in the basement. Down there, it’s a mad monster party where Dracula mingles with Frankenstein while Hellboy looks on.
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Thriller House
Known better to architectural historians as the “Sanders House,” the Queen Anne-style manor was originally built in 1887. It’s one of the only remaining examples of a design by the architectural firm of Kysor, Morgan & Walls — and it’s one of the stops on the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Angelino Heights Walking Tour.
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Corn Springs
The Chuckwalla Mountains sit in the transition area between California's high and low deserts, and thus enjoy winter temperatures somewhat warmer than those in the Mojave Desert.
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Chuckwalla Valley
One of the chief joys of camping at any season in the California desert is the prevalence of open areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
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Arlington Mine
As long as we're talking primitive camping, we might as well discuss a truly isolated spot in California's largest ironwood forest.
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Borrego Palm Canyon
Any list of winter California desert campsites that ignored Anza Borrego Desert State Park would be flawed.
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Tuttle Creek Campground, Owens Valley
Winter camping in the Owens Valley sometimes strays out of the strictly defined boundaries of "comfortable."
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El Segundo
Here are five of this oil town’s greatest contributions to the Southland, some of which may surprise you.
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Felicity, California
The drive from California to the Arizona border on Interstate 8 can be an uneventful one, until you reach a 21-foot, pink-marble pyramid curiously erected in the Sonoran Desert. If you pay a few bucks to enter the striking structure, you get to stand on a dot on a bronze plaque and make a wish. You are at the “Official Center of the World.”
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Colorado Street Bridge
Pasadena's Colorado Street Bridge bears more than a passing resemblance to an ancient Roman aqueduct. In a way, that makes sense. Both use the same engineering solution – colossal arches – to create an artificial topography and overcome the natural contours of the land. It is also thought to be haunted.
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Rockhaven Sanitarium
The city of Glendale purchased Rockhaven in 2008, but they have yet to restore, reopen, or develop it, leaving it essentially abandoned. But according to security guards, live-in caretakers, and cleanup crews, the former sanitarium is anything but vacant.
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Heritage Square Museum
Unlike the big name museums in Los Angeles, the Heritage Square Museum lies in relative quiet. It sits at the bottom of a hill, on the very end of a cul de sac, where rows and rows of homes face the river. That also meant that the museum is about a 20-minute walk from the nearest Metro train station, the Southwest Museum Station.
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The Bob Baker Marionette Theater
Situated under the First Street Bridge directly across from the Belmont Tunnel, the theater itself was once a run-down scene shop in a not-so-nice neighborhood near downtown. With his partner, Alton Wood, puppeteer Bob Baker transformed it into a magical performance space. Its main denizens are puppets -- and ghosts.
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June Lake Loop
This 16-mile loop off US 395 in Mono County offers lots of opportunity to see colorful aspen at 7,000 feet elevation.
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Museum of Neon Art
t the Museum of Neon Art, you walk through a relatively bright gift shop and into the back gallery which – depending on the current exhibit – will entrance you with flashing lights, kinetic sculptures, plasma art, backlit plastic, and other selections from guest artists and its permanent collection.
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The Esalen Institute
Every night between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., this hippie-centric place to find your chakras, meditate, and maybe "re-find your center" opens its doors to the public for $25 a person. However, only 20 people are allowed to use the hot springs each night, so call in advance to get reservations.
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Manhattan Beach Pier
This South Bay pier is the perfect spot to watch the sunset with an unobstructed view. You’ll spot some fishermen – and maybe a shark in the water – but you’ll avoid the crowds of the Santa Monica, Malibu, or Redondo Beach piers
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Walt Disney Concert Hall
Since it was completed in 2003, the Frank Gehry’s “boat-and-sail” design of Walt Disney Concert Hall has become a landmark of both Los Angeles and its downtown, having elicited some pretty strong reactions from visitors and neighbors alike.
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Barnsdall Art Park
Situated high above Hollywood Boulevard just west of Vermont Avenue on what was once known as “Olive Hill,” Barnsdall Art Park is home to the Hollyhock House, which Frank Lloyd Wright designed and built for heiress Aline Barnsdall.
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Orange Empire Railway Museum
The largest collection of locomotives, trolleys, and streetcars in Southern California
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Stahl House
At one point, you couldn’t even buy a ticket to tour Pierre Koenig's Stahl House (a.k.a. Case Study House #22) for just one person. You had to find a date to take with you. Then, the policy changed so that you could go alone, but you’d have to pay the equivalent of admission for two. Although the pricing gap has narrowed somewhat since then, it still makes so much more sense to view this Mid-Century Modern masterpiece as a couple rather than going solo.
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Barstow Harvey House & Rail Depot
Along Old Route 66, you’ll find a 1911 train depot known as Casa del Desierto (“House of the Desert”), one of the last remaining Harvey Houses. It was almost lost after it closed in 1971, until the City of Barstow purchased it in 1990, restored it, and reopened it in 1999.
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San Bernardino History and Railroad Museum
The Santa Fe Depot, a Spanish Mission Revival style train station from 1918, was once the largest station west of the Mississippi. Originally built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company (now BNSF), it’s currently used by both Amtrak and Metrolink passenger trains.
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Fillmore and Western Railway
When they take a train out, it's made up of a jumble of pieces from different train lines and different eras, all mixed up depending on where they're going and how many passengers have booked the trip.
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Travel Town Museum
This free museum is open every day except for Christmas with some restored railroad passenger cars (and a dining car) on static display, parked along an actual abandoned rail line right in Griffith Park.
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Knott's Berry Farm | Calico Railroad
There are actually two trains that run on this track: the authentic Denver and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge steam train from the turn of the 20th century and “The Galloping Goose,” a smaller, 1930s-era narrow gauge, diesel-powered machine from Colorado.
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Irvine Regional Park
Irvine Regional Park sits just where the 24/7 glare of the southern L.A. Basin starts to slacken a bit, just at the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains.
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Crescent Bay, Laguna Beach
Crescent Bay Beach at the north end of town offers a quarter mile of sheltered cove perfect for horizontal lounging and skywatching, and it's beneath a bluff that serves to block out the headlights on the Pacific Coast Highway.
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Silverado, Cleveland National Forest
Just 7.5 miles from the lights of North Tustin, this 19th Century silver mining town is now a laid back unincorporated community with a roadside cafe and a biker bar in Silverado Canyon, just inside the Cleveland National Forest.
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Griffith Observatory
Griffith Park has become so popular with tourists and locals alike, I’m not sure there’s anyone left who doesn’t know about it or recognize its Art Deco façade.
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Echo Mountain Trail
This is an extremely popular hike with a narrow, crowded, and dusty trail, which is more manageable in some light rain.
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Dominator Shipwreck Trail
There's no sandy beach here: even dry, these rocks are potential ankle-breakers, and it's rocky the whole way. You can hike to the wreck of this Greek freighter at any time of day, but you'll see the most -- and stay the driest -- at low tide.
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Bridge to Nowhere
The Bridge to Nowhere is exactly as it sounds: no roads lead to it, and it connects nothing to nothing. But in the 1930s, this behemoth used to bridge a chasm for roads that were being built through Angeles National Forest.
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Island Packers Cruises
National Park vendor Island Packers offers day trips to Anacapa weekly, Wednesday through Sunday, launching from Oxnard.
Virginia Robinson Gardens
The garden is open to the public once a year for its annual garden tour / luncheon / fashion show / awards ceremony, which acts as a benefit for the volunteer-run facility. But you can visit for a docent-led tour pretty much any time of year by appointment at least two weeks in advance.
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Gardens of the World
At Gardens of the World, you can visit France, England, Italy, and Japan without walking very far – past a cascading waterfall, ornamental flower beds, a rose garden, artichoke plants, a tea house, cypress trees, and a "chain" fountain.
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Arlington Garden
It was a kind of French chateau by way of the San Gabriel Valley, with a tropical paradise out front, but once its contents were sold at public auction after John Durand’s death in 1961, the house was razed.
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The Japanese Garden
This "garden of water and fragrance" has all the elements of a traditional Japanese garden: water, rocks, and plants that have been preened and pruned to perfection.
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Morteen Botanical Garden
A garden of specialized, curated selection of more than 3000 desert plants separated by their natural habitats (mostly, the Americas – Mojave Desert, Sonoran Desert, Mexico, etc.), including cacti, agaves, and even ironwood trees.
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Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands
Once private land owned by the Stornetta family, the 1,255-acre coastal plot was acquired by the federal Bureau of Land Management in 2005 to be preserved for public use. An additional 500 acres were acquired in the past couple years, allowing for 12 miles of continuous open coastline north of the small town of Point Arena.
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Mono Lake South Tufa Preserve
This haunting spot in the Great Basin section of the California desert owes its beauty to the seemingly unearthly setting: odd pinnacles of calcium carbonate rising from a very alkaline lake.
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Rainbow Basin
North of Barstow, this series of outcrops of multicolored lake sediments were laid down about 16 million years ago during the unsurprisingly named Barstovian period, when the desert was much wetter.
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Afton Canyon
This is one of very few spots where the Mojave River runs above-ground year round.
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Crowley Point
This spot's hard to miss for travelers on Route 190 between the Owens Valley and Death Valley National Park: it's the spot where the road suddenly starts switchbacking down off the Darwin Plateau eastward into the Panamint Valley.
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Darwin Falls
Year-round streams are rare in the desert, but not only does Darwin Falls flow year-round, it does so over a pretty little chain of waterfalls totaling 80 feet, the tallest falls in Death Valley National Park.
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Doheny State Beach Trail
Doheny State Beach is located in the city of Dana Point, California and is one of California's most popular state beaches and attracts almost one million visitors per year. Doheny has a day use surfing beach at its northern end and a five-acre lawn with picnic facilities and volleyball courts.
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Zabriskie Point and Golden Canyon
This is the classic Death Valley stop, a badlands of bright blonde lakebed sediments that have played a starring role in westerns, science fiction films, and even their own Antonioni film.
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Lava Beds National Monument
A long day's drive from Southern California, Lava Beds doesn't exactly qualify as a day trip. But that's exactly why you need to make sure to see it: you probably won't just happen by.
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Kelso Dunes
The Kelso Dunes in the Mojave National Preserve offer a rare combination of stunning, accessible, and not overrun with off-road vehicles.
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Silver Strand State Beach
Sorry tent campers, only those in RVs can soak up the best of beach and bay here, four-and-a-half miles south of the city of Coronado.
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San Elijo State Beach
This campground 40 miles north of San Diego is another close-quartered affair sandwiched between bluff and highway.
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San Onofre Bluffs Campground
The park sees well over 2 million visits yearly and could hardly be closer to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and the 5 Freeway. Yet, somehow it is possible to feel as if you're alone on an untouched coastline.
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Pinnacles National Park
One of California's newest national parks, Pinnacles features natural beauty and archaeological resources.
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Hollywood Sign at Mt. Lee
Between its Old Zoo and its haunted picnic table, Griffith Park is probably full of ghosts. But its most famous landmark – the Hollywood Sign – is also perhaps its most legitimately haunted site.
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Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake
Who knew? The largest concentration of petroglyphs in the western hemisphere is deep within the Coso Range of mountains just south of Owens Lake – and only accessible by going through the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake.
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Chumash Indian Museum
Visit the museum to see the incredible collection of artifacts they’ve collected from the Lang Ranch site, as well as the dioramas they’ve built showing Chumash life.
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Painted Rock, Carrizo Plain National Monument
You can find pictographs at Painted Rock, a horseshoe-shaped rock outcropping in Carrizo Plain in San Luis Obispo County that’s been claimed by three Native American groups: the Chumash, Salinan, and Yokuts.
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Cave of Munits, Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve
On the former Ahmanson Ranch in the Simi Hills, it's a relatively easy uphill hike through the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve to get to the Cave of Munits, a.k.a. The Shaman’s Cave.
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Antelope Valley Indian Museum,
The unusual granite rock formations behind the house are also part of Piute Butte, once an area of spiritual significance for the various American Indian groups that once populated it.
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Jalama Beach County Park
South of Lompoc is about as far west as you can get on the Southern California coast, and its relatively remote location puts it well out of the worst of the county's light pollution zone.
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Lake Cachuma
North of the Santa Ynez Mountains, this fishing reservoir is shielded from the brightest of the county's urban lights along the 101 corridor.
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Figueroa Campground, Los Padres National Forest
Figueroa Mountain in the San Rafael Mountains near Los Olivos is a favorite of local stargazers and astronomers for its altitude, its relative isolation from city lights, and its peace and quiet.
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Route 166
When the road is south of the river, it's in the very northernmost parts of Santa Barbara County, which are also some of the darkest parts of the county.
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Camino Cielo, Los Padres National Forest
Just shy of two miles up Camino Cielo from Route 154, a small pullout at the crest of the Santa Ynez range offers an elevated grassy hill with fantastic views to the north, shielded from the lights of Goleta and Santa Barbara just 15 minutes away.
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Malibu
Don’t be ashamed if you didn’t know that we have our own wine country here in L.A. County.
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San Diego County
You could start your wine tasting trip at the theme park-like Bernardo Winery within San Diego city limits, but then just spend the rest of it in the greater Ramona Valley.
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The Nethercutt Museum & Collection, Sylmar
Named after J.B. Nethercutt, whose wealth as co-founder of Merle Norman Cosmetics allowed him to collect exotic antique cars, this collection is actually spread across two different buildings – and you can visit both of them for free.
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Mullin Automotive Museum, Oxnard
A visit to the Mullin Automotive Museum is a much more specific experience of car collecting than some other collections.
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Keys Creek Lavender Farm
Keys Creek is open to the public Wednesdays through Sundays for high bloom season during May and June, and they offer tours on the weekends.
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Frog Creek Lavender Farm
The farm is open for visits on weekends during bloom season in June and July.
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Ojai Valley Lavender Festival
Visitors have a chance to explore the diversity of uses for lavender, thanks to vendors selling fresh and dried lavender, lavender products, and food and drinks made with lavender, as well as plenty of purple products like clothing and crafts.
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123 Farm
Located at the Highland Springs Ranch and Inn, 123 Farm lays claim to the largest organic lavender farm in Southern California with 20 acres of lavender fields.
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Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens
These gardens are on the ground of a West Adams mansion built in the Italian Renaissance Beaux-Arts style for wine magnate Secundo Guasti.
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Serra Retreat
This private retreat’s grounds are open to the public during the week and overlook both the Pacific Ocean and Malibu Creek.
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Self-Realization Fellowship
The International Headquarters (or “Mother Center”) is perched atop a hill in Northeast L.A.’s Mount Washington community.
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Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
Only about 1 percent of Death Valley is covered in sand dunes, but thanks to the films and TV shows that have filmed there (namely, "Star Wars" and "Star Trek"), that’s the image that most people associate with this desert national park.
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Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area
Glamis has the largest OHV recreation area for sand dunes in the entire country — and the largest sand dune area in the state of California.
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LAX Dunes Preserve / El Segundo Dunes
What’s a coastal dune system that provides habitat for a nearly extinct, endemic species of butterfly doing under the ownership of an international airport?
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Doheny State Beach Campground
This mile-long beach in Dana Point sees a million visitors a year, who catch its rolling waves on longboards, play volleyball, fish, or relax. A much smaller number of people spend the night footsteps from the sand in any of the 121 campsites, located on the south side of the San Juan Creek, away from most of the action to the north.
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Bolsa Chica State Beach Campgrounds
This popular zone in Huntington Beach sees thick crowds, especially in summer. But nights and weekdays can belong to those who drop anchor at 59 RV sites, all with electrical hookups (there is no tent camping here).
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Campo Rail History
This area isn’t known as much for road trips in the car as it is for train excursions along “The Impossible Railroad,” the now-defunct Desert Line of the San Diego & Arizona Railway.
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The Great Air Raid at Fort MacArthur
Once a yer the Fort MacArthur Museum reenacts of a controversial night in 1942, when a big band dance party was suddenly interrupted by some kind of "flying object."
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Big Bear
Bear Mountain might get all the downhill skiing enthusiasts in the winter, but if you want to escape the crowds during the dry summer months, head to the lake – Big Bear Lake, that is.
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Mt. Waterman
Drive 34 miles north on the Angeles Crest Highway and you’ll hit a little-known part of the San Gabriel Wilderness and one of the lesser-known ski resort areas, Mt. Waterman.
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The Triforium
Back in 1975, when it made its debut in downtown L.A.'s Civic Center district, it was supposed to blow your mind.
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Idyllwild
The quaint village of Idyllwild isn’t known for its snow play, but it, too, provides a temperate respite from baking in the lower-elevation oven heat of the nearby desert communities.
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Mt. San Jacinto
The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, the world’s largest rotating tram, is an incredibly scenic, romantic, and adventurous way to escape the rising mercury of the Low Desert.
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Strawberry Peak Fire Lookout
This 30-foot tower that overlooks Rimforest — just off the Rim of the World Highway — was built in 1933 by the Civil Conservation Corp.
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Tahquitz Peak Fire Lookout
If you really want to get off the grid — if being in the middle of the mountains isn’t quite remote enough for you — head to the Tahquitz Peak Fire Lookout above Idyllwild.
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Castro Peak Tower
Along the Old Mount Wilson Toll Road, north of the Eaton Canyon Natural Area Park and Nature Center, you’ll find a unique parcel of land at 2,550 feet of elevation that’s now appropriately run by the County of Los Angeles Fire Department, known as Henninger Flats.
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Old Topanga Fire Lookout
If urban exploration is more your thing, you’ll delight at the concrete monolith of the old Topanga Fire Lookout at Rosas Overlook, sandwiched between Stunt Ranch State Park and Topanga State Park and just off the Backbone Trail.
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Frazier Park Tower
About two hours north of L.A., at more than 8,000 feet above sea level, you’ll find a historic fire service lookout tower that’s been taken out of service and now stands abandoned on top of Frazier Mountain.
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Font's Point
It’s California's version of the Grand Canyon, a wrinkled maze of fossils that was scarred by the waters of the Gulf of California and the Colorado River.
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Ubehebe Crater
There are two clusters of maar volcanic sites, to the west (which is older) and to the south (which is younger).
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Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round
The Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round may be the most famous carousel in all of Southern California, thanks to Walt Disney.
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First Original McDonald’s Museum
The McDonald’s in Downey may be the oldest standing of the billion-burger-selling chain, but to trace the founding of this fast food empire, you have to head to San Bernardino.
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Pismo State Beach
Pismo State Beach has nearly everything visitors could want from the Central Coast, but with vast stretches of predominantly sandy beaches, rather than rugged shores.
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Oceano Dunes
Some of the wildest terrain in this region -- oceanfront sand dunes that could be confused for the Sahara Desert -- belong to off-roaders.
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Montaña de Oro State Park
Like Pismo Beach, Montaña de Oro has it all, beginning with mountains of gold wildflowers, as the name might suggest, and dramatic summits, creeks, rocky coves, and sandy redoubts.
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Crystal Cove Hike | Laguna Beach
Make sure to pack a mask and snorkel as the reefs host ample opportunity for submarine exploration. This 5-mile stretch can be done in either direction.
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Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve Trail
Bolsa Chica State Beach is a refuge for more than 300 bird species, some stopping over on their journeys along the Pacific Flyway, and numerous other critters in the water and on land. Hikers can avail themselves of five miles of short, flat trails through the wetlands, and possibly glimpse brown pelicans, leopard sharks, jackrabbits, and coyotes.
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Carpinteria State Beach
From this pleasant spot, you can look out at the Channel Islands and wonder what it was like to cross the channel in one, as the Chumash did.
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El Capitan State Beach
If heading north, this region seems to be where trees other than palms like to grow on the coast without too much coercion.
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Point Mugu State Park
Set along 3.5 miles of shoreline, Point Mugu State Park comprises an impressive array of bluffs, beaches, sand dunes, river canyons, grassy valleys, and mountains.
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Hobson County Beach Park
Hobson County Beach Park is another roadside-and-beachside RV campground.
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King Clone Ecological Reserve
Creosote (Creosote Larrea tridentate a.k.a. "greasewood") is a pretty common find in the Mojave Desert, but the king of them all – with an average diameter of 45 feet, though it can stretch as wide as 67 feet – is the so-called "King Clone."
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Corpse Flower
To experience some of the natural wonders in southern California, you have to get the timing just right – because they're as fleeting as they are wondrous. Such is the case with Amorphophallus titanium – the so-called "Corpse Flower," a rotten-smelling flower that only blooms (and stinks) for a few hours.
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La Jolla Canyon
Point Mugu State Park's La Jolla Canyon offers a smorgasbord of hiking trails and loop options.
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Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest
The Pinus longaeva have to withstand a lot of perils: wind, weather, and a climate dry enough for dry kindling to spontaneously burst into flames. And yet some of these trees still last thousands of years, thriving in the harshest of conditions, growing in the driest of soil (that's more limestone than it is dirt).
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Moreton Bay Fig Tree
With its aggressive system of buttress roots, it can strangle out any competition to clear the space it needs to grow to its tremendous size – which is ripe not only for climbing but also for shade-seeking and fruit-collecting.
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Ventura Promenade
Strolling the Ventura Promenade, like the boardwalks in L.A. or San Diego, is a means to instantly get the get the local flavor, people watch, and meander along the beach.
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Sturtevant Camp
At the "Feast of Gratitude and Gravy," you can experience a communal Thanksgiving in the most rustic setting around — deep in the San Gabriel Mountains, with all your supplies having been brought up by a band of pack mules.
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Bishop Creek Canyon
This canyon is a beautiful place to visit year-round with hiking, bountiful lakes, and plenty of granite peaks. It is especially beautiful in the summer and the fall as the wildflowers bloom and change color.
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Año Nuevo State Park
This state park is a great destination to see baby elephant seals.
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The Gentle Barn
Every year on Thanksgiving, Santa Clarita farm animal sanctuary The Gentle Barn hosts their "A Gentle Thanksgiving" dinner.
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Oasis Camel Dairy
The focus at Oasis Camel Dairy in Ramona is normally, of course, the camels. But, during the demonstration and show during Open Farm Days, the camels share the "stage" — with a group of galloping gobblers.
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Mount Hollywood
While it looks different every time, depending on the season and time of day, you just can’t beat those views of the L.A. basin or the opportunity to look down at Griffith Observatory from above.
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Hollywood Historic Stairs
Like many of the secret stairs of L.A., some of these go straight up, with little to no breaks, while others offer the reprieve of plenty of landings. As you climb up and down, you’re cutting through the Hollywood Hills, which most people circumvent by car.
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Santa Monica Stairs
“Santa Monica Stairs” is technically just two different sets of concrete and wooden stairs, including one off Amalfi and Entrada and one off 4th and Adelaide.
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Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts
Among the embarrassment of riches that those of us in southern California have to be grateful for is our access to sites of historic, cultural, and artistic significance — and the Maloof Foundation in Riverside fits the bill on all three counts.
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Heritage Square Museum
Heritage Square Museum in Montecito Heights is probably the best example of orphaned Victorian treasures finding their "forever home" elsewhere.
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Robolights
Every year seems like it’s going to be the last for the towering, apocalyptic holiday creation by outsider artist Kenny Irwin, Jr.
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L.A. Zoo Lights
The elaborate holiday light display changes a bit every year.
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Titus Canyon
If you can make it, the payoff is tremendous – with sweeping views and white-knuckle curves giving way to a slot canyon.
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Lights On Display
Sherman Oaks is home to one of the most elaborate residential holiday light displays.
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Dodgers Stadium
They literally moved mountains to create Dodger Stadium. Between 1959 and 1962, an army of construction workers shifted eight-million cubic yards of earth and rock in the hills above downtown Los Angeles, refashioning the rugged terrain once known as the Stone Quarry Hills into a modern baseball palace.
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Rainbow Basin
Less than 10 miles north of Barstow in the Mojave Desert, there’s yet another slot canyon that you can both drive and walk through.
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Highway 78
This is one of those drives where it really feels like you’re going somewhere.
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Old Woman Springs Road
Old Woman Springs Road is kind of a “dark horse” when it comes to taking a drive through the desert.
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Cabazon Dinosaurs
When you mention Southern California roadside dinosaurs, everybody talks about the giant ones in Cabazon, which have been clearly visible off the north side of the 10 Freeway for over 30 years, and were famously featured in the movie Pee Wee's Big Adventure.
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Franklin Canyon
Franklin Canyon Park offers a little-known opportunity for Angelenos to get away from it all, right in the middle of the city.
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California Nursery Specialties
The California Cactus Ranch isn't the only nursery in Reseda, but it's probably the wildest. And that's largely in thanks to its mini ghost town whose primary residents are some giant metal dinosaurs. Back in the mid-1990s, the nursery's owner, David Bernstein, had been looking for ways to draw more customers to his cactus nursery.
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High Tower Walk
Tucked between the Hollywood Bowl and Camrose Drive in the Hollywood Hills sits the cozy and unusual High Tower neighborhood, a place that feels like an exciting peek into old Hollywood.
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Saddleback Butte State Park
Saddleback Butte State Park features a beautiful seasonal yellow coreopsis bloom.
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Thousand Island Lake
Looking west from the outlet of Thousand Island Lake, Banner Peak looms in the distance creating a backdrop worthy of a postcard. The deep blue alpine water sparkles in the sun and is speckled with the tiny granite islands for which the lake is named.
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Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum
Tucked into a mountain canyon in Topanga, the Theatricum Botanicum is where you can watch a Shakespeare production under the shade of native oaks and with the scent of 15th and 16th century herbs in the air.
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Old Zoo
From 1912 to 1965 the L.A. Zoo was located farther into the Griffith Park interior, off a trail near the Merry Go Round parking lot.
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Manzanar National Historic Site
In the wake of the anti-Japanese sentiment that prevailed on our shores after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, over 10,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans were given little notice to pack up their families — and whatever they could carry — and “relocate” to the middle of the desert, 200 miles and four hours north of Los Angeles.
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White Point and Furusato Fishing Villages
The Japanese Fisherman's Memorial on Terminal Island pays tribute to the community of immigrant and second-generation pioneers and their families.
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Santa Anita Park
Most recently, Santa Anita was the home track for the Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah — but it’s seen its share of other celebrities. Cary Grant, Al Jolson and Lana Turner all invested in Santa Anita Park, and investor Bing Crosby also owned a horse that raced there. But the history of California's first thoroughbred racetrack isn't entirely glamorous.
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Little Tokyo
Unlike the recently designated Sawtelle Japantown in West L.A., Little Tokyo actually dates back to 1884.
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Evergreen Cemetery
Established in 1877, Evergreen Memorial Park & Crematory is the oldest nondenominational cemetery in Los Angeles.
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The Bunny Museum
The bunny rabbits still pretty much line the walls from floor to ceiling, but the creatures — which range from dolls and figurines to stuffed animals, pillows, slippers, cookie jars, masks, taxidermy and discarded Rose Parade float pieces — have some room to breathe.
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Valley Relics Museum
Most of what you'll find at Valley Relics has been rescued from beloved businesses somewhere in the Valley — vintage signs from Henry’s Tacos and The Palomino Club, the "Liberty Bells" from Robinson's — but that’s not a hard-and-fast rule.
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Dearly Departed Tours
From bits of floor tile and actual grave dirt to crime scene tape and funeral service programs, the museum (and its gift shop) tells the gruesome stories of the performers, politicians and other prominent people who’ve each met their untimely demise.
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Velveteria
Velveteria's proprietors, Carl and Caren, take the art of black velvet paintings very seriously.
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Bronson Caves
This is the one you surely already know about: the Batcave. Otherwise known as the Bronson Caves, Batman’s infamous domicile is located in Bronson Canyon in the southwestern section of Griffith Park, not far from Beachwood Canyon.
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Streetlight Museum
There's a museum for us streetlight people — on the second floor of the Public Works building, courtesy of the Bureau of Street Lighting.
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La Jolla Cove
While you’re in La Jolla, don’t end your spelunking with just one cave – because there are seven sister caves in La Jolla Cove that are accessible by kayak, and several tour companies that will take you in on a guided tour.
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Our Savior Parish & USC Caruso Catholic Center
If you have any interest in stained glass, this church is a must-see – mostly because you just don’t find art glass projects of this scale much anymore, especially not in houses of worship.
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San Timoteo Canyon Road
This country road between Redlands and Beaumont is lightly traveled at night, with I-10 and route 60 offering far speedier alternatives. That means not too many headlights to destroy your night vision.
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East Fork
Skies here still bear the influence of the Pomona and San Gabriel valleys' nighttime illumination, but you should be able to see lots of relatively faint stars here that would be washed out in San Dimas.
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Swarthout Canyon Road
One valley north of Lytle Creek, this sleepy mountain road between Wrightwood and Cajon Pass will have slightly darker skies, and fewer nearby lights, than its neighbor. I
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Lytle Creek
Just a ten-minute drive from Interstate 15, the Lytle Creek Ranger Station is an easily accessed stargazing spot in the foothills of the eastern San Gabriels.
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Lake Hemet
Skies are about as dark here as you can find in the non-desert portions of Riverside County.
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Lake Silverwood Vista Point
This is another place that's great for those nights when you need some stars before you hit the sack.
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Joshua Tree National Park
About half of this iconic National Park is in the Low Desert, and that just happens to be the darker half.
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Borrego Springs
Borrego Springs is a great gateway to the state's largest state park, Anza-Borrego, and its residents and businesses have enthusiastically taken on the task of keeping night lighting to a minimum to preserve Anza-Borrego's night-time environment.
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Corn Springs
Corn Springs campground is surprisingly quiet for being so accessible, and the formidable Chuckwalla Mountains that surround the campground do a great job of blocking off light from the highway.
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Cholame Valley Road
Best known for being the one road into Parkfield, the Earthquake Capital of California, Cholame Valley Road also offers nice dark skies within easy striking distance of Routes 46 and 41 east of Paso Robles.
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Santa Margarita Lake KOA
This spot might be the only stargazing site we've heard of with a nine-hole disc golf course.
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Red Hill Road
Turn onto Red Hill and find a convenient wide spot away from the occasional headlights on 58.
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Queen Califia's Magical Circle
Niki de Saint Phalle's last large-scale work can be found tucked away inside the Iris Sankey Arboretum of Kit Carson Park in Escondido – unbelievably preserved and, as the name implies, magical.
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Shell Creek Road
You should be able to find a spot in the first few miles to pull just off the road and drink in the night skies.
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Soda Lake
This is as close as you'll get to a desert on the Central Coast, in terms of both habitat and deep dark sky.
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Ilan-Lael Foundation
James T. Hubbell's compound in East San Diego County where he lives and works is worth a visit if only to see his mosaic work.
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Santa Rosa Creek Road
For darker skies along the coast it's hard to beat the Santa Lucia Range, which in their Monterey County portion offer night skies to rival anywhere in the California desert.
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Marciano Art Foundation
After years in disuse and finally being sold in 2013, the former Wilshire Boulevard home of the Freemasons of the Scottish Rite Order has now transformed into the Marciano Art Foundation, a contemporary art museum that's free and open to the public.
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Mosaic Tile House
From the moment you arrive at the front gate of the Mosaic Tile House, the tile-covered labyrinth of the front yard – littered with bathtub benches, bathtub planters, and various arches crossing over above and animals arising from the patio below – is completely overwhelming.
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Hall of Records
Joseph Young was a critically lauded mosaic artist of national repute whose many masterworks in the field of decorative arts included the mural that embellishes the exterior of the Richard Neutra-designed Hall of Records building in the Civic Center of downtown L.A.
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Lava Beds National Monument
In what's now California's northeast corner, lava flows from Medicine Mountain over the last half million years have left a network of lava tubes and other volcanic formations for you to explore.
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Walker Pass, Pacific Crest Trail
This spot is an unsung beauty, with one exception.
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Mono Lake Jeffrey Pines
California's oldest lake sits at around 6,400 feet, making it a lot cooler in summer than many desert destinations.
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Mid-Hills, Mojave National Preserve
And at around 5,600 feet with northern exposure to the breezes off Cima Dome, Mid-Hills is a bit cooler than the big preserve campground at Hole In The Wall, a thousand feet lower.
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Cima Dome, Mojave National Preserve
At elevations ranging from the 4,000s to the dome's subtle summit a hair above 5,720 feet, this place is well above the worst heat of the desert summer.
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Tierra Del Sol
The southeastern end of the county is shielded by mountains from the light domes of San Diego/Tijuana to the west, and Mexicali/Imperial County the the east. That means some pretty dark skies, and the local stargazing community takes full advantage.
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Jacumba
If your tastes run more toward small stargazing groups of one or two people, you can still avail yourself of the southeast backcountry's skies.
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Julian
Midway between Palomar Mountain and Anza-Borrego, the placid mountain town of Julian is better known for its apple orchards than its starry nights.
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Palomar Mountain
It's tempting to call Caltech's observatory a relic of darker nights gone by, but there's still some top-notch astronomy being conducted here.
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Mount Laguna
San Diego State has operated its Mount Laguna Observatory in the county's southeastern mountains since 1968.
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Irvine Ranch Historic Park
In the 1890s, a large swath of land had been devoted to either lima bean fields or sheep and cattle grazing — and that included a large portion of the Rancho San Joaquin and Rancho Lomas de Santiago that James Irvine bought and transformed into his expansive Irvine Ranch.
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Torrey Pines
on't have a couple hours to commit to a stargazing road trip? You won't see nearly as many stars from the Torrey Pines State Reserve north of La Jolla, but the Reserve offers darker skies than you might expect, given its close proximity to urban life.
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Anaheim Packing House
The packinghouse of the Southern California Fruit Growers Exchange (a.k.a. Sunkist), situated along an old Southern Pacific rail spur in the Packing District, is one of the few that remain in Southern California — and the only one left in Anaheim.
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Orange Grove, Northridge
While you may associate the San Fernando Valley more with burgers and hot dogs than with oranges and lemons, there’s just five acres left of the 15,000 acres of orange trees that once could be found there.
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Heritage Park
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, much of the San Gabriel Valley was covered with citrus trees — and the city of La Verne (called Lordsburg until 1917) was right at the center of it.
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Mount Pinos, Los Padres National Forest
This peak in Los Padres National Forest in the northeast corner of the county has some of the darkest skies to be found in the Greater Southern California Megalopolis.
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Lockwood Valley, Los Padres National Forest
About 15 miles or so farther along Lockwood Valley Road from Lake of the Woods, the eponymous Lockwood Valley has some seriously dark sky by coastal California standards.
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Sandstone Peak Trailhead
Ventura County's share of the Santa Monica Mountains has some of the darkest skies that urban-influenced range has to offer.
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Oak Canyon Community Park
Closer in to the civilized end of the county, the Oak Canyon Community Park in the town of Oak Park near Agoura Hills offers reasonably dark skies for the 101 Freeway corridor.
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Ojai
You might not think of Ojai as a prime stargazing location, but the city at the foot of the Topatopa Mountains still has remarkably dark skies considering almost 8,000 people live there.
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Moorpark College Observatory
Any discussion of stargazing in Ventura County would be lacking if it didn't include a mention of the Moorpark College Observatory.
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E. Waldo Ward & Son
The oldest business in Sierra Madre is E. Waldo Ward & Son, purveyors of local gourmet foods and home to a historic grove of Seville orange trees.
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Sunken City
The flat land that remains looks like an archaeological site of the ancient Roman Empire. Beyond it, you can see how close the city's infrastructure is to the current edge of the cliff, and how it couldn't have been so close to the edge before.
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Surfridge
Originally developed in 1921 as part of a post-World War I building boom, Surfridge (then known as Palisades del Rey) was filled with charming homes and palm tree-lined streets.
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Spadra
As part of the Rancho San Jose, Spadra was the first American settlement in the Pomona Valley and became a thriving village in the 1860s. It was settled mostly by poor families who fled the South.
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Mentryville
Mentryville is the first thing you see when you come to Pico Canyon in the Santa Susana Mountains to find the site of California's first commercial oil well – a.k.a. Pico Well No. 4, which struck oil in 1876 after three prior drilling attempts failed.
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Corriganville
We've lost so many treasures to fire out here in the wild, wild, west. Such a place is Corriganville, the once movie ranch-turned-tourist attraction that’s now a public park just on the other side of the Ventura County.
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Zzyzx
If you’ve ever found yourself driving along the I-15 at the northern border of the Mojave National Preserve, you’ve probably seen the exit sign for Zzyzx and wondered what could possibly there.
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Amboy
Amboy is probably the most famous of the Route 66 ghost towns in the Mojave Desert, thanks to its appearances in various movies and fashion magazines. Now, it’s more or less just a set – a filming location for hire – with a population of 20, if you believe the sign.
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Kelso
In 1905, Kelso was built specifically as a depot along the railroad line that ran between L.A. and Utah and cut right through the middle of the Mojave Desert (in the area that’s now known as the Mojave National Preserve). But business was so big that Kelso ended up becoming a real town, with a post office (now closed, but still standing) and, in the 1940s, a jail for drunkards (also vacant, but there).
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Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery
The Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery was one of the first of its kind when it was established in 1917 to raise trout (even the rare golden trout!) under the jurisdiction of the California State Fish and Game Commission. Although you won’t find any fish currently being farmed at this century-old facility (and not since 2008), history is alive and well on the property, which is open as a tourist attraction and a special event venue.
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Hot Creek Hatchery
At Hot Creek, you’ll find not just rainbow trout thriving there, but also a subspecies of rainbow trout known as Eagle Lake trout, German brown trout and Lahontan cutthroat trout, a California Heritage Species.
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Whitewater Preserve
Surrounded by the San Gorgonio Wilderness, where Highway 62 meets the 10, you’ll find an interesting former trout farm that The Wildlands Conservancy is trying to bring back to wilderness.
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Fillmore Trout Hatchery
As many of the Fish & Wildlife-managed ones still do, this Ventura County fish hatchery raises — or “farms” — trout eggs to become fully-formed fish that will be released into SoCal waterways where they don’t occur naturally.
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Flight Path Learning Center & Museum
You can get a real lesson in aviation history near the freight terminal and cargo planes of LAX at the Flight Path Museum. Yes, LAX has a museum – and it’s open to the public! You might even meet a former pilot with some stories to tell.
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Long Beach Airport
Even if you don’t have a boarding pass for a flight departing out of LGB, it’s worth a visit to see the Streamline Moderne vintage terminal, the historic photos of the Douglas Aircraft Company (including the origin story of “Rosie the Riveter”), and the WPA-era mosaic tiles.
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March Field Air Museum
Just east of the 215 Freeway, there’s a museum that specializes in retired military aircraft – and they’re some of the hugest ones you’ll ever see. From the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (a.k.a. the “Big Ugly Fat Fellow,” or BUFF) to the Boeing B-47 Stratojet Bomber (which was designed to fly at high subsonic speed and altitude), some of them are so larger than life that they seem almost impossible to fly.
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Torrance Airport
You’ve got two great opportunities to experience flight at the Torrance Airport: at Robinson Helicopter Company and at the Western Museum of Flight. At Robinson, you can experience history in the making by taking a free tour of the factory, where they assemble and test helicopters used as newscopters, police helicopters, and private civilian copter craft. And then you can watch their test pilots fly them to make sure they won’t crash after being shipped off to their new owners. If antiques are more your thing, head a few doors down to the volunteer-run Western Museum of Flight.
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Los Encinos State Historic Park
One of the stops on the Portola expedition of 1769 — when Spanish explorers first arrived — was right here in the San Fernando Valley, in the L.A. neighborhood now known as Encino.
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Owens Lake
Technically, Owens Lake in the Owens Valley region of Inyo County is a dry lake. A basin in the “basin and range” area of Eastern California, the City of Los Angeles pretty much sucked it dry after it bought up the surrounding water rights and started pumping the local alpine water 300 miles south through its aqueduct(s).
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Wild Parrots
Pasadena has become famous for its flock(s) of parrots, but these tropical tree-dwellers have been convivial enough at least with each other — even sometimes interbreeding — to have spawned multiple flocks that have spread as far and wide in the L.A. metro area as Burbank, Hollywood, Long Beach and Redondo Beach.
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Brand Park
This spot was central to the era of private flying parties, as Brand had his own airfield just south of the mansion and estate that now constitute Brand Library in Brand Park.
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Stough Canyon Park
In Stough Canyon, you can hike a short distance into the canyon past wildflowers, scenic overlooks and lots of spring greenery.
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Wildwood Canyon Park
If you’ve got a fear of heights, Wildwood Canyon is a good place to face that fear.
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O'Melveny Park
Second only to Griffith Park in terms of size for urban Los Angeles parks, O'Melveny Park (formerly C.J. Ranch, then named after one of the original members of the California State Parks Commission, Henry W. O'Melveny) is big enough to get lost in if you don’t have a good map or trail guide.
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Stoney Point Park
Right off Topanga Canyon Boulevard, shortly after exiting the 118 Freeway, right along the Santa Susana Pass, you happen upon a giant boulder outcropping called Stoney Point.
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Baldwin Lake Arboretum
You’ll find the natural body of water named after the infamous “Lucky” Baldwin on the grounds of the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, surrounded by the Queen Anne Cottage from Baldwin’s Santa Anita Ranch and the Hugo Reid Adobe from 1840, which was named after the first private owner of the Rancho Santa Anita.
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Lake Shrine
Once known as Lake Santa Ynez, it was actually formed when a developer moved earth for grading without filling it back in before natural springs filled it with water. In fact, Lake Shrine is known as the only natural spring-fed lake within LA city limits – though now, it’s less for recreation and more for meditation.
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Lincoln Park Lake
There’s a surprising amount of year-round fishing you can do at Lincoln Park Lake, just northeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The former Eastlake Park (the eastern counterpart to Westlake) is one of LA’s oldest public parks, officially dedicated in 1883.
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Deb's Park Lake
One of the best payoffs to a Southern California hike is water – but while many of our waterfalls are running dry in the summer months (and several years into a drought), you can still hike five miles around Debs Park in NELA and find yourself taking a rest on a lakeside bench, surrounded by ducks and turtles.
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Santa Monica Boardwalk
There's hardly a stretch of coast in California packed with more landmarks and people-watching opportunities than here.
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Paseo Miramar
The objective of this hike is attaining an incredible lookout point high above the Pacific Palisades, where views stretch as far as downtown Los Angeles and past Catalina Island, much farther out into the Pacific Ocean.
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Tuna Canyon
With viewpoints at an elevation of 1,500 feet, Tuna Canyon offers some of the best views of the Malibu coast and Santa Monica Bay.
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Zuma Canyon
The name of the trail, Ocean View Trail, says it all: views of the Pacific from the hills above Point Dume and Zuma Beach.
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Mount Wilson, Angeles National Forest
The Angeles Crest Highway/Route 2 winds its way from La Cañada to Wrightwood just north of Mount Wilson, and there are lots of wide turnouts you can use for stargazing.
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Pasadena
Okay, so you don't have the car this week and can't get out to Malibu or the Antelope Valley. All is not lost: you can still see a few astronomical objects from the streets of the western San Gabriel Valley.
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Griffith Observatory
Even though the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains is far darker, there's a spot all the way at the brightly lit east end of the range that's not a bad place for urban stargazing, and it's easy to find: there's an observatory right there.
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Afton Canyon
A secluded BLM campground near one of the few stretches of the Mojave River that has year-round water, Afton Canyon made our list of "Places You Need To See in the California Desert" a year ago.
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Busch Gardens
A precursor to the brewery tour/amusement park experience in Van Nuys and a distant ancestor to the theme parks/water parks that still operate in Florida and Virginia, the Pasadena attraction focused specifically on the gardens.
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Mesquite Springs Campground Death Valley National Park
Of all the spots we've featured in all our stargazing guides so far, this easily accessible campground in the northern reaches of Death Valley has the darkest skies.
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Sunset Cliffs
The name "Sunset Cliffs" gives an idea of what might draw visitors to this undeveloped stretch of coast along Point Loma. But the truth is the cliffs and beaches are gorgeous any time of day or night.
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Pacific Beach
Take a cue from the locals and grab a skateboard, bike, or rollerblades and cruise the boardwalk between Pacific Beach and Mission Beach.
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Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve
This park's lovely namesake trees are a must-see for anyone in the area.
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San Elijo Lagoon
Rather than walking along the beach, the idea here is to explore a 1,000-acre coastal wetland, the type of which many did not survive the 20th century.
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Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park
The Stagecoach Trail at Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park seems innocuous at first — until you realize that you’ve got to go up over those rocks up there.
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Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area
The Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area — tucked behind those oil fields you see while driving along La Cienega on your way to or from LAX — has a ton of history worth exploring on foot.
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Skyline Trail/HaciendaHills
The Hacienda Heights trailhead leads you up and along the rolling hills that overlook the surrounding valley communities, with plenty of shade.
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Potato Mountain
If you’re the type of hiker that needs a destination at the top (or the end) of a trail, the concrete tank at the top of the so-called “Potato Mountain” (sometimes spelled “Potatoe”) may just do the trick.
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Antelope Valley Indian Museum
As you walk upstairs into the area that now houses Edwards' personal collection of Native American artifacts, you’re literally on a slippery, wobbly rock-climbing expedition.
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Bonnie Cove
The Bonnie Cove Trails are a nice, relatively easy and scenic multi-use route through part of the South Hills Wilderness Area in Glendora.
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Colby Trail
Managed by The Glendora Community Conservancy, a patch of grassland off the Colby Trail has become a hub of activity surrounding rare species rescue and management — namely, of the endemic Brodiaea filifolia, a "cluster lily" that's not only native to California but also seriously endangered.
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Puddingstone Reservoir
If you’re looking to go “off the grid,” Bonelli Park is not for you. It’s basically the opposite of wilderness — but because of that, there’s a lot to explore.
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Lassen Volcanic National Park
Exploring Lassen Volcanic Park would take several lifetimes.
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Horseshoe Mesa
You won't believe the stars at Horseshoe Mesa
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Franklin Canyon
If you’ve already hiked Franklin Canyon and its Hastain Trail during the day, but the heat has kept you off the trail while the sun is out, going back to a familiar place on a familiar trail in the coolness of night with a group is a good way to get back in the swing of things.
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Kern County Fair
Over the course of just a week and a half, this fair crams in top-notch concerts from incomparable heritage artists like The Beach Boys, War, and Air Supply, provides unique food offerings from local businesses.
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The Old Mission San Buenaventura
If you’re going to spend some time digging into Ventura, one of the best places to start is the mission that helped put the city on the map – The Old Mission San Buenaventura
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The Alpaca Hacienda
If you’ve ever dreamed of having land — say, a sprawling ranch up on a hill — and a herd of fluffy animals, a visit to The Alpaca Hacienda may prove to you that dreams really do come true.
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Frog Creek Farm
Lavender season is short, and usually starts in June when the temperatures are already rising, so wear a hat and bring some water for your visit.
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Ojai Valley Museum and Visitors Center
Starting at the Ojai Valley Museum and Visitors Center, you can learn about Libbey and the development projects he contributed since first vacationing in Ojai in 1908.
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Canzelle Alpacas
Though it’s literally three quarters of a mile away from the 101, Canzelle Alpacas at Lonson Family Farm couldn’t feel farther from civilization.
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Meher Mount
A good way to start your spiritual journey is to make a pilgrimage to Meher Mount, a “gateway to the divine” perched atop Sulphur Mountain.
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Sweet Water Alpaca Ranch
Though some alpaca breeding facilities are closed for general public visits and open by appointment only if you’re in the market for a stud or some offspring, Sweet Water Alpaca Ranch welcomes visitors of all types — as long as you’re genuinely interested in “alpaca culture” (and you call ahead).
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Alpacas at Windy Hill
While this ranch does breed and sell alpacas, it also offers a support system for anyone interested in learning the ropes of alpaca ownership, including providing boarding.
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The Barnyard at William S. Hart Museum
In the barnyard, you’ll meet the five resident South American domesticated alpacas, all females.
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McDonald's, San Bernardino
To discover the founding of the biggest fast food empire in the world, you’ve got to head to San Bernardino.
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Ojai Olive Oil Company
A visit to Ojai Olive Oil Company is worth it if even just to meet the makers and, during harvest time in October or November, watch the workers handpick the olives
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In-N-Out Burger, Baldwin Park
Although the In-N-Out #1 was demolished when the 10 Freeway sliced its way through the San Gabriel Valley, you can visit a replica of the burger stand at 13752 Francisquito Avenue in Baldwin Park.
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Bob's Big Boy, Burbank
All over the country, families recognize the “Big Boy.”
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Norm's Restaurants
You can still experience the heyday of Norm’s at its oldest operating location at 470 N. La Cienega Boulevard near Melrose.
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El Torito, Encino
El Torito has expanded to 32 locations in southern California (and an additional five in northern California), and its original location now operates as the Lakeside Cafe.
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Blue Bottle Coffee
Once you learn about where coffee is grown and harvested, the natural next step is to witness the roasting process – which you can do in an intimate setting at Blue Bottle Coffee’s roastery in the Arts District of downtown L.A.
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North Shore Beach and Yacht Club
Turn off Highway 111 onto Marina Drive, and the bright yellow façade of the restored North Shore Yacht Club will take your breath away.
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Bombay Beach
The actual beach of this town comes off like a graveyard — by far the most lifeless place you’ll find in the entire Salton Sea area.
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Salton Sea State Recreation Area
If you’re not afraid of a little salt, there is an area of the Salton Sea that is open for fishing, kayaking, and swimming — and that’s at the Salton Sea State Recreation Area on the eastern shore.
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Salvation Mountain
There’s just one peak that draws visitors from around the world to the Salton Sea area: Salvation Mountain.
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Dos Palmas Preserve
You might have to keep going back to the Salton Sea to discover the treasure of the Dos Palmas Preserve.
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International Banana Museum
I guess you'd expect to find a wacky collection of tropical fruit out in the desert.
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Angels Flight Railway
Known as "The Shortest Railway in the World,” Angels Flight merely climbs one little hill — Bunker Hill — that’s one block in length.
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Southern California Live Steamers, Torrance
The present-day SCLS home in Wilson Park features a number of tiny buildings in a kind of model train "village" as well as an almost full-sized depot.
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Irvine Park Railroad, Irvine
Irvine Regional Park (formerly known as Orange County Park until 1928) is Orange County's oldest park and California's first county park.
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El Dorado Express, Long Beach
The El Dorado Express, located in El Dorado East Regional Park in Long Beach, is a live steam engine train originally built in 1946 as a kiddie railroad ride.
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Griffith Park Train Rides, Los Angeles
There are no less than three miniature train rides in Griffith Park. Why not ride all of them?
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Descanso Gardens’ Enchanted Railroad, La Canada Flintridge
While you’re exploring one of Southern California’s best and most historic public gardens, follow the sound of a whistle to the Enchanted Railroad, a 1/8-scale model of a diesel train from 1960s/70s.
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Balboa Park Miniature Train, San Diego
When you first notice a tiny train chugging through Balboa Park, its only passenger might be a giraffe.
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Crystal Cove Cottages
Crystal Cove has retained its original charm and character – a historic landmark of vernacular architecture, rendered "frozen in time" without modern developments, additions or renovations.
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S.S. Dominator Shipwreck
The S.S. Dominator was 400-foot Greek freighter that accidentally ran aground on the rocky beach of Palos Verdes Estates in 1961.
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Cabrillo Beach Bunkers
Walk the Cabrillo Coastal Park trail and you’ll come across a pile of broken concrete that doesn't look like it's broken off of a house from up above… or washed ashore from the ocean tide.
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Clifton’s Cafeteria
There used to be several locations of what was known as Clifton's Cafeteria, with branches as far flung as the Valley and Orange County (as well as the Clifton’s-run Pacific Seas tropical paradise). But the only one to survive is the forested “Brookdale,” the second one in the chain, now rebranded Clifton's "Cabinet of Curiosities."
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Wiltern Theatre
If the case of the Wiltern Theatre teaches us anything, it's that something that's very, very far-gone can still be saved.
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Central Library, Downtown
The last work of American architect Bertram G. Goodhue, the 1926 completion of Los Angeles' Central Library interweaves 20th century architectural style with classical influences and references of ancient cultures.
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Cinerama Dome
When it was built in 1963 under the direction of Welton Becket (in less than five months), the geodesic dome shape of the Cinerama Dome was as groundbreaking as it is today.
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Bullocks Wilshire Building
Built in 1929 and designed by John Parkinson, the flagship Bullocks department store on Wilshire Boulevard was one of the first department stores to cater to car culture – with sidewalk-facing window displays to attract the eyes of Wilshire Boulevard motorists on their way east to downtown or west to the Miracle Mile.
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Royce’s Arcade Warehouse
At Royce's Arcade Warehouse in the San Fernando Valley, you gain admission to a literal warehouse in an industrial park for just $5.
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Redondo Fun Factory
At the Redondo Beach Pier (the seventh such iteration since 1892), the Fun Factory has promised “fun and games by the sea” under its current ownership since 1972.
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Family Amusement Arcade
For over 40 years, Family Amusement Arcade has provided the community with an all-ages amusement destination that’s open every day of the year from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m.
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Museum of Pinball
Even if you’re no Pinball Wizard – and the games you do play, you play badly – the Museum of Pinball is worth the trip to the Inland Empire.
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Looff’s Lite-a-Line
For decades, Looff’s Lite-a-Line was the last vestige left of The Pike amusement park, which the City of Long Beach closed in 1979.
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Scotty's Castle
“Death Valley Scotty” (born Walter Scott) was Death Valley's most famous and celebrated resident, drawing tourists out to his famous "castle" to meet him.
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Harmony Borax Works
The 20 Mule Teams only worked for the borax mining operations in Death Valley for six years (from 1883 to 1889) – but this wagon-pulling caravan has become synonymous with the park itself and with borax.
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Salt Creek
Yes, there is water in Death Valley. Well, sometimes. There are the waterfalls of Darwin Falls and Surprise Canyon, but the water that’s easiest to reach is at Salt Creek.
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Golden Canyon
You can visit some recognizable filming locations from both "Star Wars: A New Hope" and "Return of the Jedi" without going too far off the path.
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'Star Wars' Filming Locations
You can visit some recognizable filming locations from both "Star Wars: A New Hope" and "Return of the Jedi" without going too far off the path.
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Malibu Creek State Park
Malibu Creek State Park took a beating in the 2018 Woolsey Fire – but now that its trails have reopened, it’s the perfect opportunity to see how the natural landscape can recover from wildfire.
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Ed Davis Park at Towsley Canyon
On the Towsley Canyon Loop, you’ll hike along an old road and pass old, rusted gates, a crib dam for debris flow (circa 1971), pipes and other vestiges.
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Placerita Canyon Natural Area
There are a total of seven trails in the park, covering 12 miles – from beginner level to advanced.
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Trippet Ranch
No matter where you’d like to go in Topanga State Park, you can probably pick up the trail at Trippet Ranch.
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Devil's Punchbowl Natural Area
Why is it named after the Angel of Darkness? Maybe because climbing down 5,000 feet feels like descending into the underworld.
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Devil's Postpile National Monument
The columns of basalt of Devils Postpile, which formed during a volcanic period less than 100,000 years ago, feel forbidding, foreboding and maybe even verboten.
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Devil’s Gate
This is Devil’s Gate Dam, L.A. County’s response to the infamously devastating flooding of 1914.
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Devil’s Backbone
Devil’s Backbone is only 3.24 miles long, starting from Baldy Notch – but surviving it and getting to the 360-degree-view payoff at its terminus feels only possible by making a deal with the devil.
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Devil’s Slide
This pass was so steep, along exposed rock face of the hills, that it earned the name "Devil's Slide."
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Lake Norconian Club
The Navy used Lake Norconian as a Naval hospital throughout World War II and kept many of its original features intact, including the pavilion and boathouse.
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Cal-Aero Flying Academy
Today's Chino Airport is located on the grounds of the former Cal-Aero Academy, one of the first civilian flight schools in the U.S.
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Saddleback Butte State Park
Created in 1960 and formerly known as Joshua Tree State Park because of its dense population of Joshua trees, Saddleback Butte State Park’s hiking trails start off modestly at the ranger station / visitor center by the day-use area.
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Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve
. If you’re looking for a nice hike, however — with rolling hills and gradually shifting vistas — then head on into the reserve.
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Arthur B. Ripley Desert Woodland State Park
The half-mile nature trail and the mile-long Rare Juniper Trail don’t provide much ground for hiking, but you can get a nice, leisurely and relatively flat walk out of them in one of the last virgin Joshua tree forests in the Antelope Valley.
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Los Liones Canyon Trail
This is a breathtaking hike, not only because of the cold wind whipping through your lungs at the top, but because it provides the opportunity to look down on the lights of Santa Monica and its Ferris wheel at the Pier.
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Runyon Canyon Park
Runyon Canyon may be one of the most beaten paths when it comes to hiking in L.A., but something really special happens there when the sun goes down.
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Griffith Park
Griffith Park has got 50+ miles of trails, after all. Regardless of which way you take, most of your walk will be relatively shadowy even if you start before sundown.
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Hollywood Forever Cemetery
The Hollywood Forever Cemetery is one of the most iconic locations in the Los Angeles area.
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Hollywood Bowl
Another great way to truly experience L.A. is by spending an evening watching live music outdoors.
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Cucamonga Peak
If you're looking for an epic adventure that offers an incredible view for your picnic, take a hike up to the top of Cucamonga Peak in the San Gabriel Mountains.
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Leona Valley
t can be fun to incorporate freshly picked fruits into your picnic menu, and cherries go well with many things. From late May to July, different varieties of cherries are ripe and ready for picking in Leona Valley.
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The Phoenix Club
A group of 15 German immigrant families formed The Phoenix Club in Anaheim and built its original location in 1960.
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Alpine Village
Alpine Village in the South Bay promotes itself as the “Home of Oktoberfest Since 1968,” but this “little slice of Bavaria” is so much more than that — replete with a German restaurant, market, shops and even a chapel.
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Old World
. Old World’s founder, Josef Bischof, came to the U.S. from Germany in 1952 and brought the Bavarian style to both the South Bay and Orange County, having also founded Alpine Village.
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Villa Aurora
Once the home of German-Jewish journalist, playwright and novelist Lion Feuchtwanger, who purchased the 14-room, 6,700-square-foot house with his wife Marta in 1943, this Spanish Colonial Revival home became a haven for the German and Austrian intelligentsia who’d immigrated to the U.S.
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Goethe Institut
With locations in several major U.S. cities — including Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington, San Francisco and L.A. — Goethe-Institut has got the market cornered on promoting German language skills and cultural exchange among other cultures.
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Los Angeles City Hall
It’s no longer L.A.’s tallest building, and it hasn’t been since 1966. But prior to that, City Hall was the skyline of downtown L.A. – and for four decades.
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U.S. Bank Tower
Until the new Wilshire Grand opened a year ago, the U.S. Bank Tower (a.k.a. the Library Tower) was the tallest building west of the Mississippi – at least, since it was built in 1989.
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Wilshire Grand Center
Topped by a stainless steel spire, the Wilshire Grand Center’s 1,100-foot glass skyscraper is not only the tallest building in L.A. (beating out the U.S. Bank Tower, though just barely), but also the tallest west of the Mississippi.
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Aon Center
Completed in 1973, the Aon Center (a.k.a. United California Bank Building and the First Interstate Tower) is one of L.A.’s most misunderstood and underappreciated structures – falling just short of the 50-year period of significance and representing a “lost” part of L.A. that many preservationists still mourn.
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Westin Bonaventure Hotel
At once utopian and dystopian (hence its appearance in various sci-fi movies and T.V. shows), The Bonaventure Hotel is a thrilling part of the L.A. skyline and an adventure to explore, as you try to navigate your way through the six-story atrium and, eventually, its glassy cylinders to the upper floors.
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San Diego County Fair
San Diego County is leading the charge in updating carnival-style amusements and attractions for modern times and today’s youngest audiences.
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Los Angeles County Fair
The Fair ranks as the country’s fourth-largest and runs for nearly three weeks. And that’s despite the fact that September is our hottest month of the year!
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Orange County Fair
Orange County’s fair holds the distinction of having some of the most exciting programming that involves demolition derby.
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Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival
Among all of our county fairs, the one representing Riverside County is a real standout.
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Cabot's Pueblo Museum
For a truly oddball experience in the Palm Springs area, head north to Desert Hot Springs, where you’ll find Cabot’s Pueblo Museum, the grand palace of Cabot Yerxa.
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Palm Springs Air Museum
Even if you’re just passing through Palm Springs, it’s worth the detour to check out the Palm Springs Air Museum’s stellar collection of warbirds – and maybe even take a ride in one.
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Ruddy's General Store Museum
Stepping onto the Village Green of Palm Springs is like stepping back in time to the 19th century.
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Palm Springs Stadium
There’s only one baseball game in town – that of the summer collegiate league team, The POWER.
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Robolights
Its creator, outsider artist Kenny Irwin Jr., calls it simply "Robolights."
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Robert J. Lagomarsino Visitor Center
Technically, you’d have to get on the water to reach one of the actual Channel Islands. But technically, the national park experience extends to the mainland – starting at the visitor center at Ventura Harbor.
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Ventura Harbor Boat Rentals and Charters
Besides cruising to the Channel Islands courtesy of Island Packers, you can linger closer to the mainland by renting a pedal boat, kayak, or paddleboard or even taking advantage of one of Ventura’s many popular surf points.
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Ventura Village Carousel
The carousel attraction at Ventura Harbor Village is nearly a half-century old and the only carousel to be found in all of Ventura County.
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Ventura Murals
Thanks to everything from FDR’s New Deal in the 1930s to the Ventura Public Art Commission in modern times, this "City of Good Fortune" takes the cake in showcasing monumental works where “old” and “new” Ventura collide.
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Dennison Grade
California State Route 150 – known colloquially as the Dennison Grade – is an incredibly scenic and informative way to Ojai.
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Good Land Organics
offee? Grown in California? It’s true – and Good Land Organics in Goleta was the first coffee farm in the continental United States.
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Stumptown Coffee Roasters
If you consider yourself a “taster” – someone who enjoys a flight of wine, beer, or whiskey – head to Stumptown, where you can experience the industry standard method of tasting coffee.
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Counter Culture Coffee
For a more advanced coffee educational experience – whether you’re an aspiring barista or a voracious homebrewer – head to the Los Angeles Training Center of Counter Culture Coffee.
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Modern Times Dankness Dojo
Modern Times is one of the only breweries in the world that roasts its own coffee.
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Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge
At the southern tip of the Salton Sea, there's the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge, 32,766 acres that were designated a sanctuary and breeding ground for wildlife all the way back in 1930.
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Castle Park Railroad, Riverside
This two-foot narrow gauge railroad was built by Castle Park founder Wendell "Bud" Hurlbut, who'd already made a name for himself in miniature locomotives and train-based amusement park rides designed for Knott's Berry Farm.
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Dana Point Inn
For decades, its ruins stood atop the bluff, though all that's left now is a bit of the old rock-lined walkways and one set of stone arches, which mark the former hotel site like a tombstone.
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Royal Palms Country Club
Since 1960, Royal Palms has operated as a public beach, first by the State of California and then by the County of Los Angeles.
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Benton Hot Springs
Benton Hot Springs is solidly into the sagebrush belt of the California desert, and despite being a few miles off all-weather, transcontinental Route 6, it's really quiet.
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Ascot Hills Park
Many of Los Angeles' hillside neighborhoods are situated near open space, giving residents convenient opportunities to outdoor recreation. With Ascot Hills, you can add El Sereno to that list.
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China Camp State Park
China Camp State Park in San Rafael is a portal into history. On the shores of the San Pablo Bay, it was settled in the 1880s by Chinese immigrants. The shrimp fishing village soon grew to nearly 500 residents, with three general stores, a marine supply store, and a barber shop.
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South Carlsbad
This region of San Diego County, from San Elijo to San Clemente, offers some of the best beach backpacking in Southern California because of the abundance of appropriately spaced campgrounds.
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San Clemente State Beach
This hike technically begins in Orange County, on the wide, sandy beaches of San Clemente, the kind Southern California is famous for.
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Whittier Narrows Recreation Area
The paths throughout Whittier Narrows are certainly walkable, but the soft, dirt paths make for a nice bike ride and an efficient way to meander on your hunt for monsters that seem to have crawled out from the lakes (and gotten a relatively recent paint job).
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Valencia Peak
Valencia Peak serves up enchanting coastal views during the hike to its 1,347-foot summit.
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Dapper Cadaver
This horror props house by the Burbank Airport sells and rents anything from coffins to aliens, dinosaurs, and incredibly realistic-looking-but-fake corpses. It gets a lot of its business from Hollywood, but it also supplies the creators of home haunts as well as collectors of oddities like vintage surgical instruments, skulls and other bones, and jars of preserved critters (some fake, but some real).
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Skeletons in the Closets
You probably wouldn’t expect any coroner's office to have a gift shop — but at the County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, that’s exactly what you’ll find.
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Jalama County Beach Park
This might be the mother of all Southern California beach walks.
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Bearded Lady's Mystic Museum
Ever wish that your antiques store sold medical equipment? Or that there was somewhere to get your crazy cat lady friend a black cat Ouija board? Have you ever been to an artwalk and thought that there just weren’t enough ghosts in the galleries? Well, it’s your lucky day, because Burbank’s Bearded Lady has got all of that and more.
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Necromance
With its collection of bug, bones and skeletons, and sea creatures and shells (some of which have been made into jewelry), Necromance can definitely satisfy your curiosity of the natural history and wonders of this earthly realm.
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Hole In The Wall
The Mojave National Preserve's most-developed campground is also its most winter-ready, even though its 4,400 foot elevation might make it a little chilly at night.
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Moabi Regional Park
This is one of the California desert's hidden gems, passed by millions of people a year crossing the Colorado River on I-40.
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Treasure Island
Built in 1937 in time to host the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition (that is to say, the 1939 World's Fair), the island is chock-full of old buildings listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, was until recently the home to a 40-foot tall sculpture from Burning Man, and offers perhaps the best view you're going to get of gorgeous San Francisco.
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Guides to SoCal

Host Rosey Alvero in front of a row of palm trees.
SoCal Wanderer
Explore Montebello, Boyle Heights, Compton, South L.A. and East Hollywood in Five New 'SoCal Wanderer' Episodes