Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Creatures people keep reporting and nobody has caught.
Felton, CA
A small roadside museum founded by longtime Bigfoot researcher Michael Rugg, holding footprint casts, local sighting reports, memorabilia and material relating to the Patterson-Gimlin film. Reported permanently closed — check before making the drive.
Willow Creek, CA
A standalone Bigfoot sculpture near Tonkin Park, one of several Sasquatch photo stops in the town that calls itself the Bigfoot Capital of the World. A roadside artwork rather than a staffed attraction.
Willow Creek, CA
A Bigfoot-themed roadside artwork in Willow Creek, California's self-proclaimed Bigfoot Country. A quick photo stop near the centre of town and the Willow Creek-China Flat Museum rather than a full attraction.
Happy Camp, CA
Happy Camp's large roadside Bigfoot figure marks the community's long-running embrace of Sasquatch folklore along the Bigfoot Scenic Byway.
Garberville, CA
This redwood-country roadside shop surrounds visitors with carved Bigfoot figures, local souvenirs and the visual culture that grew around Northern California Sasquatch lore.
Willow Creek, CA
An outdoor Bigfoot statue at the Community Commons, alongside the Willow Creek-China Flat Museum and the visitor information point. Another easy photo stop while working through the town's Bigfoot landmarks.
Stories a place tells about itself, passed down and still repeated.
Silverado, CA
The public trailhead leads into a canyon burdened with decades of ghost stories, crime legends and historical conflict. Treat paranormal claims as lore and stay on designated public routes.
Mount Shasta, CA
This high-elevation trailhead is a practical public gateway to Mount Shasta, a mountain surrounded by Lemurian, UFO and mystical folklore as well as serious mountaineering history.
San Francisco, CA
Stop on JFK Drive, where water from Rainbow Falls appears to run towards Lloyd Lake, put the car in neutral, and it appears to roll uphill. The slope is an illusion — the surrounding land hides the true horizon, so a gentle descent reads as a climb — which has never once stopped anyone trying it with a bottle of water. A public road, so pull over sensibly and watch for traffic.
Sylmar, CA
Stop on Kagel Canyon Road, put the car in neutral, and it appears to roll uphill. The slope is an illusion — the surrounding land hides the true horizon, so a gentle descent reads as a climb — which has never once stopped anyone trying it with a bottle of water. A public road, so pull over sensibly and watch for traffic.
Mammoth Lakes, CA
A roadside marker shaped like a slot machine, complete with handle and reels, telling the story that June Lake's illegal 1930s machines were dumped in the lake ahead of a state revenue raid. Installed around 2010. Divers have looked more than once and found nothing.
Rohnert Park, CA
Stop on Lichau Road, on the western slope of Sonoma Mountain, put the car in neutral, and it appears to roll uphill. The slope is an illusion — the surrounding land hides the true horizon, so a gentle descent reads as a climb — which has never once stopped anyone trying it with a bottle of water. A public road, so pull over sensibly and watch for traffic.
Hotels, theatres, prisons and back roads with a reputation.
Los Angeles, CA
Picnic Table 29 in Griffith Park is the subject of a Los Angeles urban legend involving a couple reportedly killed by a falling tree, with the damaged table and tree becoming an eerie hiking destination. Visitors reach the area on foot through Griffith Park, so this is a strange outdoor legend stop rather than a staffed attraction.
Los Angeles, CA
The 1927 hotel is intertwined with early Hollywood history and long-running ghost stories involving figures such as Marilyn Monroe; paranormal claims remain folklore.
Los Angeles, CA
This monumental 1923 hotel has accumulated ghost lore alongside its film, political and awards-show history, including stories connected to its ornate ballrooms and corridors.
Moss Beach, CA
The operating coastal restaurant openly preserves the Prohibition-era 'Blue Lady' ghost legend associated with its former speakeasy history; the haunting is folklore.
Burbank, CA
A horror and occult-themed shop and exhibit space rotates immersive installations involving supernatural films, witchcraft aesthetics and paranormal culture.
Los Angeles, CA
Manly P. Hall founded this library and lecture center around comparative religion, mysticism, symbolism and esoteric traditions, and it still preserves his unusual collection.
Sighting sites, crash lore and the towns that kept the file open.
Baker, CA
A desert jerky store has built an elaborate alien-invasion theme around its business, with UFO props, extraterrestrial figures and a planned spaceship-shaped attraction.
Landers, CA
The enormous desert boulder became a gathering place for George Van Tassel's UFO conventions and remains central to Southern California contactee history.
Landers, CA
UFO contactee George Van Tassel built this domed structure after claiming extraterrestrial guidance; today it is best known for scheduled sound-bath sessions.
El Cajon, CA
This operating spiritual organization displays visionary cosmic artwork, models and material connected with its teachings about advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.
Real events too strange to have made the textbook.
San Francisco, CA
The former federal prison occupies an island fortress in San Francisco Bay, preserving cellblocks, escape history and layered military and Indigenous occupation stories.
Newberry Springs, CA
The operating Route 66 cafe became an international pilgrimage stop after appearing as the principal setting of the 1987 film Bagdad Cafe.
Searles Valley, CA
Founded in 1897 to serve gold mines in the Panamint Mountains, with around 400 residents by 1898. What is left is adobe ruins and scattered mining remains off Panamint Valley Road. Privately owned, genuinely remote, and with no dependable services.
Richmond, CA
The Grande Vista, later known as Belgum Sanitarium, closed in the 1960s and its main buildings were destroyed by fire. Today hikers in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park can find remnants such as foundations, stonework and old landscaping along the former sanitarium grounds.
Lee Vining, CA
A handful of restored mining-camp buildings survive near Tioga Pass, reached by a short high-elevation hike when seasonal roads are open.
Blythe, CA
Large human and animal figures were scraped into the desert pavement by Indigenous peoples centuries ago. View only from designated areas and never walk on the protected geoglyphs.
Small, specific collections run by people who care far too much.
Vista, CA
Acres of working tractors, steam engines, blacksmith equipment and industrial machinery preserve technologies rarely seen operating at ordinary museums.
Eureka, CA
A working Victorian-era-style mill preserves antique woodworking machinery, blacksmithing, printing and traditional craft techniques rather than displaying them only behind glass.
Columbia, CA
A remarkably intact Gold Rush business district survives as a state park with historic storefronts, stagecoaches and period demonstrations.
Los Angeles, CA
Natural asphalt still bubbles through Hancock Park where enormous collections of Ice Age bones were trapped and preserved beneath modern Los Angeles.
Bishop, CA
A preserved railroad depot, locomotives and relocated historic buildings form a sprawling outdoor museum of Owens Valley transportation and settlement.
Los Angeles, CA
A commercial museum presents recreated torture devices and staged historical scenes in an intentionally graphic, theatrical format.
Giant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
San Francisco, CA
A functioning storefront for imaginary pirates sells eye patches, rope and absurd seafaring supplies while serving as the public entrance to a nonprofit writing center.
Albany, CA
A former construction-debris landfill became a waterfront landscape of improvised sculptures, murals and paths, with public art changing constantly.
Amboy, CA
A nearly symmetrical cinder cone rises beside Route 66 above a broad black lava field and can be reached by a desert hiking trail.
Big Pine, CA
Trails pass some of the oldest known individual trees on Earth, twisted bristlecone pines growing in stark white dolomite high above Owens Valley.
Joshua Tree, CA
This compact arts compound combines galleries, outdoor installations and eccentric desert artwork beside the World Famous Crochet Museum.
Death Valley, CA
Oxidized minerals color a volcanic hillside in greens, pinks, yellows and purples along the one-way Artists Drive.
