When you think of California’s must-visit places, you probably think of Yosemite, the Hollywood Sign, or the Golden Gate Bridge. But this great state has plenty of obscure attractions that can hold their own against the big guns. Net credit has revealed the most underrated places in California for us to visit, and we’re adding them to our list right away.
There’s a castle built by an ‘outsider architect’, a graveyard with rusted warships waiting to be dismantled, and a shop selling time travel supplies. Yes really. So, how did they figure out which lesser-known spots are still worth visiting?
They searched Atlas Obscura and found all the places in California that had less than 1,000 Google reviews but earned a four-star rating or higher. The result is this new series of maps that shows the most underrated places in every region of California…
Most underrated places to visit in California
1. China Flat Museum Bigfoot Collection
The museum itself may not be huge, but the packed assortment of ape-man artifacts gives it the feel of a Victorian cabinet of curiosities. Among other things, you can see preserved footprints of the mysterious creature and a giant wooden sculpture of his likeness. Then why not go out and try to find the ‘real’ thing?
2. The allosphere
The AlloSphere is a Fantastic Voyage-like version of the planetarium concept. Instead of looking at the stars, scientists and visitors can gaze at the 360-degree screen system with 24 million pixels and experience the insides of a brain scan or other microscopic event.
The facility can be found in the California Nanosystems Institute building at the University of California at Santa Barbara. It’s also one of the largest anechoic chambers in the world (which means it gets dead quiet when they turn off the awesome 512-channel sound system).
3. Folsom Prison Museum
This former prison is known as the prison where Johnny Cash recorded his famous live album in 1968. Now that it’s “closed for business,” the prison still has an eerie feel of yesteryear. Animatronic ‘puppets’ populate the cells and the museum is staffed entirely by former prison guards.
4. Mojave Lava Tube
At the Mojave Lava Tube, you can follow a 10,000-year-old trail of molten lava through tar-black tunnels naturally lit by beams of the hole-strewn ceiling. You really touch the ancient history as you run your hands along the walls of solidified lava.
5. Malibu Hindu Temple
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a piece of authentic Hollywood history that looks like it was beamed in from the other side of the world. The temple is cinematically cross-cultural and has appeared in both Hollywoods Beverly Hills Ninja (1997) and ‘Kollywood‘ (Tamil) movie Jeans (1998). It is open every day of the year for services, recitals and puja.
6. Hollywood Forever Cemetery
This may sound like a dreary place to visit, but it has all the grit and glamor you’ve come to expect from Tinsel Town. Showbiz names including Cecil B. DeMille, Johnny Ramone and Estelle Getty are among the “kitsch-yet-respectful” tombstones. Every summer, films are projected on the wall of Rudolph Valentino’s mausoleum.
7. The glass beach
Until 1967, residents of Fort Brag threw garbage such as appliances and vehicles over the cliff to the shore. Occasionally they threw down a Molotov cocktail to burn it and make more room. Years later (and after a clean-up operation) all that remains is a landscape of glass pebbles, smoothed by the waves of the ocean.
Editor’s Note: Some of these attractions are temporarily closed due to COVID-19. Check in advance if you are planning a visit.