The Mystery Spot

The Mystery Spot is Santa Cruz's beloved piece of roadside Americana, and it earns its cult status by never taking itself too seriously: a small patch of hillside in the redwoods just outside town where a tilted cabin, a sloping forest floor and a lot of good-humored showmanship combine to make balls roll the wrong way, people lean at impossible angles and a visitor at one end of a level plank looks taller than the same visitor at the other. Guides lead timed tours of under an hour up the hill and through the cabin, running through the classic demonstrations with plenty of audience participation and jokes, and leaving it to you to decide whether it is gravitational anomaly or masterful optical illusion (the guides will happily argue either side). Kids find it delightful and slightly disorienting; adults usually spend the walk trying to work out the trick, and the photographs are excellent. The setting helps: a shaded redwood slope with a gift shop, picnic tables and short trails, so the visit feels like a forest outing as much as a curiosity. And then there is the bumper sticker, handed out at the end and spotted on cars all over the world. Tickets are inexpensive (with a separate parking fee), tours run every day of the year, and booking online is strongly recommended because weekend and holiday tours often sell out and the access road closes to visitors without reservations when the lot fills. Fit: families above all, groups of friends, couples who like a bit of kitsch, and first-timers who want a uniquely Santa Cruz memory.

The Mystery Spot opened to the public in the early 1940s and has changed remarkably little, which is much of its charm. The site sits on a steep, shaded slope in the hills above Santa Cruz, and the combination of the slope, the cabin's skewed geometry and carefully chosen sightlines does a superb job of confusing the inner ear. The guides are the real attraction: their patter is part science lesson, part comedy routine, and the tours are short enough that nobody gets bored.