The "Fun Spot of the Desert" is now a haunting ruin, and a reminder that putting a water park in a desert is a bad idea.

A series of labyrinths in the Nevada desert inspire meditation and calmness.

Brightly colored 30-foot-tall totems light up the desert sky just outside Las Vegas.

The wild west is still alive and well at this authentic mining town watering hole.

Thousands of glyphs created by an unknown culture decorate the rock formations of this canyon.

No one's quite sure why there's a metal megaphone bolted on two rocks in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

The abandoned train depot now doubles as a well-placed rest stop for those who take the road less traveled.

One of the ghostly stops along Route 66.

A pair of large white marble lions guard this stretch of the Mojave Desert, and it is utterly mysterious how they got there.

This dormant volcanic crater has been converted from a roiling pit of magma to a pleasant hiking spot.

The ghost town that ended up on Ebay.

Millions of years of oxidation make a drive down this winding Death Valley road surprisingly colorful.

The world's largest wooden trestle stretches across this desert canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Adolph Sutro's little-known, geographically inaccurate, deprecated monument.

Where there's quartz, there must be gold. Thus is the story of the mines of Julian, and the titillating times of the Gold Rush.

Another of California's unused Cold War missile defense complexes has become a graffiti gallery.

This Pringle-shaped ledge makes for the perfect photo op.

One of the world's largest collections of rare and magnificent bird specimens.

The interior of the Overlook Hotel in "The Shining" was based on this Yosemite original.

The mysterious round rocks of Schooner Gulch.

The ruins of the castle that chemicals built.

Ten 25-foot-tall, beehive-shaped kilns, abandoned in Death Valley.

This impressive tunnel was dug entirely by hand over the course of 36 years.

"Only the devil could play golf here."