A house carved into a rock in the 1940s.

Oddly shaped rock formation, misassociated with a nearby utopian community.

The marker offers a rare chance to be in four U.S. states at once, though there's some controversy over its geographic accuracy.

Ancestral Puebloan ruins, natural arches, and box canyons abound in this seldom-visited corner of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.

A phenomenal assembly of pueblos in New Mexico is the most complete example of ancient ruins north of the border.

The land is full of geologic eye candy, such as otherworldly spires, mushroom-shaped hoodoos, and prehistoric fossils.

Seemingly grown on some other world, these New Mexico rock formations look like a disused science fiction set.

The hallowed remains of a 900-year old Ancestral Pueblo great house.

Legends surround this jagged rock formation in the New Mexico desert.

The longest living non-clonal organisms on Earth.

Only ruined buildings and abandoned charcoal kilns remain of this once bustling Wild West boom town.

This set of three large, volcanic hot springs is a favorite haunt for intrepid divers.

A shady solar power system that couldn't hold up to the harsh desert conditions.

Erosion and various mineral deposits give this striking canyon its distinct color and soft appearance.

A whimsical, punny collection of "fence art" outside the tiny mountain town of Baker, Nevada.

Narrow slot canyons in a badland eroded into soft sedimentary rock provide an otherworldly landscape in this remote Nevada state park.

A Nevada mining boomtown that ran out of silver and luck.

These huge stone ovens in the desert fueled the Nevada silver boom, and may have also been a hideout for outlaws.

These otherworldly limestone formations jut out from the Kansas prairie.

It's big, it's a ball, and it's made of twine—the world's largest of its kind.

Colorado's only true geyser is hidden within the San Juan National Forest.

More than 300 years ago, a revolt at this Hopi pueblo shaped the future of the American Southwest.

Rippling sand dunes frozen in the Arizona rock.

A breathtaking array of ancient Pueblo structures and artifacts counterintuitively preserved by neglect.