Offering commanding views of the California coastline, this restaurant was a hub for the artists and bohemians of Big Sur.

A grove of "candelabra redwoods" deep in California's Lost Coast.

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

The largest dune field in the Mojave offers a chance of hearing the 'singing sands.'

Coastal dunes, site of buried Egyptian movie set and former utopian colony.

Sunset-colored dunes of volcanic ash make taking a poor photo impossible.

Neither Spanish settlers nor anyone since has been able to tell who built these strange California rock walls.

Named after a bandit and the star of several Hollywood prehistoric landscapes, these sandstone formations are a historical part of the Los Angeles natural landscape.

The highest dunes in California are the most likely place in the area to hear the Singing Sands.

The quiet canyon has a tumultuous history involving a doomsday cult.

The lowest point in North America is home to an undrinkable pool surrounded by fields of geometric salt flats.

This abandoned Navy base was transformed into an off-grid alternative living community for thousands of people.

This rare example of a "tidefall" is a spectacular drop from the cliffs down onto the beach.

This Big Sur waterfall drops 80 feet directly into the Pacific Ocean, and inspired the hillside house up top.

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

The legendary building that needed ghostly approval before being built.

A sprawling cave network created by a lone lava tube.

Unknown to many, this sparkling turquoise lake hides amid Oregon's snowcapped mountains.

This rare, carefully curated collection showcases the history of neon inside a grandiose Elks lodge.

At the base of Steens Mountain resides an otherworldly desert.

Two massive rock outcroppings on the Oregon coastline.

Massive crater in central Oregon.