Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

This naturally heated mountainous creek has created a group of neon blue pools of potentially deadly boiling water.

A natural dome made of volcanic glass in Inyo National Forest.

A relic of the region's once booming timber industry.

A new monument to an old grave that was uncovered during the rebuilding of a California ghost town.

A volcanic cone that formed over 600 years ago.

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

Deep vertical fissures like miniature slot canyons cut across the cemented volcanic rock of Black Point above Mono Lake.

Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.

This Gold Rush ghost town was once the subject of a territorial dispute between California and Nevada.

A small research station sits at the summit of this mountain, which is one of the few U.S. peaks higher than 14,000 feet outside of the Sierra Nevada.

A charming desert roadside bakery that produces 10 times more bread daily than it has residents in its town.

The echoes of a railroad town that solemnly mark the end of the line.

Once thought to be the oldest living tree in the world, Methuselah was germinated before the Egyptian pyramids were built.

Oh, just a motel on the edge of the desert decorated with thousands of clowns conveniently located next to an abandoned graveyard.

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

This rock formation named for its unique shape is one of many that call the Alabama Hills home.

The hundreds of movies and television shows shot in this high desert town are commemorated in a unique museum.

Water of undetermined depth has attracted rare fish and cult leaders alike.

A unique collection of old miners' cave homes carved in to the hillside cliffs near Death Valley.

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

"Only the devil could play golf here."

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

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