The beauty and the beast of hydraulic mining is on full display at this California Historic State Park.

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

This beautiful ancient site is dotted with perforated sandstone pillars considered sacred by some Native American groups.

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

Massive mounds of golden sand look like a desert landscape randomly plopped in an Arctic forest.

A well-preserved Ancestral Puebloan ruin tucked beneath a desert cliff.

Tucked away on an empty wooded lot in suburban Oklahoma City lie the remnants of an abandoned circus camp.

The remnants of an early American attempt at missile defense.

The old Route 66 town straddling Texas and New Mexico died along with the Main Street of America.

Odd outsider art installations surround a Gold Rush-era ghost town.

During the 1990's nearly all of the world's LSD is thought to have come from the operators of the lab once located in this missile silo.

Originally a brothel during the Klondike Gold Rush, this bar once used dolls to denote when ladies were working.

An old saloon in the West filled with history, and according to some, a few dozen ghosts.

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

There's nothing creepier than a cemetery next to a clown motel.

An important piece of history from mankind's journey to the moon sits in the lobby of a government science lab.

This Arizona observatory is famous for investigations into Martian life, and as the place humans first spotted Pluto.

This former stomping grounds of the most eminent astronomers of the early 20th century.

A world-class observatory in the California desert.

Eat a tasty meal in the house where John Steinbeck was born.

Tucked away down this Baytown alley exists a one-of-a-kind art exhibit of technicolor umbrellas.

In Paris, Texas, even Jesus wears cowboy boots.

It specializes in outsider art and artifacts of secret societies.

This downtown Dallas art installation is always on the lookout.