Under the right circumstances, this waterfall in Yosemite briefly turns a luminescent fiery orange.

California's oldest existing theater building hosted an impressive cast of celebrities, including hosting Mark Twain's first lecture.

Singing sand that stands as the final remains of an ancient lake.

Bits and pieces from the ill-fated Donner Party's winter cabins.

This cave was hidden for thousands of years, storing the worldly goods of ancient Native Americans.

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

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

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

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

A gothic palace of endless stalagmites and pseudoscorpions waits within one of the world's most beautiful caves.

The longest living non-clonal organisms on Earth.

Local history museum with mammoth bones and an old myth about local giants

A sculpture for the sun and stars, created by Nancy Holt.

This former rail stop in Utah was abandoned, repopulated by some nostalgic friends, and now is home to a single DIY aviator who lives in a hangar.

Come for the speed, leave in love with the desert.

Small Nevada town embraced its designation as the "Armpit of America" with an Old Spice-sponsored festival.

This granite monument at the site of an ill-conceived tourist attraction is built from the same stone as the Mormon Temple.

The world's largest dead polar bear, immortalized by taxidermy and Hunter S. Thompson.

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

A small flooded ghost town with a few scattered structures remaining.

An earthwork sculpture built by Robert Smithson in the Great Salt Lake only reemerges during drought.

Jurassic Park—A Still Life.

One of the largest open-pit copper mining operations in the entire country.

The installation’s official name, “You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies,” says it all.