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

This hotel has hardly changed in over a century, like a time capsule of old Oregon.

This lesser known Hearst estate is a fairytale village built from the stolen bones of historic European buildings.

Despite being a perfectly pleasant place to be, Loyalton can't seem to attract any visitors.

An old-timey medicine shop that once served Chinese laborers during the Gold Rush is still open for business to this day.

The now-abandoned tunnels were built for the transcontinental railroad on the route where the first wagon train entered California.

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

A glimpse into the lives of the the Miwok and Paiute people in Yosemite National Park.

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

Eons old volcanic activity created one of the most stunning rock formations in the United States.

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.

Graffiti, cars, and religion combine to create this jungle of scrap in the Nevada desert.

Michael Heizer's masterwork in the Nevada Basin.

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

Salt is slowly eating away this abandoned saltworks town in the desert.

The first life claimed by this record-breaking peak wasn't lost to exposure or a fall but rather lightning.

A mountain range on an active U.S. Navy base hides thousands of mysterious prehistoric rock carvings.

A massive hydrovolcanic explosion left a half-mile wide crater in Death Valley.

This desert oddity hides in plain sight thanks to a cartographic error and a desert explorer with a punny sense of humor.

"Only the devil could play golf here."

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

A lawless town deep in Death Valley was famous for its riches and death rate.

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