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

Finally the worlds of UFO enthusiasts and beef jerky lovers have come together in this roadside shop.

Where NASA's satellites and rovers phone home.

The largest Star Wars collection in the world is its own galaxy of collectibles.

This historic California cemetery holds the bodies of veterans of both the Civil War and the Donner Party.

This dormant volcanic crater has been converted from a roiling pit of magma to a pleasant hiking spot.

The world's largest wooden trestle stretches across this desert canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

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.'

The most isolated mailbox in America lets desert travelers record their passing.

Another of California's unused Cold War missile defense complexes has become a graffiti gallery.

Abandoned anti-ballistic missile base.

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

This old mining town, deep in the California desert, has a year-round population of one.

The biggest pinball arcade in the world has over 600 pinball machines, and 300 arcade machines.

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

An abandoned Jazz Age dream home and con man's hideout in Death Valley.

Abandoned hotel with adjacent lake and golf course.

Where there's quartz, there must be gold. Thus is the story of the mines of Julian, and the titillating times of the Gold Rush.

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

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

"Only the devil could play golf here."

Ancient human, animal, and geometric figures drawn in the earth.

The location of the last stand of Charles Manson's doomsday cult.