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

The overgrown ruins of a once thriving World War I-era copper mine.

Smooth basaltic rocks tell a tale of ancient glacial waterfalls.

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

The mysterious round rocks of Schooner Gulch.

A fake town founded by Western movie stars is now becoming a hip desert community.

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

"Only the devil could play golf here."

The liveliest ghost town in the state.

One of the most unusual geological features, recognizable from a dozen hit movies.

Hidden above a drug store on a nondescript corner of Lincoln Heights is a private clubhouse for intrepid explorers.

One of the last free public hot springs is decorated with hippie art.

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

The highest dunes in California are the most likely place in the area to hear the Singing Sands.

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

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

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

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

An underground mansion with fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface of central California.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.