The rocks in this arid basin leave trails of movement behind them.

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

This sun-scorched lakebed contains samples of half the natural elements known to humankind.

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

This unique graffiti art from the 1940s has become a staple of this local landscape in the remote California desert.

Colorful Native American paintings are hidden within this small cavern.

Hidden in the Santa Ynez Mountains off Highway 154, this tiny restaurant once served as a stagecoach stop.

Coastal dunes, site of buried Egyptian movie set and former utopian colony.

The San Andreas Fault spectacularly offsets this creek.

Hidden in the back of a disused small town hotel is a dive bar shellacked with over a million pennies.

Remnants of the United States's largest accidental oil spill still mar a California valley.

Where a railroad loops under or over itself to rise or drop more than 70 feet in a short distance.

Thousands of turbines whir at at the origin of North American wind power.

Abandoned hotel with adjacent lake and golf course.

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

Smooth basaltic rocks tell a tale of ancient glacial waterfalls.

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

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

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.

One of the oldest reform schools in the United States, home to wayward boys such as Merle Haggard, now abandoned.

A popular tourist cave with a dark past.

This small shack near the entrance to Sequoia National Park has been in almost continuous operation for the last century.

Four hundred granite steps were built into this massive rock by the National Park Service.