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

The San Andreas Fault spectacularly offsets this creek.

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

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

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

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

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

A hard-to-reach oasis in a desolate corner of Death Valley National Park.

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

Eulogizing an unknown man's unusual demise.

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

This massive crater in the middle of nowhere was used to train astronauts for moon landings.

Smooth basaltic rocks tell a tale of ancient glacial waterfalls.

The smallest country in the world.

The world’s largest concentrated solar plant generates as many problems as megawatts.

Stepping away from the glitz of mobsters and casinos to learn about the other history of Vegas.

The neon signs from Las Vegas' past find their final resting place at this unusual graveyard.

In the middle of an extremely unforgiving and desolate high desert is the most secret military facility in the world.

This historic estate on the east shore of Lake Tahoe was home to an eccentric millionaire (and his pet elephant, Mingo).

Eastern zen meets Western grit in these four little trees growing out of a rock on Lake Tahoe’s Nevada shore.

A breathtaking 19th-century trail overlooks Lake Tahoe.

Hidden in a hotel parking lot is a strange historical plaque erected by an obscure fraternal society.

The beauty and the beast of hydraulic mining is on full display at this California Historic State Park.

An overlooked and unassuming engineering marvel.