Travelers leave tea kettles in a remote part of Death Valley as part of a mysterious, decades-old tradition.

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

A pair of large white marble lions guard this stretch of the Mojave Desert, and it is utterly mysterious how they got there.

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

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

Home to the "Circus" trees created by Axel Erlandson.

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

"Only the devil could play golf here."

A sign at the end of the Santa Monica Pier marks the traditional end of the legendary American highway.

A regular looking rock with an unbelievable history.

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

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

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

Life in this isolated, hilltop lighthouse was lonely, but it sure was lovely.

This unlicensed collection of fast-food memorabilia sits on the site of the first ever McDonald's restaurant.

This private residence was the template for one of the most beloved television homes of all time.

One of the ghostly stops along Route 66.

Costumed elves and mountain bikers co-exist peacefully at this abandoned Christmas-themed adventure park.

The "Fun Spot of the Desert" is now a haunting ruin, and a reminder that putting a water park in a desert is a bad idea.

The final resting place of a space program monolith.

The lowest point in North America is home to an undrinkable pool surrounded by fields of geometric salt flats.

The ghost town that ended up on Ebay.

A Swedenborgian glass church surrounded by redwoods sits perched atop a massive landslide area.

World-famous, Pink's still manages to keep its prized cult fetish status.