This giant temperature attraction created some giant electric bills.

The abandoned train depot now doubles as a well-placed rest stop for those who take the road less traveled.

The largest dune field in the Mojave offers a chance of hearing the 'singing sands.'

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

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

Artist Jack Pierson made this surreal sculpture in honor of Wonder Valley, a countercultural community on edge of civilization.

The decaying adobe remains of an old homestead are just off the beaten path in Joshua Tree National Park.

No one knows how this Pacific Northwest spruce tree came to have so many trunks.

This unassuming cheese empire in rural Oregon churns out more than 150,000 pounds of cheese each day.

Oldest building in California still in use.

A sculpture of the famous photograph stands on San Diego's "Greatest Generation Walk."

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

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.

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

This crumbling Death Valley mining complex was known for its use of giant, 20-mule team wagons.

Brightly colored 30-foot-tall totems light up the desert sky just outside Las Vegas.

An enormous illuminated figure dances on the Las Vegas strip.

A bit of retro transportation flair preserved in the world's largest department store.

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

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

Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.