"Only the devil could play golf here."

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

Spend a day hanging out with domesticated Russian foxes.

In California, colorful roadside signs remind us all that love transcends borders.

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

Behind this beachfront shop lies a spectacular, colorful sea cave with an equally colorful past.

This little blue house pokes out over the campus of UC San Diego, seven stories high.

In this roadside "community for the small," abandoned toys gain new lives.

This Pringle-shaped ledge makes for the perfect photo op.

This outdoor observatory offers stellar views and a scale model of our solar system.

A giant knight, sex education, date shakes, and Jesus coexist happily in this Coachella Valley desert oasis.

This large pile of traveler-curated rocks by the dry lakebed is a longstanding tradition on the Old Mojave Road.

A former utopian healing center created by a huckster and built by derelicts.

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

Crumbling pink walls and murder memorials preserve the pioneer history of Joshua Tree.

Sojourn to the past at this residence teeming with 1950s memorabilia.

A black and white painted wall creates an optical illusion in the California desert.

These unusual houses look like giant boats that washed ashore on a residential street.

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

The oldest structure in a beachside California city was built to serve eight students.

What began as an illegal art installation has become a symbol for unity, ocean awareness, and coastline preservation.

The only thing stranger than stumbling onto these philosophical musings is the story of the homesteader who created them.

You don't have to be a diplomat to visit the so-called Camp David of the West.

No one's quite sure why there's a metal megaphone bolted on two rocks in the middle of the Mojave Desert.