Finale of "William Tell Overture" can be heard as drivers pass over grooves in the road.

Odd outsider art installations surround a Gold Rush-era ghost town.

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

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

An underground mansion with fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface of central California.

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

These millipedes glow not out of attraction, but as a not-too-subtle warning.

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

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

A memorial to the unknown and unheralded men and women of the Cold War military and intelligence services.

The drama of nature in full effect in this Nevada State Park.

The hike through a narrow river flanked by the 2,000-foot-tall walls of Zion Canyon is one of the best in the world.

Giant, natural amphitheaters made of delicate geological formations called "hoodoos."

Rippling sand dunes frozen in the Arizona rock.

A mysterious spirit totem at the edge of Navajo lands.

Ancient pueblos built into the base of a natural canyon wall.

This Arizona observatory is famous for investigations into Martian life, and as the place humans first spotted Pluto.

One of the largest, oldest, darkest, quietest motel rooms in the world.

A classic Route 66 landmark that was built with scrap lumber and is held together with kitsch and puns.

Don't blink or you'll miss it.