This former Mormon settlement is reemerging from the receding waters of Lake Mead.

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

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

A mining town once rife with murderous disputes over its copious treasures now creates income as a popular spot for photo shoots.

World War II-era Nazi compound nestled in the Santa Monica hills.

The first American department store, and home to the largest operating musical instrument in the world.

World's first "penitentiary," meant to be humane, drove men insane.

An abandoned cemetery lies in ruins as the surrounding forest swallows it whole.

The "3rd largest" city in California is an empty mirage of suburbia in the middle of nowhere.

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

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

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

Abandoned hotel with adjacent lake and golf course.

A beautiful final resting place for some of the noteworthy deceased.

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.

A motel dedicated to Southwestern nostalgia.

See massive fossils that are over 200 million years old in northeastern Arizona.

An homage to everyone's favorite prehistoric cartoon family.

A Saint Nicholas-themed ghost town in the Mojave desert.

A glittering South Asian anomaly in a wealthy Los Angeles suburb.

Named after a bandit and the star of several Hollywood prehistoric landscapes, these sandstone formations are a historical part of the Los Angeles natural landscape.

A 100-year-old purveyor of curiosities, curios, and kitsch featuring mummies, shrunken heads, and a Fiji Mermaid.

A rotting tree in the middle of Seattle doubles as an elaborately-controlled art piece.

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