Improbably, the largest wildlife refuge in the conterminous 48 states sits just northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.

At the base of the Spring Mountains, a unique nursery packed with desert plants.

The so-called "Father of Las Vegas" had the city's first telephone installed in his office in 1907.

Now a city park, this site started as a stage stop, then was a working ranch, and finally became a dude ranch that specialized in letting wannabe divorcees establish Nevada residency.

A luxurious doomsday bunker hidden beneath an unassuming Las Vegas home offers the best of subterranean suburbia.

A private Las Vegas horse ranch adorned with whimsical artwork.

Originally built as a promotional giveaway, this suburban house was designed to be an IRL version of the Simpson home.

One of the world's tallest Ferris wheels takes visitors high above Las Vegas in a spinning party room.

A blacklight mini-golf fever dream pays tribute to the iconic rock band.

Nevada's largest cactus collection stands outside a candy mogul's small factory.

These banned cigarette vending machines now sell little pieces of pocket-sized art.

Inspired by a foil-wrapped potato, (seriously) the Markel Building has been deemed one of the 10 ugliest buildings in the world.

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

This abandoned Navy base was transformed into an off-grid alternative living community for thousands of people.

A strange house built only at night, with rumored mystic inspiration.

Cold War missile launch site which has been converted to a public 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.

An abandoned factory along the Mississippi coated by a giant mural.

Bad farming practices caused this unnatural natural wonder.

An ominous concrete cube cuts a dystopian silhouette atop this California mountain.

Collection of trolley cars in the woods represent one man's attempt to preserve transportation history.

This ghost town was once a cult-like religious utopian settlement.

A well-preserved Ancestral Puebloan ruin tucked beneath a desert cliff.

An unrealized Taoist palace left abandoned in a Houston suburb.