An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.

This concert pavilion on the shore of the Great Salt Lake has been destroyed by fire, water, and disinterest but keeps coming back.

This geothermal hot spring hides beneath a slowly growing mineral dome.

Despite its name, this route in southern Utah offers a heavenly day trip.

The highest concentration of petroglyph sites in Gold Butte National Monument, plus an improbable early 20th-century dam.

An internationally-recognized dark sky sanctuary lies in northern Nevada, near the Oregon line.

The self-proclaimed gateway to the Extraterrestrial Highway.

See Hoover Dam and the bypass bridge from a perspective usually off-limits to the public, and float the upper part of the Black Canyon National Water Trail.

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.

Its founder calls it a "proletariat art renaissance".

An old railroad grade built for the construction of Hoover Dam is now a recreational trail featuring several tunnels and sweeping views of Lake Mead.

Curiously, this large sporting goods store features 14 wax representations of American presidents.

Thousands of acres of beautiful wild landscape in the Great Basin.

A unique solar-powered pottery studio and gallery in the desert.

A private Las Vegas horse ranch adorned with whimsical artwork.

These huge stone ovens in the desert fueled the Nevada silver boom, and may have also been a hideout for outlaws.

Nearly 300,000 acres of wildlife, natural splendor, and a hidden ghost town have been designated a national monument.

An absolutely beautiful 200-foot stained glass installation traces the evolution of knowledge.

Bizarre lunar-like landscape with thousands of large stone "hoodoos."

Contains a wealth of information about the first exploration and later use of the Green and Colorado Rivers.

This massive metal sculpture in the shape of a folded paper airplane overlooks a Utah mountain.

A towering tribute to decisiveness stands on the spot where Brigham Young and his followers decided that this must be the place.

An improbable waterfall springs from an orange-white cliff face, tumbling into the headwaters of the Virgin River above Zion National Park.

Where a guard killed nine German prisoners during one of the worst 20th-century POW camp massacres in U.S. history.