An improbable sinkhole in the sediments flanking the Beaver Dam Mountains.

The "Grand Canyon of Southwestern Idaho" makes a spectacular gash across the flat Snake River plain.

Rocky outcrops containing overhangs, caves, fissures, clefts, and alcoves that invite exploration and scrambling.

The remote graves of a Scottish family who died of thirst while attempting to reach St. George.

Two geologically young and nearly circular volcanic subsidence craters, each about a half-mile in diameter, abruptly break the nearly featureless Snake River Plain.

This museum focuses on the history and culture of the German settlers in Pennsylvania.

A mining camp built around an unexpected occurrence of silver.

This dry lake bed was once an emergency landing strip for military and experimental aircraft.

A spectacular slot canyon at the northern edge of Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

A remote trail traverses the little-known Gearhart Mountains of southern Oregon.

The sump of the landlocked Carson River is a haven for wildlife.

Bodie's 20th-century rival was a paragon of respectability and calm—but the mines eventually ran dry.

A spring and an enigmatic cabin lie in a ponderosa pine forest in the heart of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge.

Oregon's only closed-basin hypersaline lake, an important stopover for migrating waterfowl, is in danger of drying up completely.

Stay in an old lookout cabin atop Oregon's spectacular Winter Ridge.

This spectacular fault escarpment, a popular hang-glider launch point, extends some 30 miles long and towers about 2,500 feet over the valley floors to the west.

An abandoned early 20th-century gold mine in a spectacular setting overlooking Bridgeport Valley and the Sierra Nevada.

The original building of a mining school endowed by one of the barons of the Comstock Lode now houses a museum of earth science and mining history.

Well-preserved ruins in the Pine Grove Hills of western Nevada.

One of the last "timber railroads" in the United States was finally abandoned in 1957.

Spectacular volcanic cliffs along the Crooked River invite hiking, rock climbing, and photography.

A large wave-cut shelter, a major archeological site, overlooks the dry basin of Winnemucca Lake.

Snapshots of late 19th and early 20th century Americana, focused on life on the plains, are displayed in this museum.

Red ocher pictographs survive in this tufa rock shelter on the shore of an ancient lake.