The extensive collection of an amateur naturalist.

This lava formation earned its whimsical name from the log-like formation of it stones.

The highest peak in Utah is the hardest to reach, but only if explorers choose the hard way.

Oddly shaped rock formation, misassociated with a nearby utopian community.

This quiet park's strange sedimentary spires were named after Kodak's color film.

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

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

The largest island on the great salt lake is home to curious creatures and strange stories.

Once a menacing challenge for trailblazers, this trail is now the most scenic drive in Utah.

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

Come for the speed, leave in love with the desert.

A house carved into a rock in the 1940s.

An earthwork sculpture built by Robert Smithson in the Great Salt Lake only reemerges during drought.

A small flooded ghost town with a few scattered structures remaining.

An extraordinarily ornate museum in San Diego holds wondrous anthropological treasures.

This family mausoleum is steeped in symbolism and looks more like a fantasy location than a grave.

A whimsical village of unique treehouses resides in a Washington forest.

An exercise in patience and imagination, where Mother Earth turned common stuff into precious hidden treasures.

A beautiful 62-acre Catholic shrine and botanical garden.

An extraordinary mixture of natural beauty and man-made phenomena.

This extravagant Art Nouveau rest stop features a million-dollar view of the Columbia River.

A fine, large-aperture telescope available for public use.

Despite a legend that says this highest peak in Oregon was climbed in high heels scores of people have died on its slopes.

You might know it as the Overlook Hotel, but the inside is not going to be familiar.