A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

This giant temperature attraction created some giant electric bills.

A volcanic tunnel illuminated by natural skylights offers a shaded respite from the desert sun.

The abandoned train depot now doubles as a well-placed rest stop for those who take the road less traveled.

An abandoned Jazz Age dream home and con man's hideout in Death Valley.

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

A fake town founded by Western movie stars is now becoming a hip desert community.

A music-filled, booze-soaked oasis in the desert.

A graceful natural rock formation stands astride the point where the Gulf of California meets the Pacific Ocean.

Twelve plaster figures inspired by da Vinci's famed painting haunt the desert landscape above a real-life ghost town.

Odd outsider art installations surround a Gold Rush-era ghost town.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

The only thing stranger than stumbling onto these philosophical musings is the story of the homesteader who created them.

This dormant volcanic crater has been converted from a roiling pit of magma to a pleasant hiking spot.

The ghost town that ended up on Ebay.

Dramatic river bend surrounds a natural red-rocked pedestal.