Edwards Air Force Base, California
Edwards AFB Satellite Calibration Targets
These colossal desert barcodes have been fine-tuning spy satellites for decades.
Places I want to go
Places on this traveler's wishlist.
Edwards Air Force Base, California
These colossal desert barcodes have been fine-tuning spy satellites for decades.
Edwards Air Force Base, California
Etched into a dry lake bed, this massive directional indicator is accurate without magnets.
San Bernardino, California
A former utopian healing center created by a huckster and built by derelicts.
Austin, Nevada
US-50 in Nevada is known as "the Loneliest Road in America," but this earlier iteration of the route is even lonelier.
Fallon, Nevada
Singing sand that stands as the final remains of an ancient lake.
Fallon, Nevada
On October 26, 1963, a 12-kiloton nuclear device was detonated here in granite some 1,211 feet below the ground surface.
Reno, Nevada
This Nevada lake holds its titular natural pyramid and, if the legends are true, a number of dangerous spirits.
Lee Vining, California
Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.
Tonopah, Nevada
The farthest you can be in the contiguous U.S. from a McDonald's location.
Alamo, Nevada
If you want to take a peek at Area 51, this is legally as close as you're going to get.
Alamo, Nevada
Mysterious meeting place for UFO hunters near Area 51.
Groom Lake, Nevada
In the middle of an extremely unforgiving and desolate high desert is the most secret military facility in the world.
Nye County, Nevada
The largest man-made crater in the U.S. marks the spot where we once tested mining with nukes.
Nye, Nevada
Potential high level nuclear waste storage site for the next 10,000 years and beyond.
Nye County, Nevada
A picture-perfect town, perfect for blowing up.
Nye County, Nevada
The contents of this safe survived a 37-kiloton nuclear bomb.
Turkmenistan
A fiery crater has been burning in the Karakum Desert since 1971.
Ramhormoz, Iran
Leaking natural gas never stops burning on this hill, making it an infinite inferno.
Centralia, Pennsylvania
A mine fire has been burning under the deserted town since 1962, but this church is still going strong.
Ashland, Pennsylvania
The only geyser in the state of Pennsylvania is caused by pressure from an abandoned coal mine outside of the ghost town Centralia.
Aristes, Pennsylvania
A toxic ghost town sitting atop a massive coal fire.
Prypiat, Ukraine
One of the most poignant ruins of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, the local football team's stadium has been quickly reclaimed by nature.
Prypiat, Ukraine
This attraction was abandoned after the Chornobyl disaster.
Prypiat, Ukraine
The ghost town left by the worst nuclear disaster of all time is being taken over by nature and urban explorers.