Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

A natural dome made of volcanic glass in Inyo National Forest.

This naturally heated mountainous creek has created a group of neon blue pools of potentially deadly boiling water.

A charming desert roadside bakery that produces 10 times more bread daily than it has residents in its town.

Once thought to be the oldest living tree in the world, Methuselah was germinated before the Egyptian pyramids were built.

A small research station sits at the summit of this mountain, which is one of the few U.S. peaks higher than 14,000 feet outside of the Sierra Nevada.

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

The most magnificent bottle house in a town strangely full of them.

"Only the devil could play golf here."

The lowest point in North America is home to an undrinkable pool surrounded by fields of geometric salt flats.

Millions of years of oxidation make a drive down this winding Death Valley road surprisingly colorful.

This crumbling Death Valley mining complex was known for its use of giant, 20-mule team wagons.

This small shack near the entrance to Sequoia National Park has been in almost continuous operation for the last century.

These millipedes glow not out of attraction, but as a not-too-subtle warning.

Four hundred granite steps were built into this massive rock by the National Park Service.

A 19th-century cabin built into a hollowed-out Sequoia tree.

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

The second-largest giant sequoia in the world.

This hidden fire lookout offers spectacular views of Sequoia National Park.

The last remnant of a tree that helped prove to the world that sequoias are real—and they’re spectacular.

An underground mansion with fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface of central California.

A glimpse into the lives of the the Miwok and Paiute people in Yosemite National Park.

The interior of the Overlook Hotel in "The Shining" was based on this Yosemite original.