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.

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

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

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

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

Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.

A Wild West saloon that helped define a generation of psychedelic rock.

These once-beautiful historic graveyards are set against the barren Virginia City hills.

The now-abandoned tunnels were built for the transcontinental railroad on the route where the first wagon train entered California.

This Nevada lake holds its titular natural pyramid and, if the legends are true, a number of dangerous spirits.

The park preserves a single, rare species of carnivorous plant that spells doom for unsuspecting insects.

The first North American landing spot for James Cook on his third voyage of discovery in the Pacific.

This unassuming cheese empire in rural Oregon churns out more than 150,000 pounds of cheese each day.

No one knows how this Pacific Northwest spruce tree came to have so many trunks.

Two massive rock outcroppings on the Oregon coastline.

Mountain known by the Tillamook Tribe as "the place of the supreme deity."

A logging-themed roadside restaurant surrounded by museum-quality machinery and artifacts from the industry's heyday.

A Roman-style column in Oregon hides a spiral staircase inside.

A massive sea stack famous for its appearance in The Goonies.

This gorgeous beach hides behind two headlands in Oregon's Ecola State Park.

100-year-old shipwreck you can walk up to at low tide.

The deepest lake in the United States, and once the site of epic destruction that lives on in legends.

At the base of Steens Mountain resides an otherworldly desert.

Sunset-colored dunes of volcanic ash make taking a poor photo impossible.