What is the Thing?

Where a railroad loops under or over itself to rise or drop more than 70 feet in a short distance.

Thousands of turbines whir at the origin of North American wind power.

The San Andreas Fault spectacularly offsets this creek.

The oldest pictographs on this decorated rock formation in California's Carrizo Plain date back as many as 4,000 years.

View the California coastline (and the home of Barbara Streisand) inch by inch with stunning, government-sanctioned aerial photography.

A second generation sun-powered marvel lights up the night.

Legendary frontman of the Doors looms in this giant mural by famed Venice muralist, Rip Cronk.

Ninety feet off the valley floor is an ancient dwelling put under protection of the U.S. government by Teddy Roosevelt.

Take a monster truck tour around an ostrich farm in the middle of the desert.

This scrap yard doubles as a naive art gallery full of found art and farm animals.

This striking church was built from a Frank Lloyd Wright design more than a decade after the master architect's death.

Some of the tallest ancient American ruins continue to inspire awe and curiosity.

Out of a desire to feed hungry soldiers, a franchise-altering idea was born.

A colony of Mexican free-tailed bats live under the bridge and take flight at sundown all summer long.

One of the oldest Mexican restaurants in the United States air-dries its trademark beef in a dangling outdoor cage.

Its history includes dinosaur fossils, cattle rustlers, Georgia O'Keeffe, and a mythical giant rattlesnake named Vivaron.

These aggressively sustainable art homes look like something out of 1970's science fiction.

A phenomenal assembly of pueblos in New Mexico is the most complete example of ancient ruins north of the border.

Legends surround this jagged rock formation in the New Mexico desert.

Red sandstone structures dominate this landscape, which has been inhabited for some 5,000 years.

An overlooked monument to the celebrity gangster who helped put the sin in Sin City.

Formerly the world's largest, this Willy Wonka-esque contraption runs 24/7.

Although now a decaying ruin, this stone cabin's history includes several notable figures.