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.

It may no longer take overnight guests, but the Martin still makes out-of-towners feel at home—just like it has for the past century.

Bodie's 20th-century rival was a paragon of respectability and calm—but the mines eventually ran dry.

An abandoned early 20th-century gold mine in a spectacular setting overlooking Bridgeport Valley and the Sierra Nevada.

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

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

A volcanic cone that formed over 600 years ago.

Deep vertical fissures like miniature slot canyons cut across the cemented volcanic rock of Black Point above Mono Lake.

Smooth basaltic rocks tell a tale of ancient glacial waterfalls.

Its dark depths conceal millions of rare, delicate crystal formations.