Twelve plaster figures inspired by da Vinci's famed painting haunt the desert landscape above a real-life ghost town.

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

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

"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.

Water of undetermined depth has attracted rare fish and cult leaders alike.

Brightly colored 30-foot-tall totems light up the desert sky just outside Las Vegas.

A former utopian healing center created by a huckster and built by derelicts.

This giant temperature attraction created some giant electric bills.

The "Fun Spot of the Desert" is now a haunting ruin, and a reminder that putting a water park in a desert is a bad idea.

Hundreds of trees made from glass bottles make up this forest on Route 66.

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

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

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.

A volcanic cone that formed over 600 years ago.

These massive concrete foundations and smelter chimney bricks still smell like smoke after a century.

The first project by the Bureau of Reclamation illustrates both the upsides and downsides of reclamation.

The ruins of a military outpost from the 1860s form the centerpiece of a Nevada state park.

Beneath a Virginia City bar is the entrance to an abandoned gold mine.

What once housed a private club catering to Comstock Lode elite is now considered one of the West’s most haunted spaces.

Back in the day everyone who was anyone played this historic western theater.

This larger-than-life portrait in Nevada's silver boomtown is decorated with over 3,000 silver dollars.

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