Places Mark Sommer Wants to Go

Finale of "William Tell Overture" can be heard as drivers pass over grooves in the road.

The world's largest wooden trestle stretches across this desert canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Dig for your own trilobites in this goldmine of invertebrates.

The remains of this early 20th century refinery loom on a mountainside like a graffiti-covered fortress.

Remember that scene in the Matrix, when Neo is in the big white room with all the weapons flying by? Well, this is what it would look like if he had wanted trees instead of guns.

A sculpture for the sun and stars, created by Nancy Holt.

Big gun installations, built over a massive cemetery, now abandoned & hidden in trees.

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

An abandoned water sports stadium that has become a haven for graffiti and decay.

Remains of a Greek freighter trapped off of Rocky Point in 1961.

A Hawaiian stairway to heaven—that you can't climb.

A beautiful geyser under environmental threat.

One of nature's most well-scheduled phenomenons resides in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park.

One man's ambition created this psychedelic log home.

One of the oldest reform schools in the United States, home to wayward boys such as Merle Haggard, now abandoned.

Secret Manor, a house full of legends, the least of which is the haunting of long-deceased ladies of pleasure.

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

The artist James Turrell is repurposing an extinct volcano crater as an observatory to experience the cosmos.

Most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest.

This rugged area of red rocks and arches is often considered one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

A sharp bend in a dramatic river canyon cut through red rocks.

A collision of human error and natural geothermal pressure created this rainbow-colored geologic wonder.

Rippling sand dunes frozen in the Arizona rock.

On a barren hillside in the Yucca Valley, the recently restored Desert Christ Park has attracted pilgrims and kitsch hunters for over 50 years.