Places obstakel Wants to Go

A black and white painted wall creates an optical illusion in the California desert.

Hike amid the palm trees that thrive among Southern California's Indio Hills.

A monument to a one-legged kidnapper, horse thief, and charlatan asks visitors to throw rocks in a pile.

A giant knight, sex education, date shakes, and Jesus coexist happily in this Coachella Valley desert oasis.

Anyone can play paleontologist at this quarry that has Cambrian fossils galore.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

A brothel nestled amongst ghost towns, with an abandoned plane wreck to greet you.

A cosmic pit stop just beyond the notorious Area 51.

Bringing back the art of handmade custom coffins.

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

The lowest point in North America is home to an undrinkable pool surrounded by fields of geometric salt flats.

A mysterious and endangered parasitic herb from the California desert.

A unique collection of old miners' cave homes carved in to the hillside cliffs near Death Valley.

This sculpture garden in Death Valley makes you feel like you've slipped into some alternate reality.

This giant temperature attraction created some giant electric bills.

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

This large pile of traveler-curated rocks by the dry lakebed is a longstanding tradition on the Old Mojave Road.

A volcanic tunnel illuminated by natural skylights offers a shaded respite from the desert sun.

The abandoned train depot now doubles as a well-placed rest stop for those who take the road less traveled.

The largest dune field in the Mojave offers a chance of hearing the 'singing sands.'

Built as a schoolhouse in 1914, this Mission-style building has also served as a dancehall, a library, an Army canteen, and now a cultural museum.

Dyed by iron oxide over centuries, these sandstone rocks rise thousands of feet into the sky.

A professional special effects makeup artist’s collection of horror creatures and one-of-a-kind recreations on display in downtown Boulder City.

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