Published&accepted

222 Places

Baker, California

Afton Canyon

In one of the hottest parts of the Mojave Desert, shallow bedrock forces the typically dry Mojave River to the surface in this canyon, providing a vital oasis for humans and wildlife.

slgwv

Airmail Arrow

A concrete arrow from a 1920s network of airmail beacons is still preserved at the western edge of suburban Reno.

slgwv

Arrow Canyon

A hidden slot canyon in the southern Nevada desert makes an unexpected oasis and scenic hike.

slgwv

ATK Rocket Garden

Dozens of rockets and missiles are on display outside a testing facility in the Utah desert.

slgwv

Hawthorne, Nevada

Aurora

This Gold Rush ghost town was once the subject of a territorial dispute between California and Nevada.

slgwv

Mold, Washington

Banks Lake

Every drop of water in this 27-mile long reservoir was pumped up from the Columbia River using power from Grand Coulee Dam.

slgwv

Susanville, California

Bizz Johnson National Recreation Trail

This hiking/biking/horse trail along an old railroad grade features trestles, tunnels, and a roadless stretch through the scenic Susan River canyon.

slgwv

Boulder City, Nevada

Black Canyon National Water Trail

See Hoover Dam and the bypass bridge from a perspective usually off-limits to the public, and float the upper part of the Black Canyon National Water Trail.

slgwv

Truckee, California

Boca

This settlement on the original Transcontinental Railroad began by harvesting timber, but transitioned to a forgotten 19th-century industry: harvesting ice.

slgwv

Ouray, Colorado

Box Canyon Falls

A glimpse of a waterfall is reached by a steel catwalk along a slot canyon located in an Ouray city park.

slgwv

Carrara

This small town was built around a marble quarry and named after one of the most famous sources of marble in the world.

slgwv

Duck Creek Village, Utah

Cascade Falls

An improbable waterfall springs from an orange-white cliff face, tumbling into the headwaters of the Virgin River above Zion National Park.

slgwv

Cathedral Gorge

Narrow slot canyons in a badland eroded into soft sedimentary rock provide an otherworldly landscape in this remote Nevada state park.

slgwv

Round Mountain, Nevada

Diana's Punch Bowl

Located in the remote Monitor Valley, this travertine bowl contains a scalding pool of water.

slgwv

Spaulding, California

Eagle Lake

At the edge of the high desert, California's second-largest natural lake is home to a unique subspecies of trout adapted to its alkaline waters.

slgwv

Gerlach, Nevada

Elephant Head Rock

A remote, little-known natural arch in granite in the desert of northwestern Nevada.

slgwv

Fairview Peak-Dixie Valley Fault Scarps

In 1954, two enormous earthquakes occurred just minutes apart, resulting in prominent scarps that extend for miles along the range fronts.

slgwv

Castle Valley, Utah

Fisher Towers

These tall, red sandstone pinnacles outside Moab are often forgotten amid their more famous neighbors.

slgwv

Silver Springs, Nevada

Fort Churchill

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

slgwv

Gabbs Mine

The only United States mine for magnesium carbonate has been operating continuously since the 1930s.

slgwv

Gemini Bridges

It's safe—and permitted—to walk across these twin natural sandstone arches.

slgwv

Gerlach, Nevada

George W. Lund Petrified Forest

A little-known occurrence of fossil wood in northern Washoe County, Nevada, near the Black Rock Desert.

slgwv

Boulder City, Nevada

Historic Railroad Hiking Trail

An old railroad grade built for the construction of Hoover Dam is now a recreational trail featuring several tunnels and sweeping views of Lake Mead.

slgwv

Hunter Creek Falls

This wilderness hike to a waterfall has an unlikely beginning in suburban Reno.

slgwv

Lamoille, Nevada

Lamoille Canyon

Drive up a paved road into "Nevada's Yosemite" for exquisite views and mountain hiking in an alpine setting.

slgwv

Metropolis Ghost Town

An ill-fated attempt to grow wheat in the sagebrush steppe of northeastern Nevada.

slgwv

Mud Slough

As fallout from an irrigation project, a formerly cottonwood-lined stream is now a sandy, desolate, post-apocalyptic channel lined with weathered stumps and tumbleweeds.

slgwv

Lovelock, Nevada

Nevada Quicksilver Mine

An abandoned mine serves as a stark memorial of when mercury was a valued strategic metal.

slgwv

Nevada State Route 722

US-50 in Nevada is known as "the Loneliest Road in America," but this earlier iteration of the route is even lonelier.

slgwv

Scheelite, California

Pine Creek Tungsten Mine

For decades, the largest tungsten producer in the U.S. was located in a spectacular setting in the high Sierra Nevada, with some of the workings over 11,000 feet.

slgwv

Project Shoal Site

On October 26, 1963, a 12-kiloton nuclear device was detonated here in granite some 1,211 feet below the ground surface.

slgwv

Kimberly, Idaho

Shoshone Falls

These falls, sometimes called the "Niagara of the West," still put on a good show at the right time of year.

slgwv

Sierra City, California

Sierra Buttes Lookout

A fire lookout atop a glacial pinnacle is reached by climbing three vertiginous flights of stairs.

slgwv

Soda Lakes

Two craters, which probably erupted within the last 1,500 years and are now filled by alkaline lakes, represent Nevada's youngest known volcanic activity.

slgwv

Princeton, Oregon

Steens Mountain

With a crest near 10,000 feet, this treeless fault-block mountain in eastern Oregon provides stunning views and spectacular glacial landforms.

slgwv

Coulee City, Washington

Summer Falls

This large artificial waterfall in Washington state was merely an incidental byproduct of a technological megaproject.

slgwv

Winnemucca, Nevada

Thousand Creek Gorge

A spectacular but little-known slot canyon in extreme northern Nevada, with sheer walls nearly 500 feet high and a perennial stream.

slgwv

Toiyabe Crest Trail

This little-used trail winds through the highest mountain range in central Nevada with sections around 10,000 feet.

slgwv

Transcontinental Railroad Back Country Byway

This now-abandoned part of the original transcontinental railroad route provides a surreal driving and historical experience.

slgwv

Tusher Tunnel

A crack flared at the base provides a pathway completely through a sandstone ridge near Moab.

slgwv

Wallowa Lake Tramway

The steepest tramway in North America provides stunning views of the out-of-the-way Wallowa Mountains in northeastern Oregon.

slgwv

Las Vegas, Nevada

Tule Springs Ranch

Now a city park, this site started as a stage stop, then was a working ranch, and finally became a dude ranch that specialized in letting wannabe divorcees establish Nevada residency.

slgwv

Clarkdale, Arizona

Verde Canyon Railroad

An excursion train traverses a picturesque red-rock canyon along the Verde River.

slgwv

Castle Dale, Utah

Wedge Overlook

A spectacular overlook of the Little Grand Canyon of the San Rafael River, a deep sandstone gorge streaked with orange, red and white in a remote, uncrowded part of Utah.

slgwv

Wheatland Ferry

This incongruous small ferry across the Willamette River north of Salem, Oregon has been operating continuously since the 1850s.

slgwv

Swall Meadows, California

White Mountain Peak

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.

slgwv

White River Falls

An out-of-the-way state park in Oregon that features both a picturesque waterfall and the ruins of a hydropower plant.

slgwv

Yerington, Nevada

Yerington Pit (Anaconda Copper Mine)

A deep toxic lake fills this abandoned open-pit copper mine, now a Superfund site.

slgwv

Map