Places slgwv Wants to Go

A relic from a forgotten bakery chain still spins atop a diner.

This conservation area is also home to many of the region's desert tortoises.

Hidden in a hotel parking lot is a strange historical plaque erected by an obscure fraternal society.

This unique graffiti art from the 1940s has become a staple of this local landscape in the remote California desert.

This park is home to California's first oil boomtown, with structures that have stood for more than a century.

The remnants of an early automobile route across shifting sand dunes can still be found in the deserts of Southern California.

This 19th century train workshop is a treasure trove of railroad history.

Across Ring Mountain is a vast collection of Native American petroglyphs unique to the region.

The modest home of the very immodest dancer who cost a king his crown.

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

Home of what was the largest hydraulic mine in the world, producing gold and the first diamonds in the U.S.

Location of the most powerful laser in the world, and the potential birthplace of tiny stars.

In the days before HD projectors and IMAX, some of the most powerful projectors belonged to planetariums.

Hidden beneath a lake for decades, this brutalist mine has now emerged from beneath the receding waters.

A remote desert lookout offers unparalleled views of the California badlands for those who brave the trek.

Each winter this underground cave forms a dazzling ice palace.

Where NASA's satellites and rovers phone home.

The decaying adobe remains of an old homestead are just off the beaten path in Joshua Tree National Park.

This mysterious petroglyph evokes the ancient swastika symbol but was later vandalized with the more troublesome Nazi one.

The beauty and the beast of hydraulic mining is on full display at this California Historic State Park.

A Cold War site complete with rusty structures, hiking trails, and beautiful views.

The world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory continues to report on the stars.

An abandoned 1920s-era stretch of cabins now overshadowed by the 66 Motel.

Massive prehistoric mammals used these stones as oversized scratching posts.