The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California."

A fine mixture of the old and the new topped with an art deco neon spire.

Sunset-colored dunes of volcanic ash make taking a poor photo impossible.

This ultra-modern California span is actually a titanic solar clock in disguise built by famed architect Santiago Calatrava.

This Taoist temple is the oldest continuously used Chinese temple in California.

The deepest lake in the United States, and once the site of epic destruction that lives on in legends.

A rugged lava field dotted with molds of the ancient pines that were growing when the volcano erupted.

The longest continuous lava tube in Oregon.

On the Oregon coast is a natural hole that seems to be draining the sea.

The eerie remnants of an ancient forest were hidden under the sand for centuries.

The hike through a narrow river flanked by the 2,000-foot-tall walls of Zion Canyon is one of the best in the world.

A land of debatable treasure.

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

Odd outsider art installations surround a Gold Rush-era ghost town.

Officially named the "Loneliest Road in America," this barren stretch of Nevada road offers almost nothing but sky and open fields.

The longest living non-clonal organisms on Earth.

A gothic palace of endless stalagmites and pseudoscorpions waits within one of the world's most beautiful caves.

A 90-foot-tall psychedelic "tree" on the side of the highway has baffled passersby for decades.

Come for the speed, leave in love with the desert.

The fifth-longest natural arch in the world, and the longest outside China.

The largest hot spring in the United States is, as the name suggests, a stunning show of natural color.

A beautiful geyser under environmental threat.

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

Surrounded by a hundred mile radius of billboards, Little America is a roadside attraction whose primary appeal is hospitality.