Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.

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

The interior of the Overlook Hotel in "The Shining" was based on this Yosemite original.

The stoutest tree in the world.

The self-made house sculpture of an outsider artist who named himself "Chief Rolling Thunder."

A tree bears footwear on the loneliest road in America.

Only intact Ichthyosaur skeleton in the United States.

This Old West eatery along America's Loneliest Road was originally a stop on the Pony Express.

An abandoned Jazz Age dream home and con man's hideout in Death Valley.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

A steam trawler with a whiskey-soaked history driven ashore in 1960 resides rusty but still standing on the shoreline.