karenjsutton's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Solvang, California

OstrichLand USA

Get up close to emus and ostriches, or buy their tasty meat.
Inyo County, California

Artist's Drive

Millions of years of oxidation make a drive down this winding Death Valley road surprisingly colorful.
Inyo County, California

Scotty's Castle

An abandoned Jazz Age dream home and con man's hideout in Death Valley.
Yosemite National Park, California

The Ahwahnee Hotel

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

Nitt Witt Ridge

A house built from trash known as the poor man's Hearst Castle.
Calistoga, California

Calistoga Petrified Forest

The fossilized remains of ancient California redwoods.
San Francisco, California

San Francisco Botanical Garden

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.
Inyo County, California

Devils Golf Course Landscape

"Only the devil could play golf here."
Pioneertown, California

Pioneertown

A fake town founded by Western movie stars is now becoming a hip desert community.
San Francisco, California

Vaillancourt Fountain

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.
Gilroy, California

Gilroy Gardens

Home to the "Circus" trees created by Axel Erlandson.
San Simeon, California

Hearst Castle

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.
Los Angeles, California

Venice of America Canals

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.
Inyo County, California

Badwater Basin

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

Bodie State Historic Park

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

St. Mary’s Art Center

A former mining hospital is now a vibrant artistic hub.
Virginia City, Nevada

Comstock Cemeteries

These once-beautiful historic graveyards are set against the barren Virginia City hills.
Virginia City, Nevada

Ponderosa Saloon

Beneath a Virginia City bar is the entrance to an abandoned gold mine.
Austin, Nevada

U.S. Route 50

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

Little A'Le'Inn

An eatery for UFO seekers on the Extraterrestrial Highway.
Baker, Nevada

Lehman Caves

A gothic palace of endless stalagmites and pseudoscorpions waits within one of the world's most beautiful caves.
Salt Lake City, Utah

This Is The Place Monument

A towering tribute to decisiveness stands on the spot where Brigham Young and his followers decided that this must be the place.
Torrey, Utah

Factory Butte

A striking, menacing sandstone peak towering above a landscape that's equal parts Mordor and the Moon.
Veyo, Utah

Mountain Meadows Massacre Memorial

A stoic rock cairn is all that remains to remember one of the more brutal instances of frontier treachery in American history.