A spiritual vortex among the red rocks in Sedona.

This 1930s log cabin began as a taxidermy museum but is now a popular country music venue.

This Arizona observatory is famous for investigations into Martian life, and as the place humans first spotted Pluto.

A replica of the flagpole that gave a frontier town its name.

A classic Route 66 landmark that was built with scrap lumber and is held together with kitsch and puns.

This golf ball–shaped former desert real estate office now houses a UFO museum.

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

The largest dune field in the Mojave offers a chance of hearing the 'singing sands.'

One of the ghostly stops along Route 66.

The set location for a 1987 cult classic draws international film buffs to the middle of the Mojave Desert.

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

Like a kitschy mirage in the Mojave, this eatery serves up classic 50s-style diner meals and a dinosaur sculpture garden.

One of the last free public hot springs is decorated with hippie art.

A ghost town originally established and governed solely by Black Americans seeking a place of their own, free from discrimination.

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

The second-largest giant sequoia in the world.

These millipedes glow not out of attraction, but as a not-too-subtle warning.

A water tower shaped like a giant coffee pot looms over a small Swedish village in Central California.

A charming easy-to-miss sculpture garden filled with whimsical and thought-provoking metal sculptures.

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

The hundreds of movies and television shows shot in this high desert town are commemorated in a unique museum.

A charming desert roadside bakery that produces 10 times more bread daily than it has residents in its town.

A natural dome made of volcanic glass in Inyo National Forest.

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