Brightly colored 30-foot-tall totems light up the desert sky just outside Las Vegas.

Dyed by iron oxide over centuries, these sandstone rocks rise thousands of feet into the sky.

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

Stepping away from the glitz of mobsters and casinos to learn about the other history of Vegas.

A collision of human error and natural geothermal pressure created this rainbow-colored geologic wonder.

Naturally carbonated water fills the mineral baths at this 19th-century California resort.

A scenic hike in the High Sierra that ends at an old gold mine.

After the nearby mercury mine shut down, this town was abandoned and declared a Superfund site.

This trench, some 2,300 feet long, is only the most prominent relic of a largely forgotten episode of placer mining on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada.

This large chunk of dark rock is a relic from an ancient volcanic eruption.

Unusual white sandstone formations in the Los Padres National Forest.

The longest covered bridge west of the Mississippi River.

At the edge of the high desert, California's second-largest natural lake is home to a unique subspecies of trout adapted to its alkaline waters.

A volcanic cone that formed over 600 years ago.

Colorful sedimentary rock layers provide opportunities both for hiking and photography.

The viewpoint for this attractive, off-the-beaten-path waterfall is reached by a paved, wheelchair-accessible trail.

Deep vertical fissures like miniature slot canyons cut across the cemented volcanic rock of Black Point above Mono Lake.

A train tunnel that was made obsolete by the dam it helped create.

This unique formation appears as though an asteroid landed on the forest.

This Alamo Square mansion is rumored to have hosted satanic rituals and other occult practices.

The oldest pictographs on this decorated rock formation in California's Carrizo Plain date back as many as 4,000 years.

This hiking/biking/horse trail along an old railroad grade features trestles, tunnels, and a roadless stretch through the scenic Susan River canyon.

In one of the hottest parts of the Mojave Desert, shallow bedrock forces the typically dry Mojave River to the surface in this canyon, providing a vital oasis for humans and wildlife.

A unique museum where guests can rent and operate a locomotive.