A picture-perfect town, perfect for blowing up.

In the middle of an extremely unforgiving and desolate high desert is the most secret military facility in the world.

Only ruined buildings and abandoned charcoal kilns remain of this once bustling Wild West boom town.

A perfectly preserved small-town pharmacy and soda fountain that opened in the early 20th century and closed in the 1980s.

This rest area is also home to a remarkable petroglyph site.

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

US-50 in Nevada is known as "the Loneliest Road in America," but this earlier iteration of the route is even lonelier.

This railroad magnate's 19th century tower is more than a little bit out of place in the Nevada desert.

Two craters, which probably erupted within the last 1,500 years and are now filled by alkaline lakes, represent Nevada's youngest known volcanic activity.

This beloved roadside attraction welcomes visitors with his signature neon smile.

Bill Murray bowled three straight strikes here at Reno's "Taj Mahal of Tenpins."

The arch that celebrated the completion of the Lincoln and Victory highways.

An iconic 1960s theater with a Buckminster Fuller-style geodesic dome.

This 18-foot-tall steel lotus is a meditation on ecological crisis that originally appeared at Burning Man.

The oldest hotel in Nevada.

A former mining hospital is now a vibrant artistic hub.

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

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

Back in the day everyone who was anyone played this historic western theater.

A Wild West saloon that helped define a generation of psychedelic rock.

One woman's Viking Castle on Lake Tahoe.

Ruins of the original wooden flume that carried water to Virginia City are still visible high on the Virginia Range.

This historic estate on the east shore of Lake Tahoe was home to an eccentric millionaire (and his pet elephant, Mingo).

Eastern zen meets Western grit in these four little trees growing out of a rock on Lake Tahoe’s Nevada shore.