Must-see attractions in The Deserts

Cabot Yerxa, a wealthy East Coaster who traded high society for desert solitude, hand-built this rambling 1913 adobe from reclaimed and found objects,…

Some 4000 years ago, the Antelope Valley was an important trade route linking American Indian cultures throughout the Great Basin, California and the…

The shade of cottonwood trees makes the 1914 Spanish Mission–style Goffs Schoolhouse a soothing stop along this sun-drenched stretch of highway. It stands…

Some 6 miles southwest of Stovepipe Wells, Emigrant Canyon Rd veers off Hwy 190 and travels south to the park's higher elevations. En route you'll pass…

Visible to the south from I-15, Cima Dome is a 1500ft hunk of granite spiked with volcanic cinder cones and crusty outcrops of basalt left by lava. Its…

Half of the unofficial First McDonald's Museum has exhibits devoted to Route 66, with particularly interesting photographs and maps. It was first opened…

This area covers 14 miles of the northeastern shore of the Salton Sea and is popular with boaters and anglers, although the fish population has been…

Showcasing changing exhibits drawn from the Palm Springs Art Museum's architecture and design collection, the center occupies an iconic and spiffily…

You can only catch a glimpse from the sidewalk of this glass, steel and stone masterpiece built by Richard Neutra but, oh, what a glimpse it is. Despite…

Amboy Crater, off National Trails Hwy, 2 miles west of Amboy, is a 250ft-high, almost perfectly symmetrical volcanic cinder cone. You can hike to the top…

This original 1930s general store shows amazingly preserved original products from groceries to medicines, beauty aids to clothing and hardware, with…

East of the California–Arizona state line, south of I-40, the arched Old Trails Bridge welcomes the Mother Road to California under endless blue skies…

This pretty little park in a refreshing valley on the southern edge of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park centers on a replica of a historic Butterfield Stage…

This refuge is a major migratory stopover along the Pacific Flyway and has a visitor center with a short self-guided trail, an observation tower and a…

This park centers on Saddleback Butte, a 3651ft-high mountain about 15 miles east of Lancaster. It protects native Joshua trees and other desert flora and…

This kid-oriented, educational center in an adobe building seeks to unravel the natural, cultural and historic mysteries of the Mojave desert through…

In the Panamint Mountains, this gold mine was discovered by French immigrant Pete Aguereberry in 1905 and worked by him until the early 1930s. The mine…

About 20 miles south of Ridgecrest, off US Hwy 395, Randsburg is a 'living ghost town,' an abandoned and now (somewhat) reinhabited gold-mining town circa…

In business since 1924, this kooky roadside attraction is where you can watch the 15-minute documentary, Romance and Sex Life of the Date, try a date…

The town's oldest building, the 1884 McCallum Adobe, was built for John McCallum, the first permanent white settler. Today, the Palm Springs Historical…