Zabriskie Point badlands, pink purple clouds, Death Valley National Park, California

High views in low places

More than just the namesake of a notorious 1970 box-office bomb, Zabriskie Point offers one of the most remarkable views in a state that boasts all kinds of them. Far flung from SoCal beaches and the high Sierras, the badlands found here in Death Valley National Park may be the nation's driest, but were once the bed of a massive lake. When the lake dried up around 5 million years ago, sediment layers built up across many millennia were exposed to air that solidified them and rains that eroded them, revealing the multicolored stripes and strata that now streak the landscape.