#desert lore

THE BLYTHE GIANT

These ancient intaglios — pictures cut into the surface of the desert floor — were hiding in plain sight just north of Blythe, California, on the Colorado River. Not until humans invented airplanes were the Blythe Intaglios re-discovered: George Palmer, a pilot surveying the land between Las Vegas and Blythe in 1922, saw the impressive figures from above and reported his findings to the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. The now-protected figures include several animals and a massive 171-foot-long humanoid figure, the Blythe Giant. The intaglios are a two-hour drive east from Palm Springs.

DEATH VALLEY UFOs

Death Valley National Park is more than a massive nature preserve covering 5,262 square miles of Mojave and Great Basin desert: it is also home to much weirdness. And long before the 1940s UFO craze had tourists and miners reporting strange sights in the sky above Death Valley, the Timbisha Shoshone remembered otherworldly sky-ships that seemed to come out of the massive Panamint Mountains.

THE WHITE LADY OF ROUTE 66 

“White Lady" ghosts are known around the world, but there's something special about encountering a hazy white figure in the middle of the Mojave, hours from civilization. Since the 1920s, a translucent figure of a woman — sometimes known as the Spanish Lady or the Weeping Woman — in a long white dress has been seen by weary travelers on California's Route 66 through the desert — a historic road you can still travel today. Or tonight.

CLOWN MOTEL

Looking for a scary night's sleep after chasing UFOs on Nevada's Extraterrestrial Highway around Area 51? You're sure to enjoy an uneasy rest at Tonopah's notorious Clown Motel. Remember, you can't get a room without going inside the motel lobby, which is covered wall-to-wall in hundreds of horrific clown dolls, puppets, statues and masks. Good night.

YUCCA MAN