Skidoo, Calif.

This barren patch of desert on Death Valley that's littered with broken bottles and abandoned mine shafts is the site of one of the most bizarre deaths in the old West. An angry lynch mob hanged and then buried a down-on-his-luck saloon keeper named Joe “Hooch” Simpson after he killed the town banker in 1908. But when a Los Angeles Times reporter showed up a few days later to snap a photo, locals unearthed Hooch and strung him up again for the snapshot. While he was above ground, a local doctor decided to lob off Hooch’s head to test it for syphilis. Now a headless Hooch reportedly haunts the site of Skidoo in the heart of Death Valley.

Directions: From Stovepipe Wells, drive southwest along State Route 190 for nine miles, turn left on Wildrose Canyon Road, and after another nine miles, turn left on the first major gravel road and continue for almost eight miles. For more information, call the Death Valley National Park at (760) 786-3200 or go to www.nps.gov/deva/.