Three West Coast landscapes that don’t look like they belong on this planet

You don’t need a plane ticket to see another planet. Oregon, Washington, and California are each hiding a landscape so strange it looks fake — striped clay hills, a mile-wide cliff with no water left, hundreds of stone spires rising out of a lake that vanished thousands of years ago. All three are real, all three are a normal road trip away, and none of them require a permit lottery.

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Oregon: hills painted in bands of red and gold

Head to the Painted Hills Unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, outside the tiny town of Mitchell, and the ground itself looks hand-painted — red, gold, and black claystone stacked in bands that formed over millions of years as the climate shifted around them. All three units of the monument, Painted Hills included, charge no entrance fee, which is rare for a landscape this photographed.

Painted Cove Trail is the shot you’ve already seen online: a quarter-mile boardwalk loop that threads directly between the hills so you’re not just looking at them, you’re standing among them. If you want more of a workout, Carroll Rim Trail climbs about 374 feet over 1.6 miles round trip to a rim that puts the whole basin below you — the only real elevation gain in the park.

Bring your own water. The road turns to gravel past the entrance, there’s no potable water once you’re inside, and Mitchell — the nearest town — is still about 10 miles out.

Washington: a waterfall four times the size of Niagara, and it’s been dry for thousands of years

Drive to Sun Lakes–Dry Falls State Park near Coulee City and you’re standing in front of a 400-foot cliff stretching 3.5 miles across — the remains of a waterfall that ran roughly four times the width of Niagara during the Ice Age floods that carved this part of central Washington. The water’s been gone for thousands of years. The canyon it left behind hasn’t.

The park’s visitor center is closed through the end of 2026 for a $2.3 million renovation, so the exhibits explaining all of this are on pause. The overlook and the canyon itself stay open regardless, and honestly, the view does most of the explaining on its own.

You’ll need a Discover Pass to park here — it’s Washington state park land, not federal — currently $45 for the year or $10 for a single day.

California: five hundred stone spires in a lake that isn’t there anymore

Trona Pinnacles sits about 20 miles east of Ridgecrest in the Mojave — more than 500 tufa spires, some taller than a 10-story building, rising straight out of a dry lakebed with no fence and no fee. You turn off Highway 178 onto a dirt BLM road and follow it about 5 miles to the site; it’s usually fine for a normal 2-wheel-drive car, though it can wash out after rain, so it’s worth checking conditions first.

Hollywood found this place before most road-trippers did — it’s stood in for alien worlds in Star Trek V and Planet of the Apes. There’s zero shade and no potable water out there, so in summer this is a sunrise-or-sunset stop, not a 1 p.m. one.

If you’re already out this way, Alabama Hills near Lone Pine is a few hours north and works the same way: free, otherworldly, and filmed in constantly.

Three states, three landscapes that shouldn’t look like Earth, and you can string all three into one seriously strange road trip. Which one’s going on your map first?

Trip tips: grab a rental car to get out here, lock in your hotel before the good rooms are gone, or skip both and book a camper van instead.

Rules and fees change — always confirm current requirements before you go.