Desert View Tower

Built as a roadside attraction, a.k.a. tourist trap in the 1920s, this 70-foot-high stone lookout provides panoramic views of the surrounding desert, including a fugitive border passage between California and Mexico. It’s a trap that works—you’ll want to stay and wander nearby Boulder Park, a maze of quartz granite boulders featuring bizarre but artful sculptures. The carved bison, lizard, skull and other figures were added by outsider artist W. T. Ratcliffe during the Great Depression.