Inside an abandoned hotel located in the Pocono Mountains. (John Walker) Urban explorer and photographer John Walker captured what remains of an old resort that was a summer-haven for garment workers in the early 1900s in his photo series called “The White Pines.” Walker went to the resort, located on 750 acres of land at the base of the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, after a fellow urban explorer disclosed the location. In order to keep it protected, Walker doesn’t use...

This Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013 photo, shows parts of a Mozambique Airlines plane which crashed in the Bwabwata National Park, Namibia, killing all 33 on board. Officials are investigating the cause of the crash. A new report says plane automation may contribute to some plane crashes.(AP Photo/NAMPA, Olavi Haikera) (AP Photo/NAMPA, Olavi Haikera) WASHINGTON -- Pilots are becoming so reliant on the computer systems that do most of the flying in today's airliners that on the rare occasions when something...

Jimmy Nelson has spent the past three years traveling to some of the most remote places on Earth capturing the lives of indigenous people, from the frigid mountains of Mongolia to the endless sandy deserts of Namibia. But the most extreme climates, Nelson said, are the ones that he prefers. "For the worse climatic conditions you gain on two points," Nelson said in an interview with Weather.com. "One, you yourself are focused. You're surviving. Secondly, the weather and the environment...

The jagged peaks of Torres del Paine in Patagonia, Chile have long been one of the most popular and beautiful destinations in the world. With 935 square miles of roaring rivers, crumbling glaciers, windswept steppes and dense forests, this national park attracts visitors from around the world who are eager to scale its peaks and experience the magnificent landscape. The park's splendor was recently confirmed when it was named the 8th Wonder of the world by the TripAdvisor-owned travel website,...

Deep below the surface of the Transylvanian countryside lies a vast network of caves. Illuminating the eerie darkness are hundreds of fluorescent lights and strange contraptions, a mixture of new and old technology that seems more suited to Batman's lair than to Dracula's mansion. Welcome to the Salina Turda Salt Mines, the hollowed out remnants of a mining operation that extends back to the 2nd century. First discovered and mined by the Romans, the salt mines were popular throughout the...

An escape staircase at the nuclear shelter from Cold War era is pictured at five star Jalta Hotel in downtown Prague, Czech Republic, Dec. 4, 2013. To mark the 55th anniversary, the hotel turned the bunker into an Iron Curtain museum. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) PRAGUE — One thing was for sure when foreigners stayed at a prestigious Prague hotel during the Cold War era — their telephone conversations were carefully monitored by secret police in a hidden underground bunker...

Skull Fragments The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has nearly 50,000 Transportation Security Officers who screen more than 1.8 million passengers each day. Theystashed in passengers' bags or hidden in their clothing. But the TSA also finds more interesting prohibited objects, and they post weekly roundups of their discoveries on their. From live reptiles (snakes on a plane, anyone?) to a knife concealed in a can of potato chips, these are just some of the weird things people have tried to...

People admire the Luminarie illuminations as a part of the 19th Kobe Luminarie on Dec. 5, 2013 in Kobe, Japan. The annual illumination event began in 1995 to commemorate the victims of Hanshin Awaji Great Earthquake. (Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images) Though the brilliant display of lights looks as if it could be another Christmas celebration, the Kobe Luminarie in Japan has a more somber purpose at its heart - remembering the thousands of people who died in a 1995 earthquake. After...

White Island Mines, New Zealand Indigenous people have been living in Australia and New Zealand for thousands of years, but in more recent history colonists from Europe came to the island nations and began building homes, factories and industrial sites. With weather extremes that range from volcanic eruptions to wildfires to flooding, its no surprise some of these buildings have succumbed to decay or been toppled by natural disasters. In the following pages we explore some of the eerie sites...

A shack at Shanty Town on Nov. 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The town is a holiday spot where tourists can pay $82 a night to sleep in a shack. American satirist Stephen Colbert called the concept, 'At best insensitive and at worst poverty porn.' (Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images) On first seeing the slum at Bloemfontein, something may seem amiss. The shacks aren't crowded together or dirty. A brick terrace is laid out around each shanty. Wild animals graze...

With its indigenous species of macaques flying through the forest, its snowy mountains and cedar forests, Yakushima island is like something out of a dream of Eden. The island is located a short distance from the southern tip of Japan and has a population of about 13,000 that's outnumbered by the deer and monkeys that live there. A fifth of the island is registered as a natural heritage site, and in 1993 the interior of the island was listed on...

Docastaway offers unique vacation experiences in remote islands, where travelers have the opportunity to live 'like castaways.' With the company's 'Adventure Mode' vacations, travelers have no guides, and need to fish for their food and build their own shelter. (Courtesy of Alvaro Cerezo/Docastaway) When a luxury resort is not enough to "get away from it all," a travel company is offering the ultimate vacation on a remote island with no hotels and no guides — and where you have to...

Isla Mujeres, Mexico, Jan. 2010. (Jeff Friesen) Canadian photographer Jeff Friesen had to battle the “unimaginable” environment of Nova Scotia to capture the beautiful seascapes that comprise his “Beyond Here” series. “The weather changes so frequently [in Nova Scotia], it’s often hard to tell what season it is,” Friesen told weather.com. “The good thing about the volatile weather is that the sky is always interesting… an unchanging clear blue day is almost unknown here.” In his “Beyond Here” series these...