17. The Desert Badlands Terracotta Palace
Strikingly colorful and architecturally unique, the Desert Badlands Terracotta Palace takes advantage of the vivid orange, red, and yellow terraced layers of a badlands mountain range. The exterior entrance features sweeping horseshoe arches carved directly through the banded terracotta strata, accentuated by Smooth Sandstone pillars, Red Sandstone carvings, and decorative cacti gardens planted in smooth basalt pots along the entry ridge.
Inside, the palace cools down from the desert heat using wide, high-ceilinged galleries carved through the mountain’s core. The natural terracotta banding of the mountain forms colorful, organic stripes along the interior walls, which are complemented by dark oak furniture, gold block accents, and warm terracotta floor tiles. Unique features include an open-air cooling courtyard with splashing fountains, an extensive lapis-lazuli lined enchanting room, and a rooftop astronomical observation tower cutting up through the flat mesa top above.