Places Sandi Hemmerlein Wants to Go

The quiet canyon has a tumultuous history involving a doomsday cult.

The L.A. Zoo has a secret garden of rare bootleg cycads, a palm specimen dating back 280 million years.

The walls are decorated with whimsical murals painted by the creator of the Madeline franchise.

A ghost town originally established and governed solely by Black Americans seeking a place of their own, free from discrimination.

A remarkable time capsule of American manufacturing deep in Maryland coal country.

A historic recreation of the golden age of the Erie Canal, abandoned for some time, slowly being restored.

Three acres of mythology-inspired sculptures are visible from the highway.

Beautiful stained glass depictions of the history of human flight fill this surprising chapel.

Washington's iconic carousel has a nice piece of Civil Rights history.

This old cement mine has been used as everything from a mushroom farm to a recording studio.

Hundreds of antique bank vault locks on display in New York City.

The history of radiation is on safe display at the foot of a radiation science laboratory.

The Binghamton area is home to six of the last remaining hand-carved vintage carousels.

Magnificent New Deal Murals evoke a time when New York City harbor was one of the world's greatest and busiest ports.

A giant desert bird that once swung music fans at Coachella now has a home in a nearby traffic circle.

The oldest family-run luncheonette in New York, last renovated in 1948, still serves food and drinks the old-fashioned way.

A kaleidoscopic warehouse-maze of handmade neon signs.

An abandoned theme park with a strange and tumultuous past.

A museum devoted entirely to the rattlesnakes and snake-related art.

Deadly airliner crash preserved for those willing to climb and pay respects.

This pseudo-steampunk weapons facility is the world's largest wood and glue structure, and packs quite a wallop.

When life gave this firefighter a forest fire, he made a rough-hewn sculpture park using a chainsaw.

This beautiful ridge-top trail is dotted by tiny homes apparently built by a group of itinerant fairies.

Neon signs that grace the windows of Bergdorf Goodman's and Tiffany & Co. come from this studio in Brooklyn.