Places BackAlleySally Wants to Go

Oregon's unexpected high desert, displaying layers of time in a colorful show.

This underground oasis is one of North America’s most fascinating prehistoric places—and you can scuba dive in it.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

An acoustic anomaly with a mysterious cause sits in the heart of Tulsa.

The largest hot spring in the United States is, as the name suggests, a stunning show of natural color.

This geothermal hot spring hides beneath a slowly growing mineral dome.

A self-built castle made by a mysterious man.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

This naturally-sourced hot spring is now home to a clothing-optional resort.

Take a drunken tour inside the world's largest known geode.

Seemingly grown on some other world, these New Mexico rock formations look like a disused science fiction set.

A much more welcome kind of snowbird vacationer, manatees camp out in these springs every winter.

An abandoned facility that has become a place of ritualistic satanic worship, or so rumor has it.

A breathtaking array of ancient Pueblo structures and artifacts counterintuitively preserved by neglect.

The rocks in this arid basin leave trails of movement behind them.

A beautiful geyser under environmental threat.

Stepping away from the glitz of mobsters and casinos to learn about the other history of Vegas.

Ninety feet off the valley floor is an ancient dwelling put under protection of the U.S. government by Teddy Roosevelt.

A trash dump made beautiful by nature's power.

The deepest lake in the United States, and once the site of epic destruction that lives on in legends.

The feral felines of Roosevelt Island have a small army of allies and an abandoned hospital all to themselves.

Here, at the “world’s longest art gallery,” you’ll find forty miles of ancient petroglyphs and pictographs.

Enormous lake at the bottom of a unique cave system.