Places blondesreadbooks2 Wants to Go

These black pillars of volcanic basalt seem to call mountain climbers with an unbreakable siren song.

This museum glorifies the humble potato.

This largest dinosaur tracksite in Wyoming is one of the only in the world from the Middle Jurassic Period.

This museum details the history of a local miracle: The return of the critically endangered black-footed ferret, which was once believed to be extinct.

The world's largest mineral hot springs is home to a herd of bison, a free public bath house, beautiful mineral formations, and a terrifying swinging bridge.

An unusual geological feature towers over the remains of a dark episode in United States history.

This prison-turned-museum is a remnant of the Old West's grizzly, violent past.

The owners of this Victorian-era estate say it’s still visited by the spirits of long-gone residents.

The oldest operating hotel in Illinois enjoys a historic (and some say haunted) past.

This 4,000-acre restored grassland in northern Illinois is home to a range of native flora and fauna, from clovers to plovers to a herd of bison.

A natural sandstone bridge nestled within a mature forest in southern Illinois.

This graveyard is home to the so-called "Witch's Circle."

Burial mounds of prehistoric Native Americans who lived along the DuPage River.

Though it's thrived abroad, this forgotten Dunkin' rival has just one store left in the States.

This lush 12-acre site was once named the finest Japanese garden in North America.

A small Chicago museum filled with thousands of preserved butterflies, beetles, and more.

A river with some unusual, and occasionally dangerous, habits.

A small abandoned and abused cemetery that has become a magnet for ghost hunters.

The legacy of an unsolved, gruesome murder rests beneath the spans of this historic bridge.

Eclectic collection of rare and beautiful stones in a historic home.

In the Shawnee National Forest, amazing rock formations peer through the treeline.

Once one of the world's great cities, Cahokia was a place of religious worship, trade and mass human sacrifice before being mysteriously abandoned.

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

This surprising gem is a world-class archeological museum hidden at the University of Chicago.