Places elemenope Wants to Go

Take a steam-powered ride straight out of the past on this Appalachian rail line.

This harrowing climb along West Virginia's jagged spires is one of the only Via Ferrata on America's east coast.

An enormous warehouse filled with parade floats collected from over 50 years of patriotic celebrations.

Herbert Hoover's "Brown House" rural presidential retreat was a PR disaster amid the start of the Great Depression.

Once connected to the outside world by a single train track, this ghost town is looked after by the National Park Service.

America's post-nuclear-attack chambers of Congress.

The oddly shaped, steam-spewing building is now an art studio and gallery.

This historic mansion was built as a symbol of love between a husband and wife.

The oldest platform carousel built in the United States continues to delight children in Martha’s Vineyard.

This candy-colored storybook village originated as a 19th-century Methodist campground.

The Byzantine, pre-Columbian, and medieval art at this stately mansion are some of the most under-appreciated collections in D.C.

An otherworldly musical haven in The Big Easy.

An artist weaves "wooden quilts" with scraps salvaged from his Katrina-damaged home in Tremé.

A 200-year-old building in the French Quarter that was to be Napoleon's home in the New World.

Taxidermied cartoon heads, unseen illustrations, and famous characters all reside in this small gallery space.

Despite the ever pressing encroachment of urban sprawl this grand New Orleans manse still stands.

This New Orleans tree is filled with hidden chimes that produce a carefully tuned melody.

Tiny historical streetcars wind through a small scale version of Crescent City in this whimsical train garden.

After the parade, students throw their beads on the tree hoping for good luck on exams.

This knobby, drooping New Orleans oak is a favorite place both for climbing and for meeting giraffes.

A little piece of Paris in the sultry south of the U.S.

An impressive collection of dollhouses and an homage to the frog-leg canning industry.

In a city famous for its cemeteries, it's no wonder these are easy to overlook—they clock in at just a few inches tall.

The reason for the strange contortions in the trunks of these "drunken" pine trees in Russia is still a mystery.