Places elfandhobbit Wants to Go

A dry lake is what remains of a community founded on a real estate scam.

Etched into a dry lake bed, this massive directional indicator is accurate without magnets.

The last Americana on Route 66.

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

A surreal, Gaudi-inspired play space near an Anaheim community center.

This California tree is the single source of the state's entire orange industry.

The site of murders and Satanic cult gatherings.

An exotic wildlife habitat right off The Strip.

An overlooked monument to the celebrity gangster who helped put the sin in Sin City.

Back in 1952, you could get a mushroom cloud chaser with your atomic cocktail.

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

The sun acts as a key that only fits this giant keyhole twice a year.

This belfry is all that remains of the town that was buried by a violent volcano eruption.

Church organ in the Philippines constructed out of bamboo.

An eatery in a shallow river where diners can enjoy their meal mere feet from the base of an artificial waterfall.

Bohol's unusually shaped hills turn brown in the summer months.

An Italian crevasse filled with abandoned buildings gives visitors a look at the world without humans.

A 16th-century horror show built in a lovely Italian garden.

150-year-old satirical tableaus made from stuffed frogs.

A once-thriving hotel in the Swiss Alps couldn't compete with climate change.

This 170-year-old Swiss guesthouse built into the side of a mountain is best accessed by a cable car.

The tallest outdoor elevator in Europe rockets passengers on a dizzyingly precarious ride to the top of a mountain.

Indents in the pavement are all that remain from a grisly death machine in Paris.

This museum houses an imposing skeleton army comprised of creatures great and small.