Places elvenking42 Wants to Go

The Princess Mishawaka statue and story honor the legend of a Shawnee Indian heroine and promoted tourism in the 1930s.

A century-old wooden walkway where artists and free spirits have built a funky, countercultural main street.

On the site of a former Army ammunition plant, bison now roam a restored sea of grass.

An Illinois prairie preserve where the real show begins after sunset.

A blufftop prairie and limestone cliff with 30-mile views across two great rivers and prime bald eagle territory.

A sandstone corridor so narrow that it feels like the wilderness closing in on itself.

A piece of I-45 graffiti has become one of Houston’s unofficial slogans.

The highest mountain in Hokkaido was the setting for one of Japan’s strangest unsolved mysteries.

An old adobe structure first built in the 1890s is a desert watering hole plastered with dollar bills and odd West Texas finds.

The largest interactive exhibition in the U.S. exploring human history through the lens of power, punishment, and psychology.

Thermal lake of unbelievable color that looks like a drop of paint.

An 1857 brewery on the banks Mississippi River, now just a ruin with no roof, no windows and only one corner of the building still standing.

The “capital city of the Kingdom of Skullbonia” features a general store and a mural spotlighting the town’s bareknuckle boxers.

Behold the uncanny sight of the Golden Arches—rendered in black.

The unusual burial site of a globetrotter, eccentric, adventurer, war hero, landscape designer, dandy, and writer.

The most easily accessible intact vertical mine shaft structure remaining in the Red Mountain Mining District.

A sandstone canyon wilderness with a history of outlaws, mysterious disappearances, and a UFO encounter.

Massive industrial-chic coffee shop housed in former 1970s-era Bank of Guam building.

A towering tribute to old-fashioned laundry days, this giant washboard monument turns a simple chore into a playful spectacle!

One of the largest and most ornate abbeys in this part of Europe.

Part research station, part time capsule, part aquatic fever dream.

At this bayside marina, enormous wild tarpon jump out of the water to snatch fish from visitors’ hands.

A botanical hideaway sits inside the ruins of a half-built Civil War fort.

Thousands of signed dollar bills turn a simple tavern into a living record of travelers’ comings and goings.