Places jackofalltrails Wants to Go

The humble beginnings of the man known for his lavish "champagne" music.

Steel rings embedded in rock enable hikers to ascend a picturesque slot canyon in the Mojave Preserve.

Rare recess caves fill this unbelievably beautiful Ohio park.

A roaring, awe-inspiring double cascade of icy water flows through woodland Oregon like something out of a Tolkien novel.

A sacred site for Native Americans surveyed by George Washington and owned by both King George III and Thomas Jefferson.

Stand inside the dark interior of an historic redwood tree that once was used as a general's headquarters.

The longest continuous lava tube in the continental U.S. offers 2.5 miles of dark explorations for the adventurous.

This fast-food outlet is the only space and UFO-themed McDonalds in the world.

A taste of Middle Earth, in the middle of the Bayou City.

This was the first ever National Lakeshore, established in 1966.

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

A monument to the legacy of the man who created Spongebob Squarepants at the school where his passion for art and marine biology began.

A lingering bit of Space Race nostalgia lies in the middle of the desert.

A cave that was home to humans 160 thousand years ago.

Wondrous sandstone hoodoos where Native Americans collected clay for pottery, 9,000 years ago.

An improbable creek near Death Valley, not far from the oldest surviving Euro-American structure in the Mojave Desert.

The world's first ice hotel is still one of the most elaborate and beautiful.

At this bohemian accommodation, guests who dream of joining the circus can spend the night in themed wagons.

Most of this “research national monument” still lies buried beneath the earth.

Discover this sandstone alcove, a geologic wonder in southern Utah, that continues to slowly shape shift.

Vulture Mine was Arizona’s most productive gold mine, and instrumental to the development of Phoenix.

Drink and dine in a coral cave that's at least 120,000 years old.

This shifting North Carolina sand dune is an odd little desert surrounded by oceanic forest life.

One of the northernmost occurrences of western juniper can be found in the sand dunes of Washington's Palouse.