Places ladyferns Wants to Go

Built as a schoolhouse in 1914, this Mission-style building has also served as a dancehall, a library, an Army canteen, and now a cultural museum.

A collection of anti-communist sculptures stands watch in the Mojave Desert.

Nationwide network of co-ownership underground catastrophe shelters.

A small space-exploration exhibit hidden in a hotel.

Abandoned Air Force base that has fallen into disrepair.

The last Americana on Route 66.

These structures were inspired by both Native American shelters as well as, strangely, an ice cream shop.

The Route 66 institution that inspired Taco Bell also served as an important headquarters for Mexican-American social movements.

The scene of one of the darkest moments in American labor history has been left essentially untouched since the tragedy.

Some of the tallest ancient American ruins continue to inspire awe and curiosity.

Rumor had it that these concrete crosses scattered across the Arizona scrubland helped align spy satellites. (They didn’t.)

An abandoned facility that has become a place of ritualistic satanic worship, or so rumor has it.

Don't blink or you'll miss it.

A memorial to the firefighters who died in an industrial disaster is housed in a small public park.

Buried beneath the New Mexico sands are believed to be millions of copies of Atari's E.T. video game.

This 1950s-era nostalgic roadside New Mexico attraction consists of a quirky curio store and museum embedded into the face of a cave.

This quirky hot springs town known to locals as "T or C" was named after a radio show.

The world's first commercial spaceport is a disappointment of cosmic proportions.

A wealth of pop culture statuary and green chile dishes give this roadside restaurant clout.

The entire history of the U.S. Space Shuttle Program is painted on an enormous roadside water tank.

Wee (and not so wee) footprints that insects and reptiles of the Paleozoic Era left behind.

The state bird of New Mexico, constructed entirely out of garbage.

This 47-foot chile pepper sculpture welcomes Scoville heat unit obsessed tourists to the Big Chile Inn.

At this research institute, the chile is king.