Places lepainperdu Wants to Go

Wander through desolate oil fields littered with rigs.

Red ocher pictographs survive in this tufa rock shelter on the shore of an ancient lake.

These oldest of these "embroidered stones" were carved 4,000 years ago in a high mountain valley.

The oldest pictographs on this decorated rock formation in California's Carrizo Plain date back as many as 4,000 years.

Oversized statues are just the tip of this nostalgic Americana roadside attraction.

A roadside stop offers a taste of Korean culture.

Deep in the Richloam wilderness, a century-old country store is stocked with plenty of stories.

At this Denver landmark, the meals are compulsory, the sopapillas are complimentary, and the insanity is everywhere.

One man's love for East Coast diner culture brought an entire eatery all the way from New Jersey to Colorado.

The tiny airport in remote Newfoundland that inspired a hit musical is also a modernist architectural gem.

This mangled and twisted wreckage left by the side of a Mexican road was no accident, but a planned crash in the name of science and safety.

The Ryerss mansion in Burholme Park now houses a community library and a museum filled with a trove of oddities from around the world.

The oldest civic library in Italy can trace its foundation back to 1619.

An unusual library of dead things at the Rhode Island School of Design.

US-50 in Nevada is known as "the Loneliest Road in America," but this earlier iteration of the route is even lonelier.

More than 300 years ago, a revolt at this Hopi pueblo shaped the future of the American Southwest.

A home base for Judy Chicago, one of America's leading radical feminist artists.

Twice a year, visitors can tour the desolate site that birthed the Atomic Age.

In a largely deserted ghost town, a little brick building recalls its history as a gold rush hub and haven for outlaws.

The remains of Abó, Gran Quivera, and Qurai are monuments to the long, complicated history of the Indigenous people of the Southwest.

Hike up to this ancestral grain storage site, but don't touch.

The massive, incredibly rare instrument is over 11 feet tall with a range so deep it goes lower than humans can hear.

A beautiful piece of history in a very remote area that allowed ranchers to move their herds.

This 39-foot-tall version of a Hopi figure stands in Arizona.