Places mariaj5366 Wants to Go

Bits and pieces from the ill-fated Donner Party's winter cabins.

This historic estate on the east shore of Lake Tahoe was home to an eccentric millionaire (and his pet elephant, Mingo).

A breathtaking 19th-century trail overlooks Lake Tahoe.

Sunset-colored dunes of volcanic ash make taking a poor photo impossible.

Located in the world's highest-altitude Dark Sky Community, this observatory welcomes amateur and professional astronomers alike.

What's a diner from the 1939 World's Fair doing in a remote Utah mountain town?

A raised boardwalk winds through a thicket of stunted, century-old trees no more than nine feet tall.

Red sandstone structures dominate this landscape, which has been inhabited for some 5,000 years.

The land is full of geologic eye candy, such as otherworldly spires, mushroom-shaped hoodoos, and prehistoric fossils.

A dangerous narrow-gauge railroad once traced a route through this striking canyon.

The first lookout in Yosemite.

An enormous, inside-out glass globe built in 1935.

A fire lookout atop a glacial pinnacle is reached by climbing three vertiginous flights of stairs.

An internationally-recognized dark sky sanctuary lies in northern Nevada, near the Oregon line.

An institution that preserves the history of institutionalization.

The mysterious round rocks of Schooner Gulch.

These natural hot springs form four-tiered soaking pools with temperatures ranging from 85 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

One of only five observatories in the world built to measure the Earth's wobble.

Journey through a bit of nostalgia inside this classic record and video store.

Celebrating the transformation of trash into objects of beauty.

A trash dump made beautiful by nature's power.

Fifty years after a “blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds,” this idyllic natural area commemorates the carnage.

The flow from this waterfall sometimes comes out of springs below its rim.

Trails through lava-carved tube-caves display sparkling bacteria and a rich history.