Places michaelleejones Wants to Go

Bone marrow-loaded birria with handmade corn tortillas—need we say more?

New York's transit system peddles terrible food in limited windows—this restaurant is a rare exception.

A long and winding trail through history led to the current iteration of this mountaintop tower.

A multicolored mineral mound dribbles piping hot spring water right off the side of a highway.

The remnants of the base where US Army troops learned how to fight in extreme conditions.

No one knows exactly how deep the world’s deepest geothermal hot spring is.

Hidden high on a remote mountain peak is a humbling and mysterious Vietnam War memorial.

Open-air cremations in Colorado's self-proclaimed spiritual mecca.

A tiny nondenominational church harkens back to the days of the first homesteaders in the region.

This enigmatic building features numerous architectural styles.

The remains of a World War II-era Japanese American internment camp dot a windswept Colorado hill.

Birds with backpacks expedite film development for a rafting company on a remote Colorado river.

A prehistoric rock shelter that's literally in someone's backyard.

Once a lonely sentinel on the edge of the Great Plains, this rebuilt trading fort offers a glimpse of life on the Santa Fe Trail.

This now-abandoned outcrop is an important Native American spiritual site, overtaken by European settlers and mining pollution.

The site where a nuclear bomb was lowered over 8,000 feet underground and detonated as an experiment in natural gas extraction.

A lively annual event in which thousands of people race to push coffins heavy with bodies up a hill.

A hotel with a rich Wild West history of miners and bootleggers.

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

A fake mine that was made using real mining techniques which is also used as a community center.

Two creeks flow out of either end of this canyon in opposite directions.

A coal fire has been burning underground here since 1896.

At one time this small mining village was the highest town in America but now it sits abandoned while the mine churns on.

A river runs through this remote valley in a very unexpected way.