Places Edited by Mike Walker

This towering volcanic plug stands out among the dramatic formations that dot this otherworldly desert valley.

This uninhabited island in Maine is home to various works of art left by visitors over the years.

Some 2,000 carvings show this rare desert spring has been an oasis for travelers for over a thousand years.

Hidden on a cattle ranch in Arizona, this bookstore has been celebrating Southwest literature for more than 40 years.

More than 21,000 images fill this overlooked gem of a prehistoric site.

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

One of the American Southwest's most extensive collections of Navajo rock art.

An ode to the friendship between four Pacific Rim countries.

Happy harbor seals frolic and snooze on this warm, sandy stretch of coast.

The symbol was surreptitiously built into the river bank by German prisoners of war.

At 130 years old and 126 feet tall, it is the largest known example of the rare Torrey pine tree.

The collection of signage remembers the midcentury pushback against the new neon light.

Go through the looking glass in Tokyo's Wonderland-themed shop.

A recreation of an Old West apothecary full of curios.

She stares out across six lanes of traffic, clutching a musket and infant with determination.

An abandoned amusement park based on the popular 1940s Red Ryder comic strip.

Look closely and you’ll notice that the color changes a third of the way up the tower.

Wall Street has a new heroine, a bronze statue of a small but fierce girl.

A restaurant modeled after feudal Japan, where the waitstaff are trained as ninjas.

A little-known hot spring haven right below the highway.

The largest collection of handbags in the world, the oldest of which were used to carry Bibles, primarily by men.

These ruins of a pre-Columbian cliff village are among the most beautiful and well preserved in New Mexico.

The final resting place of a 19th-century gold prospector and convicted cannibal.

Site of the golf match between James Bond and Goldfinger.