Places msfortune Wants to Go

Hidden beyond a kitschy giant beetle is this remarkably sprawling collection of preserved insects.

This extensive collection of dead bugs may be the world's most idiosyncratic and personal insect museum.

The "original web site," this farm in Northern Vermont encourages orb-weaver spiders to build their daily webs, and then sells the preserved masterpieces.

Thousands of mounted insects, and some live ones, hide within an otherwise ordinary shopping mall.

One man's personal collection of more than 2,000 creepy-crawlies from around the world.

A Buddhist temple to honor insects that died for science.

These eerie outliers of the lightning bug family glow a mysterious blue color.

One of the last surviving buildings of a once large and thriving Chinatown.

Colorful sedimentary rock layers provide opportunities both for hiking and photography.

This Taoist temple is the oldest continuously used Chinese temple in California.

This Southern Californian Conservation Center is home to singing and howling apes.

Humboldt's human-powered sculptures race across land and sea for days on end in a wacky quest for dominance.

A massive hydrovolcanic explosion left a half-mile wide crater in Death Valley.

Traversing these canyons, visitors can take in stunning views and glimpses of the region's history.

A stellar example of Art & Crafts architecture, and a movie set to boot.

This stretch of beach along California's central coast is a busy highway for the largest seal in the northern hemisphere.

An eatery within a Bay Area Buddhist temple pulls off all your favorite Vietnamese classics without the meat.

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

The oldest dim sum restaurant in the United States is a nostalgic jewel.

Along a California highway is a kind of Jurassic Park made of metal.

A hard-to-reach oasis in a desolate corner of Death Valley National Park.

The fossilized remains of ancient California redwoods.

One of the most unusual geological features, recognizable from a dozen hit movies.

A volcanic tunnel illuminated by natural skylights offers a shaded respite from the desert sun.