The final resting spot of the Colorado Transportation Department's beloved unofficial mascot.

Paranormal experiences in this hotel's room 217 led Stephen King to write "The Shining."

According to local legend, a tree grew from the stake that killed this alleged vampire. In reality, he probably died from influenza.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

A massive sea stack famous for its appearance in The Goonies.

A roaring, awe-inspiring double cascade of icy water flows through woodland Oregon like something out of a Tolkien novel.

Civil War soldiers, captains of industry, and paupers all interred on historic grounds.

It may look like no more than a full-scale model, but every part of this full Space Shuttle stack had a working role in aviation history.

Bananas are often left for the first monkey America ever recovered alive after being launched into space.

What else would you call a playground hidden in Alabama's oldest and largest cemetery?

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

A Mars simulation in the southern Utah desert.

Bizarre lunar-like landscape with thousands of large stone "hoodoos."

A clear blue swimming hole with hidden caves, still unexplored.

The second-largest cave chamber in the world was discovered in 1898 by a 16-year-old and a friend known as "Pothead."

Explore the largest pure gypsum deposit in the world, and go dune sledding while you're at it.

An experimental, automotive replica of Stonehenge.

A 90-foot-tall psychedelic "tree" on the side of the highway has baffled passersby for decades.

Come for the speed, leave in love with the desert.

Surrounded by a hundred mile radius of billboards, Little America is a roadside attraction whose primary appeal is hospitality.