Places risingsperanza Wants to Go

This ghost town was once a cult-like religious utopian settlement.

Oddly shaped rock formation, misassociated with a nearby utopian community.

One of the world’s largest collections of petroglyphs records 2,000 years of human activity.

Here, at the “world’s longest art gallery,” you’ll find forty miles of ancient petroglyphs and pictographs.

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

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

Sandstone rock formations that look like they belong on the cover of a progressive rock album.

Deadly airliner crash preserved for those willing to climb and pay respects.

A burnt-out motel with priceless Native American artwork in the basement, redeveloped into apartments.

Its history includes dinosaur fossils, cattle rustlers, Georgia O'Keeffe, and a mythical giant rattlesnake named Vivaron.

A half-acre utopia in the New Mexico desert features a graveyard, a game of horseshoes, a library, and a mailbox.

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

In a largely deserted ghost town, a little brick building recalls its history as a gold rush hub and haven for outlaws.

This popular pilgrimage site offers a hole filled with holy healing dirt.

This pseudo-steampunk weapons facility is the world's largest wood and glue structure, and packs quite a wallop.

A sprawling collection of over 106,000 toys from around the world.

On the side of a remote mountain, a stone face bearing an inscription of mysterious origin.

Wee (and not so wee) footprints that insects and reptiles of the Paleozoic Era left behind.

Twenty-seven massive radio antennas on the high plains of New Mexico search for life on other planets.

A preserve with 75,000 ancient drawings remains the realm of public – not just scientific – exploration.

This quirky hot springs town known to locals as "T or C" was named after a radio show.

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

The official atomic museum of the United States explores the explosive and productive history of a much maligned energy source.

This is one really big nut.