Places Robin Babb Wants to Go

A trash dump made beautiful by nature's power.

For two weeks every June, fireflies in the Smoky Mountains perform an astonishing light show.

A bizarre house filled with an astounding array of collections.

Medicinal spa created from the mineral-rich runoff of a geothermal power plant

An Italian crevasse filled with abandoned buildings gives visitors a look at the world without humans.

The ghost town left by the worst nuclear disaster of all time is being taken over by nature and urban explorers.

This astonishingly geometric cave has inspired everyone from Jules Verne to Pink Floyd.

The very first subway station in New York City is beautiful, decked out in chandeliers, and ... abandoned?

During prohibition, corrupt city officials ran drinking dens under the streets of Downtown Los Angeles.

The vast, legendary catacombs hold secrets much stranger than stacked bones.

“You better take care of me Lord, if you don't you're gonna have me on your hands.” ― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

A beautiful, dense forest in the shadow of Mount Fuji, with a tragic reputation.

There is an unmarked red button hidden over Houston's Buffalo Bayou that is just begging to pushed...

A collection of 100 brains preserved in jars on the UT campus.

The water-powered carriages are long gone, but for over a century this funicular railway has been the fastest route to the highest point in Paris.

This abandoned Navy base was transformed into an off-grid alternative living community for thousands of people.

A sculpture for the sun and stars, created by Nancy Holt.

Michael Heizer's masterwork in the Nevada Basin.

A museum, art project, and institution that demands we look at the world around us in a strange new way.

A 90-year-old underground water reservoir offers a more industrial kind of tranquility.

The Corinthian columns that towered over Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration stand proud.

This massive geographical sculpture is so subtle, it's possible to pass by it without noticing.

The oldest hotel in the world has been operated by the same family for over 1,300 years, even catering to samurai.

The artist James Turrell is repurposing an extinct volcano crater as an observatory to experience the cosmos.