Places Samir S. Patel Wants to Go

Enormous sandstone towers loom within a Czech forest.

This icon of the Atomic Age now lays dormant.

An underground city of salt.

James Turrell's total color immersion art installation, hidden on the top floor of a luxury handbag shop.

Watch the newest land on the planet form before your eyes.

The king of U.S. high points towers over every other peak on the continent.

When this test site was abandoned, they didn't even bother to take the rocket with them.

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

Once a menacing challenge for trailblazers, this trail is now the most scenic drive in Utah.

The deepest lake in the United States, and once the site of epic destruction that lives on in legends.

A gothic palace of endless stalagmites and pseudoscorpions waits within one of the world's most beautiful caves.

These millipedes glow not out of attraction, but as a not-too-subtle warning.

The ancient dwellings of the Puebloans, located in the cliffs of majestic mesas.

Massive mounds of golden sand look like a desert landscape randomly plopped in an Arctic forest.

This extraordinary geological oddity resembles human-made pavement.

Islanders once used this dramatic, otherworldly landscape to hide their cattle from Viking raiders.

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

Rare recess caves fill this unbelievably beautiful Ohio park.

An ancient Scottish rock formation said to be the gravesite of a giant remains ensconced in legend and intrigue.

A massive natural rock arch gives the Tuscan mountain its own window to the sky.

A long, winding trek rewards you with a gorge so captivating it inspired a painting in the Tate.

A magical sinkhole on the Yucatán Peninsula is adorned with mini waterfalls and hanging vines.

Climb down into the largest sinkhole in Qatar.

Romania's "Red Ravine" is a little-known natural wonder that bears a resemblance to the Grand Canyon.