Places Edited by Sam LaFrance

No one knows how this Pacific Northwest spruce tree came to have so many trunks.

It’s not hard to see why the historic Peabody Conservatory of Music’s library has been described as a “cathedral of books.”

This permanent exhibition celebrates the finest of our heartless automatons both real and fictional.

The installation’s official name, “You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies,” says it all.

A collision of human error and natural geothermal pressure created this rainbow-colored geologic wonder.

This modern antique shop is a museum for 1980's Saturday morning cartoon culture.

This upscale streetwear store is hidden behind a fake Snapple machine in the back of a deli.

Despite a legend that says this highest peak in Oregon was climbed in high heels, scores of people have died on its slopes.

While it is not equipped to peer into outer space this observatory looks like it was built on the moon.

An Icelandic island full of diving birds and legend.

This former Mormon settlement is reemerging from the receding waters of Lake Mead.

The humble home where the famous beat author lived briefly and wrote one of his most famous works.

A Spanish-style estate that has traded black ties for rock concerts.

A 200-year-old bar in the historic French Quarter refuses to give up its place in history, nor its role in securing ours.

A safe place for the wild donkeys of a hot vacation destination.

A private collection of massive steel monsters guarding a Texas pipe works.

A tiny piece of the Moon is embedded in this stained glass masterpiece.

The uniquely-designed winter home and sculpture studio of Anna and Archer Huntington.

A tiny museum housed in a New York freight elevator specializes in the "overlooked, dismissed, or ignored."

Outlaws, hot springs, and tragedy have all left their mark on this ancient road in the Icelandic highlands.

Home of the "true" equator.

The drama of nature in full effect in this Nevada State Park.

An underground magnet for ever-changing street art.

A psychological self-portrait in the form of a giant, segmented head.