Places Edited by Sam LaFrance

An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.

Behind a bodega is a small museum of relics and ephemera showcasing the history of New York.

The longest continuous lava tube in Oregon.

The crown jewel of the Queens Museum is a nearly 10,000-square-foot architectural model of the city originally built for the 1964 World's Fair.

Frida Kahlo's childhood home, now a museum of her life and works.

Akureyri is home to an oversized can of one of Iceland's favourite beers.

Odd outsider art installations surround a Gold Rush-era ghost town.

20,000 pieces in a Frank Gehry-designed building.

Bohemian paradise covered in majestic forests.

A layered tribute to the work of mosaicist Isaiah Zagar.

The first North American landing spot for James Cook on his third voyage of discovery in the Pacific.

Underwater art project will double as a massive artificial coral reef to help regenerate the damaged ecosystem.

Singing sand that stands as the final remains of an ancient lake.

Berry Gordy Jr.'s old home was the original headquarters of Motown Record Corporation.

The oldest Italian café in Boston, this spot also serves as a veritable museum of vintage coffee ephemera.

Mountain known by the Tillamook Tribe as "the place of the supreme deity."

A museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction.

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

These once-beautiful historic graveyards are set against the barren Virginia City hills.

This unique structure in suburban Austin is made up entirely of other people's castaways, and constantly changing.

A circus legend leaves an unexpected endowment.

The world's only international cryptozoology museum is host to an unrivaled collection of mysterious objects.

A Texas museum filled with Broncos and Betties.

Amazing pre-Civil War ruins alongside a shallow, rocky river that hosts beautiful (but endangered) lilies.