Places shatomica Wants to Go

This innocuous New Mexico storefront was once the secret jump-off spot for Manhattan Project scientists.

Circus cemetery for all the “showmen under God’s big top.”

A futuristic temple of light uses prisms and rainbows to create an atmosphere of peace.

In the remote high desert of New Mexico, a strange array of poles beckon fury from above.

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

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

An earthwork sculpture built by Robert Smithson in the Great Salt Lake only reemerges during drought.

Michael Heizer's masterwork in the Nevada Basin.

Collection of vintage trailers double as hotel rooms.

The world's largest rose bush has literally outgrown the pioneer museum it was planted behind.

An old saloon in the West filled with history, and according to some, a few dozen ghosts.

What is the Thing?

This little slice of old Jerusalem in Oklahoma is the evolution of a century-old passion play.

American bison herd descending directly from a Bronx Zoo breeding program that saved the species from extinction.

The world's only museum devoted solely to the art and collection of action figures.

Only museum dedicated to women pilots, with personal artifacts from Amelia Earhart and other aviatrixes.

The curiosities and wonders of pharmacy in a delightful historic building.

A museum celebrating the Victorian obsession with hair art.

Oh, just a motel on the edge of the desert decorated with thousands of clowns conveniently located next to an abandoned graveyard.

Officially named the "Loneliest Road in America," this barren stretch of Nevada road offers almost nothing but sky and open fields.

The petroleum industry brings you the joys of hydrocarbons and largest collection of antique oil rigs in the world.

An enormous pink granite batholith, long attributed with spiritual powers by the Tonkawa Indians.

Bigfoot prints, Feejee mermaids, and haunted dolls on display in a tiny North Carolina town.

The highest point in Oklahoma used to be a lawless outlaw's paradise.