Places SiF Wants to Go

This lush forest valley was once mined for lumber to the extent that it was once nicknamed "The Pennsylvania Desert."

The world’s first penitentiary, meant to be humane, drove men insane.

A mine fire has been burning under the deserted town since 1962, but this church is still going strong.

When the Austin Dam failed it destroyed much of Austin...and then it failed again.

"Dark Sky Park" is heaven on Earth for astronomers, one of the rare U.S. locations with no artificial light pollution.

Contrary to what one might expect, ice forms inside this small cavern during the summer and melts during the winter.

This general store is a one-stop-shop for workers at the Prudhoe Bay oil field.

This artful dam holds back a crater-made reservoir that can be seen from space.

This underground power plant looks more like a super-villian's lair than a public work.

A beautiful, creepy 19th-century castle stands incongruously in rural Vermont.

One car at a time please.

A New England ghost town features a trail of boulders etched with intriguing life lessons.

A complicated, forgotten beacon of hope for thousands of immigrants, "Canada's Emerald Isle" lies in ruin.

Cliffs that hold fossils, including the earliest known reptile, dating back more than 300 million years.

The Mysterious Witch Bonney, a haunted statue in an old industrial city.

A historic bridge with a lovely acoustic anomaly.

The ruins of one of the first railroads in the U.S. lie hidden within a neighborhood cul-de-sac.

This evocatively named natural crevasse was created by a torrent of water that smashed right through a granite deposit.

The ruins of a Massachusetts prison farm can still be found crumbling the woods of a state park.

This miniature feudal castle was built on a whim to honor a US Navy pioneer.

Bizarre Cavern.

Abandoned Coast Artillery fort now serves as a graffiti canvas and sightseeing vantage point.

Collapsing castle on the Hudson river was once the storage site of military surplus business.

Canada's oldest railway tunnel is illuminated in a rainbow of color as it passes under the streets of this small city.