Places Sun Wants to Go

The cluster of boulders near Fort Irwin is covered in military insignia.

Nationwide network of co-ownership underground catastrophe shelters.

The "Fun Spot of the Desert" is now a haunting ruin, and a reminder that putting a water park in a desert is a bad idea.

Decommissioned experimental solar facilities that pioneered solar energy technology.

Like a kitschy mirage in the Mojave, this eatery serves up classic 50s-style diner meals and a dinosaur sculpture garden.

10,000 flowered plants bloom in the City of Roses.

Tens of thousands of tiny birds swarm into one school chimney every fall.

An emporium for the weird, creepy, rare, and just plain gross.

A beautiful 62-acre Catholic shrine and botanical garden.

The U.S. Navy's last diesel-electric submarine rests half-submerged in the middle of Portland.

Gigantic private toy museum featuring among finest collections of antique mechanical banks in existence.

Featuring a casually threatening atmosphere along with dessert and coffee to die for.

No two pieces are exactly the same at Portland's hippo-themed hardware store.

Their motto is, "We've been bonkers for hats even longer than you have!"

Portland had a unique approach to Cold War-era protections.

Private collection of art inspired by cabinets of curiosity.

World's only nuclear reactor operated by liberal arts undergraduates.

This collector's home is a constant work in progress.

The only surviving prototype of Buckminster Fuller's revolutionary car.

Eastern zen meets Western grit in these four little trees growing out of a rock on Lake Tahoe’s Nevada shore.

The smallest country in the world.

Historic home to one of the most famous women pioneers of the 19th century.

Home to the "Circus" trees created by Axel Erlandson.

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.