Places vivalavida Wants to Go

The highest point in Texas is capped by a big silver pyramid.

The 40-foot-tall votive candle is the largest of its kind.

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

Visitors can walk over the largest concentration of Columbian mammoths to have died from one event.

A Prada store in the West Texas desert that is never open for business.

Housed in a century-old building, this museum's dedicated not just to soft drinks, but to the free enterprise system.

An emerald-green grotto just a short trip from Austin.

A popular swimming hole that hides one of America's most deadly diving spots.

This curio museum seems like the type of place you might find a mogwai or a monkey's paw.

This concrete sculpture features a woman opening her heart to showcase a beautiful fern.

The highway's southernmost spot is a beloved local attraction.

This small beachside park commemorates the possibilities of discovery.

A monument celebrating the idea of reaching inaccessible places.

This ancient sinkhole-turned-healing-pool is a treasure trove of archeological discoveries and may even be the Fountain of Youth.

Florida might be at its most surreal in this museum devoted to the famed Spanish artist.

These remote Florida islands have a history of sea turtles and sunken treasures, and one of the world’s largest coastal brick fortresses.

James Turrell's total color immersion art installation, hidden on the top floor of a luxury handbag shop.

One of the few places where you can visit a cenote and Maya ruins at the same time.

At least seven hues of blue and turquoise make this freshwater lagoon unique.

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

A view-altering observatory at the University of Texas.

Ruins of a once-opulent grand Victorian resort.

One of the highest points in Bexar county offers birdseye views of San Antonio and a four-story stone tower.

The summer home of the largest colony of bats in the world.