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

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

A beautiful 62-acre Catholic shrine and botanical garden.

An Australian lake whose pink hue defies scientific explanation.

Elevated freight railway turned wildly successful urban park.

Wondrous sandstone hoodoos where Native Americans collected clay for pottery, 9,000 years ago.

This secluded aqua waterfall in the Grand Canyon is the perfect swimming hole, and the Havasupai tribe's fiercely protected natural wonder.

A bizarre house filled with an astounding array of collections.

Dramatic river bend surrounds a natural red-rocked pedestal.

A collision of human error and natural geothermal pressure created this rainbow-colored geologic wonder.

Veritable museum of 20th century country music history.

When Motown musicians came to Nashville in the 1960s they stayed at this historic record-pressing company because hotels wouldn't host them.

This replica of the Greek structure is in the heart of Nashville.

The bugs crawling down the front of this office building are almost as big as a '68 VW Beetle.

A stone marker memorializes the spot where the King broke up a street fight with a classic karate stance.

Almost half-way between the Equator and North Pole.

The menacing creature had a tremendous influence on the local culture before being exposed as a hoax.

A giant, Gilded Age mansion that once belonged to the beer baron of Milwaukee.

A restaurant and lodge in northern Wisconsin which served as a clandestine hideout for John Dillinger and featured one of the most famous botched FBI raids in history.

The highest point in Wisconsin is capped by two towers that are not as mythic as Tolkien's but provide much better views.

The titular fictional logger only inhabits this otherwise historically focussed museum via a piece of fiberglass kitsch.

Expansive and colorful studio of Minneapolis art-star, Doug Padilla.

A burnt-out motel with priceless Native American artwork in the basement, redeveloped into apartments.

A house turned museum is the real-life "home" of the fictional main character of The Wizard of Oz.