shawadcock's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Grand Marais, Minnesota

Devil's Kettle

Half of a waterfall goes into the river while the other half seems to disappear.
Schroeder, Minnesota

Father Baraga's Cross

A giant granite cross remembers missionary Father Frederic Baraga, and his safe passage across an angry Lake Superior.
Two Harbors, Minnesota

Split Rock Lighthouse

This picturesque cliffside beacon no longer calls to sailors but shines once a year in honor of a famous shipwreck.
Cloquet, Minnesota

Frank Lloyd Wright Gas Station

The famed architect designed this Minnesota gas station of the future with a lookout tower.
Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Stone Arch Bridge

The only arched bridge made of stone on the entire Mississippi River.
Washoe County, Nevada

Bonsai Rock, Lake Tahoe

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

Lehman Caves

A gothic palace of endless stalagmites and pseudoscorpions waits within one of the world's most beautiful caves.
Moab, Utah

Landscape Arch

The fifth-longest natural arch in the world, and the longest outside China.
Wendover, Utah

Metaphor: The Tree of Utah

A 90-foot-tall psychedelic "tree" on the side of the highway has baffled passersby for decades.
Wendover, Utah

Bonneville Salt Flats / Bonneville Speedway

Come for the speed, leave in love with the desert.
Bryce, Utah

Bryce Canyon

Giant, natural amphitheaters made of delicate geological formations called "hoodoos."
Jacksonville, Florida

Treaty Oak

This ancient octopus-like tree was saved from destruction thanks to shady reporting.
Amarillo, Texas

Cadillac Ranch

A sculpture made of 10 Cadillacs as a monument to the "Golden Age" of the American automobile.
Nashville, Tennessee

Concrete Parthenon

This replica of the Greek structure is in the heart of Nashville.
Homosassa, Florida

Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park

Meet manatees face-to-face at this zoo for native species.
San Francisco, California

Palace of Fine Arts

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.
San Francisco, California

Alcatraz Island

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.
Sausalito, California

Marin Headlands

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.
San Simeon, California

Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery

This stretch of beach along California's central coast is a busy highway for the largest seal in the northern hemisphere.
Big Sur, California

McWay Falls and Waterfall House Ruins

This Big Sur waterfall drops 80 feet directly into the Pacific Ocean, and inspired the hillside house up top.
Baker, Nevada

Permanent Wave Society

A whimsical, punny collection of "fence art" outside the tiny mountain town of Baker, Nevada.
Baker, Nevada

The Bristlecone Pines of the Great Basin

The longest living non-clonal organisms on Earth.
Austin, Nevada

U.S. Route 50

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

John Harvard 'Statue of Three Lies'

The statue of John Harvard isn't actually John Harvard—or even, technically, the founder of the school.