Partially submerged Buddha heads freckle Chicago’s neighborhoods.

This sprawling mini-golf empire is an impressive testament to a disappearing attraction.

At Chicago's revered Field Museum, visitors are invited to learn about and literally explore DNA.

The world's only known button museum.

Shop of curiosities with a dinosaur museum tucked in its basement.

The site of the "Bone Wars" between two rival paleontologists during the dinosaur rush of the 19th century.

The largest source of fossilized insects anywhere.

Thanks to a quirk of elevation this gift shop produces magic doughnuts that are found nowhere else on Earth.

These faux-cliff dwellings allow visitors to climb around on a replica archaeological site.

Strange red rock formations that have been attributed to a higher power for hundreds of years.

The clock that sets them all.

A research lab and hands-on museum where visitors can experiment with retro technology.

This tea house was a hand-built gift from Boulder's sister city in Tajikstan.

Before he was America’s most famous preservationist, John Muir was an ingenious mechanical inventor.

Decades' worth of lost and forgotten objects make up the collection of this tantalizingly odd little museum.

A hidden slot canyon in the southern Nevada desert makes an unexpected oasis and scenic hike.

Illegal drag racing two stories beneath Chicago’s streets.

The beautiful baroque library of the Hapsburg empire.

Over thousands of years, this slot canyon was carved out of the bed of an ancient lake.

The magical, mossy forest that inspired Princess Mononoke.

One of the few remaining casualties of the London Blitz, this destroyed church has become an enchanting public garden.

The best place to send your postcards home from Antarctica.

The site where Michigan launched its first rocket into space lies abandoned in the dense woods along Lake Superior.

This protected area in Lake Huron contains some of the world’s best-preserved shipwrecks.