One of the few surviving Panama Canal steam shovels stands outside a tiny Colorado mining museum.

Inspired by a music box, a small town Vietnam vet carved an entire carousel full of animals by hand.

One of the largest Buddhist stupas in North America is built of concrete designed to last 1,000 years.

The home of a formerly enslaved man who went on to become a prospector, entrepreneur, and activist for Black rights.

A museum of natural history, Edwin Carter's original log cabin home and workshop houses taxidermy specimens.

A breathtaking array of ancient Pueblo structures and artifacts counterintuitively preserved by neglect.

Abandoned silver mine strewn with wrecked and twisted structures.

An enthusiastically interactive mining museum that won't let black lung ruin the fun.

A recreation of an Old West apothecary full of curios.

Despite his legacy of work in Spain, Cuba, and Florida, the larger-than-life writer's grave is a simple affair tucked in an Idaho cemetery.

The largest hot spring in the United States is, as the name suggests, a stunning show of natural color.

Dance on a hand-hewn log floor padded with bouncy boxcar springs at a saloon built in 1883.

A beautiful geyser under environmental threat.

One of nature's most well-scheduled phenomenons resides in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park.

Colorado's only true geyser is hidden within the San Juan National Forest.

The only natural lake in the world that drains into both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

This Yellowstone geyser may not shoot as high as the nearby Old Faithful, but it erupts for considerably longer.

A museum has some wedding cake dating to the Teddy Roosevelt administration, and some bacon from FDR's.

A river runs through this remote valley in a very unexpected way.

The hike through a narrow river flanked by the 2,000-foot-tall walls of Zion Canyon is one of the best in the world.

This rugged area of red rocks and arches is often considered one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

This arts and culture cultural center explores the diverse cultural heritage of the American West.

A house carved into a rock in the 1940s.

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