An Abandoned Pennsylvania Sanatorium and Prison Lets Visitors Explore 32 Acres, 20 Buildings and Underground Tunnels
Cool mountain air hits first, carrying the scent of pine and old brick. A long row of stately buildings stretches ahead, ivy creeping up walls and rows of windows glinting in the...
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A Jobless Engineer Spent the Great Depression Carving Giant Animals Into California Boulders
Stone towers guarding hillsides full of grinning rock creatures are not what a quick stretch break usually delivers. A carved lizard peeks out from a boulder like it has been waiting...
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Edgar Allan Poe Wrote Some of His Darkest Stories While Living in This Tiny Pennsylvania House
Raven statues do not usually guard private homes, but one stands outside a brick house in Pennsylvania like a sentry who takes his job very seriously. For about a year, a writer...
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This California Restaurant Once Claimed It Had Never Closed Its Doors or Turned Off Its Lights Since 1924
Lights that never went dark and front doors that supposedly had no locks are the stuff of local legend. For decades, this California diner has been feeding hungry people since...
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Charlie Chaplin Was 28 When He Built His Own California Movie Studio, and the 1917 Buildings Are Still There
Storybook cottages with peaked roofs and cozy windows sit in the middle of a California neighborhood, looking like they were pulled straight from a fairy tale. A young filmmaker...
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Thousands of Vintage Cars Are Slowly Disappearing Into the Georgia Woods at a Junkyard That Became a Tourist Attraction
Trees growing straight through the hoods of old sedans look like they were planted there on purpose. Driving into the rolling hills of north Georgia to find a salvage yard turned...
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A Cherokee Businessman Built One of Georgia’s Finest Homes in 1804, Then Lost It Before the Trail of Tears
Red bricks glowing warm against green grass are not what a quick history stop usually delivers. This Georgia mansion sits quietly in the hills, its walls baked from red clay dug...
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An Apollo 16 Astronaut Left His Moon-Boot Prints in Concrete at This Unexpected South Carolina Spot
Concrete boot prints pressed into the ground near a convention center are not what anyone expects to find on a beach vacation. A South Carolina beach trip was the plan, but sand...
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California Beachgoers Paid 10 Cents to Watch a Live 360-Degree View in 1898, and the Same Device Survives Today
Palm trees rustle overhead, the pier glitters to the south, and a low mid-century building sits on the bluffs above the Pacific. What waits inside is a machine older than most...
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Travelers Once Found This North Carolina Restaurant Through the Green Book, and the Same Family Is Still Serving Chicken 60 Years Later
Fried chicken has been coming out of the same North Carolina kitchen since 1952, and the smell still reaches the parking lot before the door even opens. Back in the 1960s, Black...
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A California Seaside Retreat Was Designed by Julia Morgan Before She Ever Started Work on Hearst Castle
Fog rolling through pines thick enough to make old wooden buildings appear one at a time is the kind of coastal morning that lingers. Driving slowly along a seaside avenue, windows...
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Ohio Rebuilt One of America’s Largest Wooden Walled Forts on the Ground Where Thousands of Soldiers Gathered in 1813
Wooden walls run on and on along the Maumee River in Ohio, and what was expected at this site was a small log stockade. The rebuilt fort covers about ten acres, and its timber...
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A 1937 South Carolina Gas Station Outlived the Highway Traffic That Once Kept It Busy and Became a Museum
Old gas pumps glowing out front of a 1937 service station make you pull over before you even know why. The little building once served drivers rolling down the main coastal route...
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Georgia’s Last Stagecoach Inn Still Stands Beside the Mountain Road Travelers Used in the 1800s
The brown historical sign on a quiet road almost went unnoticed, and passing it would have been a mistake. The long white porch appeared through the trees, stretching farther than...
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9 Ohio Places That Played Unexpected Roles in American History
Cornfields and truck stops were the expectation, but Ohio had other ideas. The first drive across the state with a full tank and no real plan turned into a series of detours where...
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Ancient Ohio Builders Moved Earth One Basket at a Time to Create North America’s Largest Hilltop Enclosure
Ohio keeps plenty of its oldest stories in plain sight, although they do not always look dramatic at first. Sometimes history is simply a rise in the ground, a curve through the...
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California Sent Electricity 22 Miles Through the Mountains in 1895, a Distance Almost Unheard of at the Time
Four enormous generators still sit bolted to the floor where they were installed in the 1890s, patient and silent, with a marble switchboard gleaming across the far wall. Walking...
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A 200-Foot California Building Vanished So Completely That Archaeologists Had to Find It Underground
Huge avocado trees and thick adobe walls have been holding their ground in California since the 1820s, and climbing a short hill above a downtown area brought them into view. Twenty...
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California Built a Bathhouse for 10,000 People, Then Fire Left Its Massive Concrete Ruins Beside the Pacific
Concrete walls filled with green water sit below a California coastal path, waves smashing against rocks just beyond, gulls hanging in the wind like they are on strings. Walking...
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This California Foundry Ran for 123 Years Without Modernizing, and Its 1800s Machinery Still Runs on Water Power
Iron dust in the air, sand on the floor, and leather belts slapping overhead are not what a California gold country drive usually delivers. Running machinery greets visitors instead...
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This Georgia Restaurant Opened as Prohibition Ended, After Its Owner Allegedly Ran a Basement Speakeasy
Red booths under a wall of old photographs and a menu that includes peach cobbler before lunch are what wait inside a corner building in Georgia. A neighborhood grocery store with...
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The World’s Largest Wooden Railroad Trestle Is in a California Desert Gorge Nobody Visits
Faded photographs of wooden bridges curving through empty desert canyons have a way of sticking in the mind, and this one refused to let go for years. It looked like something...
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A North Carolina Village Vanished Centuries Ago, but Its Ceremonial Mound Still Rises Above the Site
A reconstructed village waits in the grass where a historical marker and a bench were expected. The mound sits at the center, higher than pictured, with a temple on top and a ramp...
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This California Tavern Has Been Feeding Travelers Since 1894, and Its Artichoke Soup Became the Reason Many Stop
Fog settled over the highway on an afternoon with no real plan, just a stomach that had been growling for miles. A small farm town appeared the way they do, quietly, with fields...
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Ohio’s Only Revolutionary War Fort Was Abandoned and Almost Completely Erased
Wood chips pressed into green grass mark the footprint of a fort that history nearly swallowed whole. I had stopped near a small Ohio town expecting a quick stretch of the legs...
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This California Castle Once Locked Up Juvenile Offenders, Then Sat Empty for More Than 40 Years
A massive red brick building with arched windows and a tower rises out of the dry Gold Country hills, looking more like something borrowed from a European hillside than anything...
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This South Carolina Restaurant Serves Dinner Inside a 19th-Century Store That Sat Vacant for Years Before Being Brought Back to Life
Tall arched windows glowed with a warm golden light, and I slowed down without meaning to. I had been driving through a South Carolina town on a whim, looking for somewhere to...
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This South Carolina Restaurant Serves Dinner Inside a 1912 Bank, and the Original Vault Is Still in the Dining Room
High ceilings and a heavy steel vault door are not what you expect in a Thai restaurant, but what waits inside a 1912 bank building in South Carolina is exactly that. I was driving...
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A South Carolina Cotton Mill Burned Three Times, and Its Stone Dam and Factory Ruins Still Line the River
Water pouring over a long stone dam is loud enough to hear before you see it, and the trees along the river do that late-afternoon flicker thing where the light keeps moving. I...
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This Pennsylvania Restaurant Serves Pit Beef Inside What May Be the Oldest Building in Town
A low stone-and-frame building on a main street caught my attention on a slow afternoon in Pennsylvania, and I pulled in expecting nothing more than a quick bite before heading...
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Moravian Sugar Cake and Cheese Straws Still Come From a North Carolina Bakery That Opened in 1930
Warm sugar hung in the air near the door of that North Carolina bakery, and the smell hit me before I ever saw the display case. I had driven into the city mostly to see the old...
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A California Gold-Mining Town Once Had 2,500 Residents, but One Old Mill Is Almost All That Remains
Hand-cut stone walls still stand after more than a century of desert sun, holding the shape of a town that once sat on this quiet bend of the Colorado River in California. I had...
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This Pennsylvania Tavern Occupies a Building Where Washington’s Army Once Stopped on Its Way to Valley Forge
Stone walls and low paneled ceilings slowed me down the moment I walked into that Pennsylvania building, and I had pulled into the parking lot expecting nothing more than a quick...
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A 1½-Pound Burger Named for Buster Douglas Headlines This Ohio Restaurant’s Boxing-Themed Menu
Dark wood, amber stained glass, and framed fight photos wrap around a bar that has been pouring and serving in Ohio since 1897, and I almost missed the little red door tucked into...
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A Pennsylvania Restaurant Turned an Old Millwork Factory Into a Dining Room Filled With Art and Working Studios
Wood smoke from a pizza oven and paint-splattered studio doors just past the tables greeted me inside that old Pennsylvania lumber mill, and I had come for a bookstore and a market....
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10 Georgia Places Where Abandoned Mills, Factories, and Towns Left Something Behind
That quiet settles over a place where machines used to roar, and Georgia has more of those spots than most people realize. I keep coming back to them, tracing creek banks and forest...
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This South Carolina Restaurant Serves Southern Classics Inside a Former 1930s Gas Station
Hand-painted signs and the smell of something buttery drifting out the door pulled me back to a little building tucked under live oak branches on a South Carolina road. I nearly...
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A Georgia Soul Food Joint Once Fed a Broke Rock Band That Went on to Become Legendary
Biscuits drifted through the air on a cool Georgia morning, and Forsyth Street smelled like breakfast before I even found a parking spot. I had no real plan except to swing by...
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Dinner in This California Forest Comes With Glowing Tables, Fairy Doors, and a Touch of Magic
A purple door on a California main street nearly went unnoticed, and I am so glad something made me stop and look twice. Behind it sits a restaurant that trades white tablecloths...
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Three Tons of Onions and Three Tons of Potatoes Disappear Every Week at This South Carolina Drive-In
That neon lighthouse sign on a South Carolina roadside looked like something off an old postcard, and the parking lot was already packed with pickup trucks, minivans, and one very...
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A Tornado Tore Apart a Pennsylvania Railroad Giant, and the Twisted Wreckage Is Still There
That wreckage of steel beams twisted far below the valley floor tells the story of a railroad bridge that could not hold against the wind.
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A Pennsylvania Restaurant Serves Dinner 43 Feet Below Ground in 19th-Century Lagering Cellars
Forty-three feet below a Pennsylvania street, inside stone vaults dug in the 1800s to keep barrels cold, tables are set with candles and little strings of light. I had heard whispers...
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A Pennsylvania Restaurant Serves Dinner Inside a Stone Tavern That Predates the American Revolution
That stone tavern in Pennsylvania has been standing since the 1750s, long before the country was even a country. Thick colonial walls, crackling fireplaces, and the comforting...
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This Pennsylvania Buffet Came Back After a Devastating Fire and the Dutch Country Classics Are Flowing Again
A big windmill stood next door like a landmark for hungry travelers, and that was the first thing I spotted on a busy highway in Pennsylvania. I pulled into the lot on a weekday...
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The California Desert Sound Chamber Where Visitors Report Unexplained Vibrations
That white dome rising out of the California scrub made me slow the car down, just to make sure I was not imagining it. It sits alone in the desert, a parabolic structure that...
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This California Breakfast Spot Has Been Fueling Mornings for Decades and Locals Keep Coming Back
That building covered in bright murals on a California corner looked more like a street art gallery than a place serving hash browns. I had planned on grabbing a quick bite before...
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This South Carolina Mountain Overlook Has a Massive Rock Formation With a Strange Name and Stunning Views
That switchback road in the mountains ended with a view that made me forget what I was talking about mid-sentence. One minute I was watching rhododendron leaves brush the car window,...
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The Washington Coast Has a Trail That Leads to a 150-Foot Waterfall That Hits the Beach
That road stretched through wheat fields and rolling brown hills, and I was half convinced my GPS was playing a joke on me. Then the gravel crunched under the tires, the land flattened...
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10 California Restaurants Where the Decor Is Just as Memorable as the Menu
That forgotten parlor inside a Victorian mansion, the booth shaped like a pirate ship, and the neon-lit counter where someone has been flipping burgers since the 1950s.
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Stacked Shelves, Cathedral Quiet, and 12 California Bookstores Worth the Detour
That particular hush lives inside a good bookstore, and I have chased it up and down California for years. I started building a route made entirely of shelves, from the palm-lined...
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This Old-School Arizona Pizzeria Has Outrageously Delicious Pizza Hidden in Plain Sight
Some of my favorite meals have come from places I almost drove right past, and this Arizona spot fits that pattern perfectly. On a warm afternoon, with the light bouncing off every...
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One of Nevada’s Most Surreal Sights Is Located on Private Land And It Is Worth the Effort
A technicolor geyser erupts in the Nevada desert, shooting hot water and steam into the air. Its cone shaped mounds are coated in greens, reds, and turquoise, colors that come...
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Dolphins Patrol the Shoreline at This Florida Island Where the Only Crowds Are Birds and Turtles
Florida’s Gulf Coast still holds barrier islands where access alone shapes the entire experience, keeping development out and nature fully in control.
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You’ll Drive Right Past This South Carolina BBQ Joint if You Blink, but That’s Exactly How the Locals Like It
There are some places you stumble across that completely change how you think about food, and this South Carolina spot is absolutely one of them. This town has a population of...
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This Georgia Pizzeria Is Tucked Behind an Unassuming White Brick Facade in a Small Town That Zombies Made Famous
Old storefronts glowed in that soft golden light, and the whole main street felt like a movie set, which, honestly, it kind of is. I had not planned to stop for food in this small...
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This Florida Oyster Farm Tour Lets You Shuck and Slurp Straight from the Bay
That water was so flat it looked like poured glass, and the salt air hit me before the boat even pushed off. Within minutes we were gliding through mangrove forests and shallow...
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10 Arizona Getaways That Won’t Empty Your Wallet
That first drive across Arizona surprised me, mostly because the scenery kept changing every hour or two. One minute I was surrounded by saguaros and sunbaked rock, and the next...
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You Can Ride an Alpine Coaster Down the Side of a Colorado Mountain at This Adventure Park
Three thousand four hundred feet of steel track curving through pine trees, dropping along the mountainside, and a brake that puts the speed entirely in your hands. That is what...
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Why This Ohio Spring Stays 48 Degrees Even When Summer Heat Passes 90 Degrees
A spot in Ohio where the water never gets the memo that summer has arrived. Even when the air is thick and sticky, this spring sits cool and unbothered.
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Beaver Pond Tours and Stargazing at This Colorado Nature Center Will Make Your Kids Forget About Screens
A beaver slips into a mountain pond, and your kid does not even notice they dropped the tablet. That is the kind of magic this Colorado nature center pulls off. Positioned along...
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