This shifting North Carolina sand dune is an odd little desert surrounded by oceanic forest life.

Thirteen pastel palaces in downtown Charleston add a gorgeous splash of color to the city.

The first declared National Monument in the United States.

This shallow pit was once used to send over 20,000 buffalo plummeting to their death.

The granddaddy of all tourist traps, built on ice water, jackalopes, and a giant dinosaur.

This vintage train once gave new meaning to “swimming upstream.”

This prehistoric sinkhole lured exclusively male mammoths to their death, much to the delight of science.

The world's largest mountain carving could fit all of Mount Rushmore inside it many times over.

A bizarre house filled with an astounding array of collections.

A recreation of the doomed ocean liner in the middle of the Smoky Mountains.

This dramatic rail curve was once the target of a failed Nazi attack.

Behold the rickety wooden glory of the world's oldest operating roller coaster.

A full-service gas station known as the oldest in America.

John Tyler never got to be buried at his beloved home, but every pet his family owned since has been.

This estate on the banks of the James River was home to a Founding Father, two presidents, a famous bugle melody, and what some say was the actual first Thanksgiving.

A home built with marble tombstones from the graves of 2,200 Union soldiers buried in a Virginia cemetery.

An innovative attempt to break a siege in the American Civil War still scars the earth today.

For nearly a year, General Ulysses S. Grant was based here during the American Civil War.

The skeletal white beams stand as a monument to religious dissent.

This museum devoted to the gothic author holds such interesting ephemera as his socks and walking stick.

A convincing little bit of ancient Egypt smack dab in Richmond, Virginia.

Heron, whitewater rapids, and urban industrialism all add to the beauty of this concrete nature walk.

A small Richmond island dotted with the remnants of hundreds of years of history.

The final resting place of two (or three) presidents, one vampire, and 18,000 Confederate soldiers.