America is full of bizarre things—supersize meals, pennies, obsession with Starbucks, you name it—but these 10 tourist stops along popular U.S. road trip routes take the cake. From a graveyard for ice cream flavors to a palace made out of corn, here are some of America’s weirdest pride and joys.
California: Salvation Mountain
Struggling artist Leonard Knight created this clay-straw mound covered in over 100,000 gallons of colored paint. The Salvation Mountain you see today is his second attempt at making the structure—he used concrete to build his first mound, which eventually collapsed. He painted religious phrases, prayers, and Bible verses over the clay-straw mixture in all sorts of colors, and now it’s a trippy, hippie-looking rainbow hill. There’s also a section that Leonard called the museum, modeled after a hot air balloon, where visitors and friends leave small objects and pray.
Today, visitors bring paint to donate to the project, and a public charity, Salvation Mountain Inc., was created to maintain and protect the site. Coldplay filmed the music video for its song Birds here, and the site was also featured in the film Into the Wild.
You can find Leonard’s mountain in the Colorado Desert in Southern California, Imperial County, about an hour and a half from Palm Springs.
South Dakota: Corn Palace
While the Mitchell Corn Palace—which looks like something from czarist Russia—is built from reinforced concrete, the exterior is completely covered with thousands of native South Dakota corn, grain, and grasses arranged into themed murals every spring. It is over 120 years old, and discussions are underway for a possible Corn Palace interior remodeling project.
The palace serves as an auditorium and sports arena and is also the headquarters of Corn Palace Week, which marks the end of the harvest.
You can find this oddity off of I-90 in Mitchell, South Dakota.
Nevada: Area 51 Alien Center
It’s a gift shop, diner, gas station, and yes … an alien center. Area 51 Alien Center has it all! There are even overnight room rentals available, in case you want to stay the night and see if you can spot any space activity.
In the same shopping plaza, you’ll find Alamo Fireworks Megastore (which boasts the world’s largest firecracker) and the Alien Cathouse Brothel, an extraterrestrial-themed legal brothel, making this a one-stop shop for anything you could possibly need in Nevada.
Vermont: Ben and Jerry’s Flavor Graveyard
What happens to an ice cream flavor when it is no longer made? Ben & Jerry’s has created both a virtual and physical “Flavor Graveyard” for all retired ice cream flavors. Each flavor has its own tombstone, complete with a flavor description and cheeky poem about why it failed and the years it was in production. So, if you’ve had a favorite flavor that’s been de-pinted, you can come pay your respects here. RIP Holy Cannoli.
You can find the graveyard at the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Waterbury, Vermont, off of I-89.
New Jersey: Lucy the Elephant
Lucy the Elephant is a six-story, 90-ton elephant-shaped building made out of wood and tin in Margate City just outside of Atlantic City. Inventor James V. Lafferty conceptualized the elephant, which was built in the late 1800s, and he brought real estate customers up to the top to show them properties available for sale. Over time the elephant has had numerous owners and has been a restaurant, business office, cottage, and tavern.
Today, you can take a guided tour through the spiral staircase in the back left leg up into the interior and further up to the top for views of Atlantic City and the ocean. The elephant has survived both a lightning strike and Hurricane Sandy and is featured in numerous commercials, books, films, and TV shows. It’s so treasured by area residents that it has become a designated National Historic Landmark.
Lucy can be found on Atlantic Avenue in Margate City. Visiting the grounds and looking at Lucy is free, but if you want to climb inside, you’ll need to pay an admission fee.
New Mexico: World’s Largest Pistachio
While there are dozens of large and bizarre man-made sculptures worldwide, particularly in the U.S., this one stands out. If you’re driving along U.S. 54 from Alamogordo and Tularosa, the World’s Largest Pistachio is sure to catch your eye. The giant nut was created by Tim McGinn, owner of McGinn’s Pistachio Tree Ranch & Arena Blanca Winery, to honor his late father and the farm’s founder.
The 30-foot-tall nut is located on the farm, so you can get some snacks and wine (to enjoy when you’re done driving) for your journey, too.
Utah: Hole ‘N’ The Rock
Hole ‘N’ The Rock is a unique structure that was carved out of a massive rock in Canyonlands Country along U.S. Highway 191. Today, the Hole ‘N’ The Rock is a home, petting zoo, general shop, and trading post.
The house is about 5,000 square feet with 14 rooms built by Albert and Gladys Christensen. To create the structure, Albert excavated 50,000 cubic feet over 12 years, complete with a sculpture of FDR on the face of the rock above the home. He passed away before it was finished, and his wife completed the project, opening a gift shop and offering tours until she died in 1974.
The attraction has an apt slogan: “We are not your destination: We are an amazing stop along the way.” It’s open daily, except for Christmas, and bus tours are welcome.
Alabama: Unclaimed Baggage Center
Warning: this pit stop might take longer than a quick photo-op in front of the world’s largest ball of twine. The Unclaimed Baggage Center is the nation’s only lost luggage store. The center buys and sells unclaimed baggage from airlines, and visiting here can lead to great bargains.
Wondering if you’ll find your lost luggage on sale here? If an airline loses your bag, there is a three-month process of trying to reunite the bag and passenger. If that doesn’t work out, and only after claims are paid to the passenger, airlines are allowed to sell the bags to the Unclaimed Baggage Center. The 40,000-square-foot space receives hourly inventory from cameras to wedding dresses, so plan your visit accordingly.
The Unclaimed Baggage Center is a little bit out of the way but well worth the stop—it’s accessible from I-65, I-59, and I-24 in Scottsboro, AL.
Missouri: Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail and Museum
The official name of this attraction is the Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center, but it’s earned the nickname of the Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail.
The former explosives factory was occupied by a plant that refined uranium for Cold War nuclear bombs. The plant was abandoned in the late ’60s, and when the US Environmental Protection Agency showed up 20 years later, they decided to entomb all the leftover contaminated materials. Visitors can climb the stairway to the top of the 75-foot-high disposal cell, and there is also an interpretive center that addresses the history of the area.
This spot is popular for birdwatchers and astronomers, offering a great view of St. Charles and St. Louis from the top.
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