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If You Live In The United States, Here Are 10 Unusual Bucket List Destinations You Won’t Need Your Passport For
If seeing everyone’s European vacations spamming your Instagram feed has left you with major FOMO this summer, want to know the best cure ever? Finding a way to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience in your own metaphorical backyard! As much as eating risotto in Lake Como sounds like a dream, admiring wild horses on the beach of a beautiful island you can only reach by boat is pretty cool, too. And the best part? If you live in the United States, it won’t take a 12-hour flight to get there because all of the following too-cool-to-be-real locations can be found stateside.
1. If you think this is a photo of the Sahara, guess again because you’re actually looking at Colorado. The Great Sand Dunes National Park holds the tallest dunes in North America and is such an unexpected find for this state it will make you feel like you’ve been transported to Africa.
2. Ever wanted to find your own diamonds, rubies, or sapphires? Well, you can actually mine for them in several states, such as North Carolina, Arkansas, and Montana. Each of these states has dozens of mines that are open to the public and let you pay a small fee for access and gear but then let you keep whatever you find. The staff usually helps you clean and assess your gems to let you know which ones might be worth a pretty penny (or at least which ones will make a pretty piece of jewelry).
3. If the gold rush is more your style, there are several places you can pan for gold in the Southwestern states just like prospectors in the Old West did, such as Goldfield Ghost Town in Apache Junction, Arizona. Many of these sites have preserved or restored the buildings of these old mining towns, and if you believe in ghosts, many are haunted enough that they offer tours where you can hear the ghoulish and gruesome tales of what went down.
4. Most people believe that you have to travel somewhere remote, or at least trek out to Alaska if you’re trying to see the Northern Lights. But there are actually several locations within the continental United States that are prime viewing locations, such as Idaho Panhandle National Forest, Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, and Cherry Springs National Park in Pennsylvania.
5. If visiting Holland or Denmark is high on your to-do list, why not visit these cities that were built by settlers to resemble their home countries? Holland, Michigan, was settled in the mid-nineteenth century by Dutch immigrants and, to this day, features many tributes to their heritage, including an annual tulip festival and a 250-year-old windmill.
6. Some of the most unusual beaches in the world can be found in the United States, with rocks that “sing” to you. Jasper Beach is located in Acadia National Park in Maine and is a popular destination for hunting for sea glass hidden along its shores, consisting of polished red jasper stones. However, the tinkling sound the surf makes as it pulls away from the shore has led to it being referred to as a “singing beach.” Iona Beach in Minnesota, which is distinctive for its salmon-pink shores, has also come to be known for this phenomenon.
7. If you’ve been dying to don lederhosen to celebrate all things beer at Oktoberfest, look no further than Leavenworth, Washington, which modeled its town after Bavaria, Germany, and is known for going all out for this annual festival. It distinguishes itself from its European counterpart by featuring local breweries.
8. If you want to see the world’s tallest forest, according to Guinness World Records, head to Humboldt Redwoods State Park in northern California. Rockefeller Forest within the park has Sequoia trees that are more than 700 years old and reach over 360 feet tall, with the tallest hitting a towering 379 feet.
9. Antelope Canyon in Arizona has definitely become an Instagram darling with its stunning brick-colored rock formations — but for good reason. There is nowhere else like it in the world. The land is owned by the Navajo people and considered a sacred site, so it is not open to the public outside of official tours, but that means you get to hear legends and facts about it from people who truly treasure the space.
10. Yellowstone is one of the most popular national parks in the country and with good reason. It would be easy to spend weeks there taking in all of its singular natural wonders. However, the one that cannot be missed is the Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in the United States. Part of what makes it so stunning is its rainbow of colors, which looks photoshopped but is actually the result of a cool scientific reaction (don’t ask, it ruins the magic).