Ranked List
The Weirdest Places in the US: 10 that earn the road trip
The weirdest place in the US, by our count, is the House on the Rock: one man's retreat on a 60-foot sandstone chimney that grew into a warehouse complex holding the world's largest carousel. The other nine run from a Nevada geyser created by a broken borehole to 42 concrete presidents decaying on a Virginia farm. Every pick is a place we've covered in full, ranked by a single test: how hard it is to explain to someone who wasn't there.
Last reviewed
-
Alex Jordan's 14-room retreat on a 60-foot sandstone chimney grew into warehouse after warehouse of obsessions, capped by the world's largest carousel: 269 animals, more than 20,000 lights, and mannequin angels in the rafters. Almost nothing is labeled. That's the point.
-
Sarah Winchester built for 36 years straight, allegedly on a medium's advice to baffle the spirits of everyone killed by Winchester rifles. The result is 160 rooms, stairways that dead-end at ceilings, and a door that opens onto thin air eight feet above a kitchen sink.
-
Meow Wolf's 20,000-square-foot mystery starts inside a full-scale Victorian home and falls apart the moment you climb through the refrigerator. Seventy environments deep, you can play the ribs of a mastodon skeleton and forget which dimension you parked in.
-
Cliff divers plunge past a 30-foot indoor waterfall while you eat sopapillas in a 52,000-square-foot pink palace that South Park's creators spent $40 million restoring. Raise the little flag at your table when you want more.
-
A geothermal test well's seal failed in 1964 and never got fixed, so the desert built its own monument: mineral mounds streaked emerald and rust by heat-loving algae, still growing. The Black Rock Desert's best argument that mistakes outperform plans.
-
Vince Hannemann started stacking junk in his South Austin backyard in 1989 and never stopped: 60 tons of bicycles, appliances, and a zen garden of old TVs, inspected by city engineers and declared structurally sound.
-
Forty-two concrete presidents, up to 20 feet tall and 20,000 pounds each, decay on a farm after the contractor hired to crush them hauled them home instead. The 'great' ones stand a foot taller than the 'failures', per the sculptor's own rankings.
-
A seven-acre field of boulders that chime like bells when struck with a hammer, a sound scientists have studied for over a century. Only about a third of the stones ring, and the reason is still debated.
-
Lost airline luggage gets one last chance in Scottsboro: a store spanning a city block, more than 7,000 new items a day, and a museum of the strangest finds, including Hoggle from Jim Henson's Labyrinth.
-
Loren Coleman has collected evidence of unverified animals since 1960: an eight-and-a-half-foot Bigfoot replica, footprint casts, and a copy of P.T. Barnum's Feejee Mermaid. Belief is left to religion here. The museum deals in evidence.
Know before you go
Half this list needs booking ahead. House on the Rock, the Winchester Mystery House, and the House of Eternal Return sell tickets online, Casa Bonita pulls guests from its email waitlist only, Fly Geyser is visitable only on a Friends of Black Rock nature walk between April and October, and the Cathedral of Junk takes visitors by phone appointment with a five-dollar donation. The President Heads allow no walk-ins at all; watch for John Plashal's occasional authorized tours. Ringing Rocks is the easy one. Bring your own hammer, the park doesn't lend them.
Common questions
What is the weirdest place in the United States?
The House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin takes it. One man's weekend retreat became hours of one-way corridors ending at the world's largest carousel, and almost none of it is labeled or explained. Nothing else commits to its own logic so completely.
Are these places open to the public?
All ten, with conditions. Eight take tickets, appointments, or plain walk-ins; Fly Geyser only admits visitors on a booked nature walk from April to October, and the President Heads only open for occasional organized tours.
Can you visit the President Heads in Virginia?
Only on an organized tour. The busts sit on a private farm with active security, and trespassing is prosecuted. Photographer John Plashal periodically coordinates authorized visits, which is the one legal way to stand among them.
How long does the House on the Rock take?
Several hours, even at a brisk pace. The route is a fixed one-way path through the entire complex, so you can't skip ahead to the carousel. If dust or musty air bothers you, know that it's part of the deal.