Roadside oddities44.4182° N, 110.5725° W
Yellowstone National Park, WY
A remarkably deep blue hot spring in West Thumb Geyser Basin whose apparent depth gives it an almost bottomless look.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
Roadside oddities
Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Roadside oddities2,517
Suggest a stopGiant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
- Roadside oddities48.7507° N, 122.4856° W
Bellingham, WA
A 430,000-pound spherical relic from Bellingham's former pulp mill was preserved and transformed into public art instead of being scrapped. Its industrial history is interpreted inside Waypoint Park.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities44.9672° N, 103.7716° W
Belle Fourche, SD
The calculated geographic center of all 50 states lies in a pasture roughly 20 miles north of Belle Fourche and is marked by a small survey marker and flag. The point is on private land; obtain current directions and permission guidance locally and never treat the coordinates as unrestricted access.
- Access
- Private land, view only
- Roadside oddities41.2515° N, 108.2856° W
Sweetwater County, WY
Remote badlands contain bizarre erosional forms, abundant Eocene fossils and dense archaeological resources spanning roughly 12,000 years.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities46.7790° N, 92.0928° W
Duluth, MN
Duluth's harbor bridge rises vertically to let large ships pass through the canal between Lake Superior and the inner harbor. Watching the roadway lift for a freighter turns working transportation infrastructure into a public mechanical performance.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities33.4759° N, 86.8432° W
Birmingham, AL
Artist Joe Minter transformed his yard into a sprawling environment of welded scrap, signs and sculptures addressing African American history, religion, violence and memory. Because this remains a privately rooted art environment, current visitor access should be checked and all property rules respected.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities34.8753° N, 109.7896° W
Petrified Forest National Park, AZ
A long petrified log spans a natural wash like a stone bridge and is now supported by an old concrete beam installed to keep it from breaking. The awkward human reinforcement has become part of the oddity.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities42.4252° N, 103.7904° W
Harrison, NE
Agate preserves some of the world’s important Miocene mammal fossil deposits as well as collections connected to the Cook family and Lakota people. Trails cross the fossil landscape while the visitor center interprets animals such as beardogs, ancient rhinoceroses and the strange burrowing paleocast known as Daemonelix.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities36.1626° N, 107.9164° W
Nageezi, NM
Soft gray-green badlands hide caprock hoodoos and dinosaur-age fossils across a remote BLM wilderness. There are no formal trails or water, making navigation and weather planning essential.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities30.4666° N, 86.5612° W
Eglin AFB, FL
Specialized museum devoted to U.S. Air Force weapons, aircraft, missiles, and armament technology.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities32.3740° N, 112.8866° W
Ajo, AZ
A public overlook faces the enormous New Cornelia open-pit copper mine immediately beside Ajo. Layered benches and vivid rock colors reveal how completely mining reshaped the desert landscape.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities45.1899° N, 87.1200° W
Sister Bay, WI
Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant became a Door County icon after goats began grazing on its sod-covered roof. The living rooftop spectacle, Scandinavian architecture and adjacent Goat Cam turn an operating restaurant into one of Wisconsin's most recognizable roadside attractions.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities43.4711° N, 89.7436° W
Baraboo, WI
Al Ringling built this ornate 1915 theater as a lavish gift to Baraboo. Its French-inspired interior, chandeliers, boxes and decorative plasterwork make the venue an unexpectedly grand movie palace in a small Wisconsin city.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities43.8030° N, 99.3824° W
Oacoma, SD
An oversized bison stands outside the long-running Al's Oasis travel stop near the Missouri River. It continues the South Dakota tradition of using giant animals as highway landmarks and photo opportunities.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities33.2119° N, 87.5440° W
Tuscaloosa, AL
The museum’s collections include the famous Sylacauga/Hodges meteorite connected to the 1954 incident in which Ann Hodges was struck by a meteorite fragment inside her home. The object anchors a broader museum of geology, fossils and Alabama natural history.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities36.6982° N, 99.1333° W
Freedom, OK
One of the world's largest natural gypsum caves open to public touring runs beneath the plains of northwestern Oklahoma. Guided cave access and the unusual alabaster formations make it one of the state's strongest underground OddWay sites.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities44.6401° N, 104.1826° W
Aladdin, WY
An operating 1896 mercantile retains original woodwork, cabinetry, bins and an antique-filled upper floor in one of Wyoming's tiniest communities.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities61.1732° N, 149.8624° W
Anchorage, AK
Inside the candy shop is a towering chocolate-waterfall display built as a deliberately oversized tourist spectacle. It is exactly the kind of harmless commercial oddity that breaks up a route between heavier historic sites.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities37.8902° N, 122.3257° W
Albany, CA
A former construction-debris landfill became a waterfront landscape of improvised sculptures, murals and paths, with public art changing constantly.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities40.2924° N, 85.2524° W
Albany, IN
A roadside tree on Edgewater Road became covered with shoes tossed and tied into its branches, turning an otherwise ordinary rural tree into a local landmark. The display has changed over the years as shoes disappear and new ones are added, so it is best treated as an evolving roadside oddity rather than a formal attraction.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities41.7218° N, 94.9287° W
Audubon, IA
A gigantic concrete Hereford bull towers over Audubon as a tribute to the area's cattle industry. Albert has become one of Iowa's classic oversized roadside mascots.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities45.0560° N, 67.4956° W
Alexander, ME
More than two dozen large hand-carved wooden sculptures line a trail through the woods in rural Washington County. The privately created but visitor-friendly outdoor collection includes human figures, animals, and imaginative forms carved primarily from local trees.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities32.7984° N, 106.2337° W
Alamogordo, NM
This strenuous loop crosses the heart of White Sands where the gypsum dunes are largest and the developed landscape disappears. The route is exposed, waterless and occasionally affected by missile-range closures, so conditions must be checked before hiking.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities36.9330° N, 94.8775° W
Commerce, OK
This compact historic gas station survives along the Route 66 alignment through Commerce. Its restored pumps, signs and tiny building preserve the visual scale of early roadside service stations.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry