Roadside attractions are, by definition, kooky. But these take weird to a whole new level.
LessLook, you're either the kind of person who immediately stops the car and sprints toward the gargantuan, warehouse-like gift shop with giant concrete shark's mouth -- a fixture of Gulf Shores since 1956 -- as its entrance, or you drive past without a second thought. If you're the latter, you're rewarded with an endless assault of tourist crap (think gator heads, beach clothes, fudge, and shells).
Route 66 isn’t what it used to be, but the roadside town of Holbrook maintains some of the highway’s magic appeal thanks to its unexpected collection of cement dinosaurs outside the Rainbow Rock Shop. The dinosaurs, some up to 25 feet tall, were built by the shop’s owner and cost a few cents to pose with. Strangely enough, these aren’t the only dinosaurs you’ll find in the town: others come from the International Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.
Apparently Sarah Winchester, heir to her family's firearms fortune, believed the ghosts of every single person killed by the company's then-innovative repeating rifle -- so, like, half the casualties of the Old West -- were haunting her. So she began construction on a mansion designed specifically to discombobulate the spirits. Think: hallways as narrow as you walk them. Stairways that lead to nowhere. Windows that overlook… other rooms. Decoy toilets everywhere.
A 160-foot-tall structure of stone and steel, Bishop Castle includes four towers, two catwalks, a ballroom, and a whole lot of wrought- iron railings and flourishes. It’s a bona fide castle, too, complete with drawbridge and fire-breathing dragon, all built by one man, Jim Bishop. You can walk the bridges between the towers, albeit at your own risk. Or just admire the decor, which ranges from hand-painted signs airing Jim’s personal views to an arm with an axe sticking out of the floor.
The story of the uh, interesting trail however, begins with Joel Slaton, a local carpenter, who in 2011 began finding discarded doll parts and other pieces of what others would consider “junk” throughout the trail area. Over the years, Slaton began arranging and building art displays with these abandoned scraps and voilà! Now you have an interactive art display full of muddy, creepy doll heads in the depths of a muggy patch of woods.
You’ve probably seen at least a couple of corn or hay bale mazes in your life, the type that pop up around Halloween, but there are only a handful of botanical mazes in America that are fixtures yearound, of which the Pineapple Garden Maze is one. Reigning titleholder of “World’s Largest Botanical Maze” for the past decade, this Dole Plantation garden stretches across three acres and comprises some 14,000 plants.
Driving along US-1 in Columbia Falls, you will know you have come upon Wild Blueberry Land when you spot the giant blue geodesic dome designed to resemble half a giant blueberry. But we wouldn’t send you here if it was just a big blue circle to get out of your car and stare at and take a picture and then get back in your car and leave. This is a seven-acre, family-run blueberry-themed theme park. Everything is blue.
People have been working to save Margaret’s Grocery & Market for years. More singular than odd, the iconic roadside stop off US Highway 61 is possibly the most distinctive grocery store you’ll ever see, its aesthetic a blend of folk art and Byzantine Empire. Desperately in need of restoration, Margaret’s Grocery is currently closed for repairs, its future uncertain. But just because you can’t buy anything inside doesn’t mean the place is any less mesmerizing to look at.
The open-air museum is a quirky sculpture park in the middle of the Amargosa Desert -- specifically known for the ghoulish, shrouded figures staged in a reinterpretation of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. Belgian artist Charles Albert Szulaski launched the museum with these plaster figures in 1984. He followed his Last Supper up with two more pieces featuring the same haunting figures, though only one, Ghost Rider (featuring a shrouded figure with a bicycle), still stands.
Built in 1881, this six-story elephant resides in Margate City. She has survived lightning strikes, Hurricane Sandy, being converted into various restaurants and taverns and summer homes, and one (1) vanity presidential run. She’s a National Historic Landmark, and most importantly is much more than simply something that’s fun to look at -- you can climb up the spiral staircase inside her leg and take in the view from upstairs.