Weird Travel™

"The Nation's Most Polluted Places"

• Get a Glimpse of the Nation’s Largest Garbage Landfill, at the Puente Hills Landfill near Whittier, CA, and visit their nearby Puente Hills Landfill Nature Habitat.

• Walk through the Nation’s Largest Active Lava field at the Craters of the Moon National Monument.  The monument is 84 miles west from Idaho Falls, Idaho. 

• Visit the location of the world’s most active volcanic area at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and observe a currently erupting volcano at the Kilauea Volcano Observatory.  The area is very dangerous so please follow the guide’s instructions closely.

• Drive by a 50-year-old underground fire still burning in Centralia, PA. Although tours directly to Centralia are not permitted due to prevalent toxic gas, you can visit the nearby Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine & Steam Train, which is in Ashland, PA.  The oldest steam driven train in the U.S. takes you to the top of the Mahoney Mountain, and then you descend 1,000 feet into the dark and cool bowels of one of the nation’s oldest coalmines.

•Walk through the Nation’s Most Notorious & Scary Prisons-

• The Federal Prison at Alcatraz is our nations’ most infamous prison.  The prison is now run by the National Park Service at Alcatraz.  Access to this island is only by boat.  Book your tour at Alcatraz Cruises.  Com, the official tour guide vendor for this “paranormal” destination.
• Perhaps the most colorful old west prison is the Yuma Territorial Prison, in Yuma, AZ.  With its long and varied history, you’ll find this old prison to be entertaining as well as educational.  In your self- guided tour you’ll see the “Dark Cell,” and discover the remnants of the Main Cellblock, still imposing against the desert horizon, with its strap iron cages set inside high adobe-and-rock walls.  The Arizona State Parks Commission runs the Yuma Territorial Prison.

• The Mississippi River ranks first in the nation as the most polluted river according to the Sierra Club. The Mississippi has been the most convenient place for industries to dispose of waste for over 100 years. Despite regulation and various clean up attempts, the fact that this river flows through many states has hampered a concerted effort. Additionally, in many states the fines for dumping garbage into the river are minimal. Several efforts are underway to cleanup the river. Go to: Living Lands & Waters to get involved, or Clean Up the River-Blogspot, and the Friends of the Mississippi.

•See the Nation’s Largest Plane Graveyards-

• To see old military aircraft, In southeast Arizona's Sonora Desert is the famed Airplane Graveyard-Bone Yard at Davis Monthan Air Force Base. The Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center AMARC at Davis AFB is where the U.S. military sends its old planes.  The Pima Air & Space Museum offers exclusive bus tours of the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), also known as the "Boneyard.”  The tours have proven to be very popular, so Boneyard Tour Reservations are strongly recommended to guarantee seating.  Seven days notice is preferable when making a reservation.  This graveyard is located adjacent to the Museum at the edge of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base just outside of Tucson, AZ.

• For junked commercial airliners drive by and take a look at the Evergreen Air Center at Pinal Air Park, 20 miles west of Tucson, AZ near Davis AF Base.  We understand this air graveyard is not open to the public, but it is worth a look.
•  Or you can drive into the Mojave Desert, to the Mojave Airport California USA (MHV)  This is where America’s airplanes go to die.  Visit their Mojave Air & Space Port for guided tours of discarded and unused airliners and cutting edge spacecraft. The City of Mojave sponsors a very worthwhile virtual airport tour, with lots of pictures and maps.

• Visit the Cowboy Capital of the World, tour down historic Dodge City, Kansas, and see where the old west and the new west merge.  At Dodge City, you will visit the El Capitan Monument in commemoration of the 1870’s cattle drive, Boot Hill, the Gunfighter’s Wax Museum, the end of the Santa Fe Trail, as well as a glimpse of today’s largest slaughterhouses.  You can find more information at: KansasTowns-Dodge City , Dodge City Convention & Visitors Bureau, The Dodge Daily Globe, and the Legends of America Virtual Tour.

•Drop in for a visit at two of the Nation’s Deepest Holes-

• You can visit the Mammoth National Caves, in Kentucky.  More than 335 miles of accessible passages make Mammoth Cave in Kentucky the world's longest cave. 

• The National Park at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Lechuguilla Cave, part of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, is the nation's deepest at 1,567 feet. 
• Plan your trips by visiting the Carlsbad Caverns National Park and the Mammoth Cave National Park web sites.

• Dive into America’s Deepest Natural Spring, at Weeki Wachee Springs, FL. We understand this spring is so deep that very few people have actually seen its bottom.

• Times Beach, Missouri is now part of the Route 66 State Park.  Once the site of the Nation’s worst concentrations of dioxin, a toxic nerve agent, with levels some 100 times higher than the amount considered to be hazardous to humans; it has now been detoxified and turned into a beautiful roadside park.

• If you are really bold and want to explore the unknown, Nevada’s Top-Secret Area 51 is fraught with risks.  Area 51 is located outside of Rachel, Nevada (population 98) in the remote Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The place where aliens and UFO’s have been spotted, and science fiction stories are born.  This Area is a portion of the Nellis Air Range Complex where the Groom Lake AF Base is located.  The base, only unofficially exists, but is commonly known to be a test and development center used by the military, CIA, and other government agencies.  The base's primary mission seems to be the development of airborne weapons systems, and it is widely acknowledged as the testing site for the U2 spy plane, the SR-71, the Stealth Fighter, and other classified projects.  Location: 85 miles N of Las Vegas, 31 miles S of Rachel, NV. You can find Area 51 by visiting the Center for Land Use Interpretation.  See aerial photos and satellite imagery at the Federation of American Scientists "Groom Lake Road" Web-Site.  The Groom Lake Road, an old dirt road, which skirts an abandoned cattle ranch, is the best approach to the Area.  It goes directly to the perimeter of the restricted zone, from Highway 375.  The only viewing area of the “non-existent” base is from the relatively distant Tickaboo Peak.  Additional information can be obtained by visiting Aliens on Earth-Area 51, Rachel-Nevada. COM, and get a first hand report of this mysterious area by going to SkyShadows, Area 51; Tickaboo Peak.

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