Road trips are such a beautiful way to visit new sites with very much enjoyment and little commitment. There are too many roadside attractions in the US’s cities and small towns, familiar and lesser-known. We can see many exciting roadside attractions packed in America, which we cannot anywhere globally. If we are ready to take a road trip, we consider any of these uniquely beautiful and picturesque destinations.
10 Georgia Guidestones; Elberton, Georgia
Cherokee Indians believed these stones mark the spot as the center of the universe. Guidestones become the US’s most enigmatic monument. Around 100 miles east of Atlanta, the Elberton people are proud of the eccentric landmark of them. This roadside attraction in the US is not a destination in and of itself.
Only it is a cross between Stonehenge and the Rosetta Stone. Also, people used the Guidestones as an astronomical calendar. At noon, the sun shines via a 7/8-inch narrow hole in the structure and illuminates the engraving’s day date.
We can see the ten guidelines engraved in this site’s stones written in eight different languages such as English, Hebrew, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. For securing the County’s granite slab, Robert C. Christian came to Elbert because he believed the produced quarries here are the planet’s most delicate stone.
This granite monument was erected in 1980 and located in Elbert County, Georgia. Four among them stand at the tall about 16 feet and weigh more than 20 tons each. The capstone weighs over 25,000 pounds.
One of the slabs among them stands in the center, with four arranged around it. A capstone sits on the topmost of the other five slabs, which aligned astronomically. People referred them as an “American Stonehenge.” It also saves people and nations using fair laws and just courts. It even the sign of truth, beauty, love who is seeking harmony with the infinite. It holds the position in the list of top ten US roadside attractions.
9 Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas
While riding along the west of Amarillo in Texas, we can fix our eyes on the big and vibrant Cadillac Ranch. A group of art-hippies invented and built the Cadillac Ranch in 1974. Marsh invited the Ant Farm to help him in a unique work of art created for his sprawling ranch on Route 66. Well, the site features a row of 10 half-buried Cadillacs, faced nose-down in the ground.
They purchased most of the cars from junkyards and averaged about $200. The vehicles range in year from oldest 1949 to newest 1963, and each vehicle representing the golden age of production of Cadillac with long sleek lines and high-rising tail fins of it.
When this art piece was open to view for the public, people were attracted to see the display up close and would make stops along the highway personally. The cars displayed new paint jobs such as banana yellow, gold, turquoise, and sky blue.
People painted all the cars thousands of times. The last vehicle purchased was the 1949 model, but he buried the first car. There is older running, used, or junk cars. Thus, tourists started to come from all over the world, leaving any mark of this roadside attraction on the ever-thickening graffiti-covered cars.
We can see this site is in an active wheat pasture, and cows can graze freely nearby. The Ant Farm members had to shift from San Francisco to Amarillo for many months to plan, survey the property, purchase cars, and install the finished artwork. We can see this Cadillac Ranch, which appeared in magazines, numerous TV shows, and newspaper accounts. Moreover, on September 8, a fire damaged one of the cars in Cadillacs.
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8 Hood Milk Bottle, Boston, Massachusetts
The milk company gifted the Hood Milk Bottle to the museum in the late 1970s. Boston’s unmissable Hood Milk Bottle sits on the Hood Milk Bottle Plaza in front of the Boston Children’s Museum, just across the Fort Point Channel. It is 40 feet tall, 18 feet in diameter, and weighs about 15,000 pounds. In 1930, Arthur Gagner built this milk bottle next to the store of him to sell the homemade ice cream of him. Also, Gagner made this bottle like structure entirely with wood.
The people quite used this kind of novelty architecture these days, but it was one of the first at that time—this United States’ first fast-food drive-in restaurant built using the “Coney Island” architecture style. In 1943, Gagner sold this giant bottle and abandoned in 1967.
The milk bottle shape had already changed to a square squat style bottle at that time. This ice cream stand was housed in Taunton over 30 years ago before people moved it to the city via boat in the 1970s. Thus, this adventure is now known as the “Great Bottle Sail.”
It stood empty and neglected for ten years when H.P. Hood and Sons, Inc., a dairy company, was satisfied to take it and deliver it to the museum of children in 1977. People occasionally projected the movies onto the side of the structure for the events in the museum. The facility would take around 58,620 gallons of dairy products to fill this monster milk bottle.
The bottle’s top half was recently cut off and preserved, while the 15,000-pound bottom of the bottle could be moved and restored. So, we can eat a scoop of ice cream and snacks to nourish our hungry stomachs, attracting countless tourists each year.
7 Foamhenge, Natural Bridge, Virginia
Mark Cline of Enchanted Castle Studios created Foamhenge as an April Fool’s Day in 2004 to generate tourism. Mark started the project when he found 16-foot-tall foam blocks at a local insulation manufacturer. For rent-free land, they formed an agreement with The Natural Bridge to attract tourists to both sites.
It is a full-size replica of Stonehenge made up of entirely Styrofoam. They will open the Foamhenge minimal hours during the Spring, Summer, and Winter seasons. The ‘stones’ of this site composed of Styrofoam entirely and painted gray.
Additionally, this one of the roadside attractions is weighing around 420 lbs apiece. These stabilized stones embedded 2.5-inch-diameter piping. In about ten days, this entire structure assembled, but the construction of Stonehenge period of about 1000 years. When the Natural Bridge converted to a state park, forcing this Foamhenge to close. It also lasted at the Natural Bridge site for more than 12 years.
It will move to a famous 116-acre family farm, called Cox Farms, after the repair and repainting. Foamhenge opened again in time to start the famous “Fall Festival” and a “Fields of the Fear exhibition” of farms on September 16, 2017. He created it as a temporary, whimsical, and architectural folly. So, this quirky and passive roadside attraction in Virginia makes the visitors come every year.
6 Paul Bunyan, Minnesota, and more
Several Paul Bunyan statues dot across the US roadsides attractions. But this statue stands out among the pack. Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox indicates the names of a giant statues pair of American folk hero Paul Bunyan and his friend ox. Lennord L. Pitney of Park Rapids, Minnesota, designed these statues. Since 1988, this roadside attraction in the US has the full right to be on the National Register of Historic Places list. Built-in 1937, the National Parks Service officially honored the statues as the cultural resource worthy of preservation.
It can attract the attention of passing motorists. These statues are like the structures such as the South Dakota’s colossal Dinosaur Park sculptures, the Benewah Milk Bottle, or the Teapot Dome Service Station. The Kodak Company said to this pair of statues as the “United States’ second-most photographed statues, “behind South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore. The city Bemidji sits in a lake region and vast woodland.
Paul Bunyan measures about 18 feet tall and approximately 5 feet across at the base from him. Paul Bunyan also measures three feet from toe to heel. Babe the Blue Ox is approximately ten feet tall and about eight feet across at the front hooves. Babe measures about twenty-three feet from nose to tail. These statues also appeared in movies.
In Bemidji, Minnesota, Babe joined Paul in 1939 after a prominent career as a traveling carnival mascot. People claim the Bemidji is the birthplace of Paul, a fact that, of course, we cannot verify it as the giant lumberjack lived only in advertising campaigns and folk tales. Thus, it also one of the beautiful roadside attractions.
5 Lucy the Elephant, Margate, New Jersey
Lucy is a giant elephant in the world and originally named it as Elephant Bazaar. James V. Lafferty designed Lucy the Elephant in Margate, around 5 miles southwest of Atlantic City, in 1881. Lucy’s pretty big girl is 60 feet in length, 65 feet tall, and 18 feet wide elephant weighing around 90 tons.
He made Lucy with nearly one million pieces of wood, and its construction required 200 kegs of nails, iron bars, and 4 tons of bolts;12,000 square feet of tin to cover the exterior. It also has 22 windows with two round eyes placed throughout the structure.
It has so many uses over the years. Lafferty, a real estate developer, used to bring up potential buyers to show them this land for sale. People also used its structure as a summer home, a restaurant, and even a tavern.
The prohibition shut down the use of it as a tavern. The officials designated Lucy as a National Historic Landmark in 1976. In addition to that, it has appeared in several TV shows and movies. The courageous can tour Lucy’s innards, entering through a spiral staircase in one of the hind legs.
We can climb to howdah of Lucy for a great view of the city and the Atlantic Ocean. She is also the country’s 12th tallest statue. Additionally, she always just stood 65 feet high there overlooking the Atlantic Ocean while slowly deteriorating, and one leg has a cigar store.
In contrast, the other has a diorama and celebrated her birthday on the boardwalk with rides, carnival games, food, etc. Moreover, it is recognized as the oldest roadside attraction in America and has several purposes -most notably, tourists’ attraction.
4 Hole n’ the Rock, Moab, Utah
A unique home carved out of a massive rock in southern Utah in the western United States. The history says that it started as a tiny nook for the sons of Albert and Gladys Christensen. In the 1940s, Albert Christensen hand-carved the luxurious suite of rooms of him out of a natural cliff face.
Gladys, his wife, is running a cafe and gift shop after Albert’s death. This destination includes an exotic petting zoo, souvenir shop, trading post, general store, museum of desert paraphernalia, and conglomeration of all manner of signs, doo-dads, statues, and rock carvings. Today, the cliff covered with painted in large white letters that scream out “Hole N” The Rock,” allowing visitors to perceive there’s marvelously incredible.
Franklin Roosevelt’s Rushmore-like head carved into an alcove near the entrance. It sits on US Highway 191, where rock climbers, rafters, hiker hordes, and off-roaders overrun seasonably. Inside is a historic 5,000 square foot home and 14 rooms built around massive pillars.
These rocks also consist of a fireplace, a bathtub that cut into the rock. It also has Gladys’s doll collection, antique furniture, and even light fixtures. The unique gift shop and trading post are open year-rounded.
The exotic zoo of this rock is home to an animal like the two-humped camel, Zandra the zebra, Cramer, Wyndell the Vietnamese potbelly pig, and an assortment of emus, wallabies, alpacas, pygmy goats, mini horses and donkeys, sheep, peacocks, and even a pair of albino raccoons named Noel and Bucky.
We can find an old cage here for jailing criminals and an aerial tram that strung up over the grounds. Additionally, there are statues of jeeps, antique vehicles, and bulls made from tools. The curiosities, ice cream, nostalgia, animals, human ingenuity, and sheer bizarreness make millions of people to visit this one of the unbelievable roadside attractions in the US.
3 Enchanted Highway, Regent, North Dakota
What a fun and beautiful roadside adventure this was! Here we can see a glimpse of classic roadside art. For a stretch of 32 miles, we find a highway in North Dakota, which is home to a collection of giant scrap metal sculptures in the world. It is better known for its larger and whimsical attractions on the roadside.
The road’s numberless stretch brings plenty of tourists between Regent and Gladstone. A metal sculptor and former school principal, Gary Greff, started the work in 1990 and placing the sculptures along the “Enchanted Highway” or Highway 21.
Statues of this area include “World’s Largest Tin Family,” “Pheasants on the Prairie,” “Teddy Rides Again,” “Deer Crossing,” “Geese in Flight,” “Grasshoppers in the Field,” “Fisherman’s Dream,” and with the addition of a “Spider Webs” in progress and a knight and dragon under construction.
Gary thematically related all these sculptures to the cultural and historical roots of western North Dakota. Nowadays, a quiet effort is a progress in Regent to widen the Enchanted Highway Gift Shop. In Regent, Greff opened a motel in 2012, called The Enchanted Castle. Also, the motel continues the Enchanted Highway theme. “Geese in Flight “is the Largest Outdoor Sculpture and won a Guinness World Record. We can also put it in the top ten roadside attractions in the US.
2 Carhenge, Alliance, Nebraska
Jim Reinders dreamed up this striking structure as the memorial to his dad, made up of cars with a heel stone, slaughter stone, and two station stones. Thirty-nine among these cars rescued from nearby farms and dumps and covered the cars with gray spray paint.
Carhenge has 39 automobiles arranged in a circle measuring the diameter of about 96 feet, situated Nebraska’s western edge of the Sandhills. But, the site contains many other artworks made from autos covered with different spray paint colors.
It opens all year long, daily, in the daylight hours. Also, it is an automotive replica of the famous UNESCO World Heritage site Stonehenge of England. The cars in this site are roughly the same shape and size of the famous rocks. Reinders contributed the monument to the Friends, and they donated this monument to the city of Alliance. So, the town of Alliance took over the maintenance and operations.
Today, people expanded the attraction of Carhenge. Because the new automotive-inspired sculptures arrived their way to this site, it became familiar as the Car Art Reserve. The site also includes a gift shop, called pit shop. This shop sells souvenirs during the months of peak summer. The circle also contains three standing trilithons. It is currently among the top ten roadside attractions for passing through the US’s Nebraska.
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1 Cabazon Dinosaurs, Cabazon, California
It is one of the US roadside attractions. But why? The dinosaurs always fascinated us. There are dinosaurs on the way to Palm Springs. The Cabazon Dinosaurs, we will find Ms. Dinny the Brontosaurus and Mr. Rex the Tyrannosaurus hovering over the freeway’s north side.
These two enormous dinosaurs made from steel and concrete, loom large over the beautiful landscape, and highway’s passersby can even see it. 150-foot-long Dinny and 65-foot-tall Rex make the roadside more attractive. Moreover, people regarded the Cabazon Dinosaurs as one of the most iconic roadside attractions.
It also the biggest Dinosaurs museum in Cabazon. Cabazon Dinosaurs’ most significant moment came when their appearance showed in the film “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.” The sculptor and portrait artist, Claude Bell, wanted to do something to promote his nearby restaurant, the Wheel Inn. Additionally, Bell stated the creation of the Cabazon dinosaurs in 1964.
People completed Dinny and Mr. Rex in 1975 and 1986, respectively. Now there is a roadside creationist museum with a gift shop inside of Dinny. This site has a fiberglass and robotic dinosaurs in an open-air museum. Mr. Rex’s Dinosaur Adventure includes a sandpit where we can experience a “dino dig, “also a dinosaur provides featuring over fifty “lifelike” dinosaurs, panning of fossil, and access to climb up inside of the mouth of Mr. Rex.
