Interesting Sites

BillandKathy · March 22, 2017

Two weeks ago we were at Carlsbad Caverns. Yesterday we learned that a day away were locations relating to Billy The Kid and Smokey Bear that we would have enjoyed visiting. There have been other places near where we were that had interesting places to see that we didn’t know about.

Is there a site or an app that has info about unusual places to see? Maybe enter in your location to see what’s near.

rynosback · March 22, 2017

Depends on what things interest you. Like corky things, historical, hiking trails, fishing, shopping, great places to eat. A lot of what we find is taking the time Googling the web. We also ask locals and stop by visitors centers/welcome centers. Sometimes you miss stuff because of not knowing or it is an event that happens during a certain time of the year.

I like going to

http://www.factorytoursusa.com/

http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/

http://quirkytravelguy.com/state-by-state/

http://www.atlasobscura.com/

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/

https://www.google.com/

We always find something a day away from us that interests us. That is why we are thinking that it will take 10 plus years to tour around the US. And we will still miss things.

SWharton · March 22, 2017

There are many sites to find info it is just knowing the sites.

We use www.roadtrippers.com which has a wealth of information, the site just goes on and on. Enjoy!

kayakbob · March 22, 2017

Smokey the Bear museum is wonderful , lots to the story !

trailertraveler · March 22, 2017

Here is a list of websites I use:

National Parks,

National Wildlife Rufuges,

State Parks,

Scenic Byways,

National Historic Trails,

Native American Ruins,

Factory Tours,

Waterfalls,

Scenic Railroads, State Fairs,

Lighthouses,

Breweries in the United States

Wineries in the United States,

Trip Advisor

State Tourism Websites

Frommers Guide

Fairs and Festivals

More Fairs & Festivals

Scenic USA

Road Trippers

The POI Factory and Discovery Owners Forum have POI databases of many different types of attractions that can be download to a mapping program or GPS and then can be displayed or accessed to show what is near your location or route.

dirtyboots · March 25, 2017

Today I'm in Alamo, NV....knew I wanted to see the Wildlife Refuge here, but had no idea there were so many other sites to see. I visited the local County site: http://lincolncountynevada.com/map/ and within a few miles I can visit an old rail station (Caliente, NV), ghost towns, mining sites and more. And, yes, I when I leave the area I'm heading to Rachel....

bruce t · March 25, 2017

I always look up Wikipedia for the town we are in. That usually gives a quick indication of the history and what maybe around.

regards

LindaH · March 25, 2017

13 hours ago, dirtyboots said:

Today I'm in Alamo, NV....knew I wanted to see the Wildlife Refuge here, but had no idea there were so many other sites to see. I visited the local County site: http://lincolncountynevada.com/map/ and within a few miles I can visit an old rail station (Caliente, NV), ghost towns, mining sites and more. And, yes, I when I leave the area I'm heading to Rachel....

That's one of our favorite areas of Nevada!

Pioche has a free city RV park with water and sewer where you can stay for up to seven days (they do ask for a donation). Pioche also has the Million Dollar Courthouse which makes for an interesting tour.

In Rachel, be sure to eat at the Little A'Le'Inn. The food isn't anything out of the ordinary, but it's interesting to walk around looking at all the Area 51 and alien stuff they have on the walls...and above the bar hangs hundreds of dollar bills!

rynosback · March 25, 2017

1 hour ago, LindaH said:

That's one of our favorite areas of Nevada!

Pioche has a free city RV park with water and sewer where you can stay for up to seven days (they do ask for a donation). Pioche also has the Million Dollar Courthouse which makes for an interesting tour.

In Rachel, be sure to eat at the Little A'Le'Inn. The food isn't anything out of the ordinary, but it's interesting to walk around looking at all the Area 51 and alien stuff they have on the walls...and above the bar hangs hundreds of dollar bills!

I Love city parks and FREE is a HUGE bonus.

MadeItToFT · March 25, 2017

Besides some of the links already mentioned we check travel and tourism for the state/areas as well over many years of reading many forums and blogs, we have noted places others have referenced of interest. We keep a spreadsheet, and list state by state, province by province and then broke down into region and nearest city/towns, and keep a note of interest and approximate time frame needed to stay to enjoy. It's amazing how many little places of interest we've stumbled upon from others write ups and blogs, we would never have known about and missed.

As well, when in an area we ask a lot of locals "where would you take/send me if you were my tourist guide". Local knowledge is some of the best we've found, except in some areas the visitor centre's staff have promoted somethings as great that really were awful ie; fishing bridges (no longer there), fantastic local Sunday market (had only 5 stalls selling food, home made jewellery and biz promo).

Sure we like experiencing traditional to the area local foods, but we find now most Travel & Tourism sites/brochures for areas just promote too many eateries and hotels, rather than things of interest when visiting an area, so locals are the best source for the most part.

dartmouth01 · March 29, 2017

On 3/24/2017 at 5:41 PM, dirtyboots said:

Today I'm in Alamo, NV....knew I wanted to see the Wildlife Refuge here, but had no idea there were so many other sites to see. I visited the local County site: http://lincolncountynevada.com/map/ and within a few miles I can visit an old rail station (Caliente, NV), ghost towns, mining sites and more. And, yes, I when I leave the area I'm heading to Rachel....

Good timing on this thread! Currently in Las Vegas, and next big stop will be Reno. Was thinking of going via Great Basin NP, and saw that Alamo is on the way. Would love to hear of more cool spots to visit in the area (PM me if you'd like?)!

2gypsies · March 29, 2017

When we go to a specific point of interest we always investigate the small surrounding towns to see if anything interests us. We cover a 50-100-miles radius to explore while we're in the area. We use many sources to find things - Google the town, local visitor centers, talking to the locals but most of all - taking a good paper map where many things are listed. For the western states we relied on the Benchmark series of state atlases. They have many natural areas marked such as caves, wildlife refuges, state and national parks and monuments, public campgrounds, BLM lands, national forest lands, etc. If you return to one particular state a season it's worth purchasing one of the atlases.