Badlands and Black Hills, South Dakota

The Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota don't just sound cool, they are cool. Home to lush forests, martian-like landscapes and mixed-grass prairie lands, there's plenty of hiking, biking and exploring to do. The region is also ideal for stargazing due to its dark skies and wide open spaces. Park rangers run the Night Sky Program, helping visitors catch a glimpse of the more than 7,500 stars that light up the otherworldly landscape. There’s even an annual Badlands Astronomy Festival, which is scheduled (for now) in August. The area is also home to Mammoth Site, the world's largest mammoth research facility, where visitors can tour an active paleontological dig site. The fossils are the remains of two mammoth species - Columbian and woolly - who roamed the area's warm artesian-fed springs, but were trapped in a sinkhole 140,000 years ago and met their demise. You’ll also want to see Crazy Horse Memorial, which will be the largest mountain carving in the world — once it’s completed, that is. Polish-American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski began work on this monument to the Oglala Lakota leader in 1948, after getting into an argument while working on Mount Rushmore (only 17 miles away). Four of Ziolkowski’s children and 23 of his grandchildren are working on the sculpture to this day. And if that’s not exciting enough, there’s a multimedia laser light show presented nightly at the memorial.