15 Roadside Attractions That Are Worth a Stop

A hole in the wall means a place that's small and ordinary. The US roadside attractions we've gathered here are anything but that. They're about history or culture, cooking, aliens, whales or beer cans — and sometimes, they're just for fun. Don't miss them on your next road trip. They're worth a stop and a camera snap.

Open seven days a week, Hole N’ The Rock is a roadside attraction in Utah about 15 miles south of Moab. Cowboys once camped in the Hole, which was a natural cave. About a hundred years later, the Albert Christensen family decided to carve an actual home into the sandstone cliff. At 5,000 square feet, it took 20 years to complete and now includes a kitchen, bedrooms, a living area, a dining room, a 65-foot chimney, a deep bathtub and some of the family's original furnishings and paintings. Slow down as you drive by this roadside attraction or park in the free lot. For a better look, pop into the Hole and its general store, souvenir shop, trading post and petting zoo. An admission fee includes a 12-minute guided tour and a separate fee covers the petting zoo. Hiking up to the Hole takes about 10 minutes.

Hole N' The Rock is located at 11037 S. Highway 191, Monticello, Utah.

In 1948, workers triggered the first blast on Thunderhead Mountain to create the Crazy Horse Memorial. Located in the Black Hills of Custer County, South Dakota, it will eventually reach 641 feet long and 563 feet high and feature Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior, sitting on his horse and pointing to his tribal land with an outstretched arm. The non-profit Memorial Foundation behind the project doesn’t accept state or federal funding; money comes from entrance fees to the adjacent museums, gift shop purchases and private donations, but you can see the memorial free from a distance. Although it won't be finished for years, this roadside attraction is an amazing tribute to North American Indians.

Enter from US Highway 16/385 (the Crazy Horse Memorial Highway), four miles north of Custer, South Dakota. The address is 12151 Avenue of the Chiefs, Crazy Horse, South Dakota.

According to legend, a young sailor approaching the southern Jersey coast for the first time was stunned to spot a 65-foot-tall elephant on the beach of Lower Absecon Island. His captain reported it, and soon reporters and curiosity-seekers poured into Margate City, New Jersey. The elephant, made of wood and tin and later named Lucy, was no hallucination. Built by a real estate developer in 1881, the now-iconic pachyderm was a roadside attraction used to draw crowds to his properties. People have been fascinated by Lucy, listed on the National Park Registry of Historic Landmarks, ever since. Park and walk around the grounds — there's no charge — or purchase a guided tour inside Lucy to visit a small museum and peer out of her big eyes.

Lucy's address is 9200 Atlantic Ave., Margate City, New Jersey.

More than one old cemetery out West is called Boot Hill (sometimes spelled "Boothill"), but one of the most famous is in Tombstone, Arizona. That Boot Hill Graveyard holds the remains of gunfighters who “died with their boots on” and others who met violent or sudden ends. It's also the final resting place of three outlaws, Billy Clanton and brothers Frank and Tom McLaury, killed by Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers during the legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral. If you want to enter the graveyard, there's a small fee. Walk around Tombstone while you're there; nicknamed "The Town Too Tough to Die" it's been restored to depict an authentic Old West town. You can watch reenactments of gunfights (some are played for laughs), tour a silver mine, raise a glass in a saloon, shop, visit museums and learn how moviemakers have used Tombstone in their Western films.

Boot Hill Graveyard is just off Highway 80 in Tombstone. The mailing address is 408 Arizona Highway 80, Tombstone, Arizona.