The Most Iconic Landmarks of 2025
Fallingwater in Mill Run, PA | Claudia Lorusso
For Wildsam's inaugural Road Trip Awards we asked a panel of seven expert judges for the places that will make your next voyage through America unforgettable. Here, we're taking a look at Iconic Landmarks, places with historic status. bold-face importance and great stories. Bonus points if they're created by a wild-eyed visionary.
Arcadia Round Barn
A Route 66 traveler might spot this structure on promotional maps and wonder: “Really? Do I need to see another old barn?” And while, yes, it is an old shelter (more than 120 years), it’s much more in its story of farm ingenuity, architecture and weather patterns of place. Wider than a school bus is long and close to four stories tall, the barn brings roadside wow factor with its walls of native bur oak, soaked while green to bend into the cylindrical shape. Farmer William Harrison Odor believed, like others of the day, that round structures escaped the wrath of Oklahoma cyclones (and this one, indeed, has). Visitors can browse the bottom floor’s gift shop and museum and circle the outside perimeter in a futile attempt to capture its grandeur by smartphone photo. Don’t miss a climb to the loft for Saturday morning jam sessions or to look up at its plaited ceiling. It feels like standing underneath a giant woven basket.
Fallingwater
The 1937 Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece tucks into the Pennsylvania woods, perched above the tranquil rustle of a waterfall. It’s art and nature as one.
Montezuma Castle National Monument
Five stories and 20 rooms built into a limestone cliff by the Sinagua people starting in about 1100 CE show resourcefulness, tenacity and architectural genius in desert climes.
Thorncrown Chapel
Rising up from Ozark woods, the latticed wooden beams of this narrow chapel keep guests close to nature with 425 windows and 6,000 square feet of glass. Sanctuary, inside and out.
THE GLASS HOUSE
Fourteen structures on nearly 50 pastoral acres include an actual Glass House—the sleek, transparent work by renowned architect Philip Johnson housing 20th-century painting and sculpture. It’s “a masterpiece of minimalism meeting bold modernism,” says our judge Eric Kerns, “and blends seamlessly with the surrounding landscape.” Touring the grounds, Kerns says “feels like walking through a single massive work of art.” All this to say: Design enthusiasts, make that pilgrimage.
New River Gorge Bridge
So many cool bridges, so little time. This work of art—the longest steel span in the Western Hemisphere—earns the award for turning a mountainous 40-minute drive into a blink of an eye (under a minute).
nps.gov/neri/planyourvisit/nrgbridge
Ganna Walska Lotusland
Wander among the dragon trees, ferns, cacti and begonias, amid a symphony of bird song, at the lush botanic garden and estate of opera singer Madame Ganna Walska.
Sun Tunnels
This large-scale installation in Great Basin Desert is artist Nancy Holt’s endeavour to “bring the vast space of the desert back to human scale.”
Savannah Historic District
To walk the cobblestone city squares under oaks with their silvery beards of moss is an immersion into a city’s story—beautiful, challenging and a study in urban planning and preservation.
The Road Trips Awards
We scoured the map. We asked our smartest, most well-traveled friends. The results are in.
