Arizona

Titan Missile Museum, Tucson
The Titan Museum south of Tucson is very cool. All of the Titan II missile silos were destroyed under the SALT I treaty except for the one kept as a museum. The last silo is well preserved with a complete launch room and missile. The launch room is a three story tall structure hung by springs, to prevent damage from nearby nuclear explosions. A lot of taxpayer money went down these holes.

(Also see: National Atomic Museum, Albuquerque)
 

Arcosanti
A few miles outside of Phoenix is a lame hippy project from the 60's called Arcosanti. It is a bunch of ramshackle concrete buildings in the desert run by a aimless hippy commune. The project is supposed to be based on Paulo Solari's Arcology concept of packing humans into pleasant mega-structures, leaving the majority of nature alone. The actual plan for Arcosanti is not as ambitious as most urban developments. The Mall of America in Minnesota is a lot closer to an arcology than Arcosanti will ever be.

Taliesin West
OK, so Frank Lloyd Wright was a genius, a nasty egotistical self-absorbed genius. Did the Taliesen Fellowship product great architects? No. Why? because Frank Lloyd Wright himself would never have consented to be a student in such a rigid institution. Taliesen West looks like it is falling apart. Fallingwater looks like it is falling apart apart too. Wright's architecture reminds me of World's Fair Pavilions, designed for a single season, they deteriorate and look sad no matter how much you try to keep them up. I think he would be sued into oblivion for shoddy work today.

New Mexico

National Atomic Museum, Albuquerque
The Cold War was scary, there is no doubt about that. The museum has the outside of almost every nuclear weapon ever deployed by the United States including the totally nutzo Davey Crocket. The size of a big football, this thing could be fired a couple of miles from the back of a jeep. They also have the casings from two H-Bombs that were lost into the sea off Spain in the '50's and an atomic torpedo. Known as suicide fish, they couldn't be sent far enough to avoid blowing up the submarine that launched them. The atomic cannon is scary too. Before ICBM's made atomic war intercontinental the military was making useable atomic weapons.

Sandia Tramway
I took the Sandia Tramway up into the Sandia Mountains. It is a spectacular ride, far better than the Palm Springs Tramway or the one at Hakone Japan. The span from the last tower to the peak is miles long over a valley thousands of feet deep. The view from the top is nice but the ride is the highlight.