Read about this breathtaking wonder and its many charms in the July/August issue. Photograph by David Alan Harvey

In the July/August Issue

Hint: We climb rapidly out of a palm-graced coastal city into a realm of high ridges and forests, with false-fronted towns, Spanish missions, Native American reservations, old gold mines, and hot mineral spas. Then we ease on into the vast spaces of a cactus-dotted desert cut by emigrant trails and boasting a mountain range still rising up along a precariously active fault zone.

Read about this tucked-away area, whose deep, dark forests resemble the setting of the 1999 thriller The Blair Witch Project, in the October issue. Photograph by Gail Mooney

In the October Issue

Hint: Take local legends about strange, reclusive folks living deep in the dark cedar forests and near the cranberry bogs and add in the mystery of a hideous monster that’s said to haunt these barren, sandy wastes. For something a little lighter, add a scattering of lovely lakes, hiking trails through silent pine forests, and a superbly preserved historic village set by a winding river.

—David Yeadon

David Yeadon is a TRAVELER contributing editor and our Hidden America series guide. He kicked off the series in our April issue with a story on Vinalhaven, Maine.