Feel

(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: MARCH/APRIL 2005)

Feel your breath vanish, your face flatten, and your stomach drop to your knees as you rocket from zero to a record-setting 120 mph on the Top Thrill Dragster, in four seconds flat. Hold on. You’re headed for a terrifying joyride of 90-degree twists and turns that tops out 42 stories above Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. The park boasts more "scream machines" than any place, anywhere. (419/627-2350; www.cedarpoint.com)

Feel, with your bare feet, the smooth, slippery rocks that mark the beginning of the Mississippi River. After Lake Itasca's waters flow over this strip of stones, they officially become the great river, wade-able and a mere 12 feet wide here. (218/266-2100; www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/itasca)

Feel the crystalline spring-fed waters of Jacks Fork River in southeastern Missouri coat your fingertips as they lazily dangle from your inner tube. Don't forget to face eyes-up once in awhile. Breathtaking Ozark Mountain bluffs tower on either bank of this stretch of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, America's very first. (573/323-4236; www.nps.gov/ozar)

Feel the ground rumble and shake as more than 1,500 buffalo thunder into a Custer State Park prairie valley in South Dakota. On the first Monday morning of each October, cowboys and cowgirls round up one of America's largest publicly owned bison herds in a few magnificent, dust-filled minutes. (605/255-4515; www.custerstatepark.info)

Feel the oh-so-subtle swaying of 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere, as you drive between Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas on a windy day. Below the Mighty Mac, Lakes Michigan and Huron meet in the Straits of Mackinac. The swaying seems decidedly less subtle on foot, a crossing style allowed during the Annual Bridge Walk, held each Labor Day. (906/643-7600; www.mackinacbridge.org)

Feel the grass-covered, packed- dirt ruts pounded down by the hundreds of thousands of wagon wheels and animal hooves on the Santa Fe Trail. During the mid-1800s, travelers headed south with goods to trade and north with gold and silver. They trampled these 900 miles between Missouri and New Mexico (still Mexico then). Today, one of the longest continuous and most clearly defined stretches is the nearly two-mile section of the trail nine miles west of Dodge City, Kansas. (620/227-1616; www.ksheritage.org)

Feel your footing shift beneath you as you huff your way up Mount Baldy sand dune's 123 feet. If that doesn't sound like much of a climb, trust us: The highest point in the Indiana Dunes National Lake-shore makes you work for the stunning view waiting at the top. (219/926-7561 x225; www.nps.gov/indu)

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