#5: The Las Vegas Strip in Nevada
From one casino entrance, the next hotel appears close enough for a casual stroll. Twenty minutes later, the destination still seems to be ahead, the sidewalk has crossed several driveways, and mirrored towers are returning sunlight from every direction. The Strip creates its own scale, with enormous buildings making distances hard to judge. Las Vegas summers routinely reach triple digits because the surrounding mountains limit Pacific moisture and the desert sky provides abundant sunshine.
