As a college student in the environmental sciences, I toured an awful lot of facilities and parks.<p>Outdoors, we visited national and state parks, national forests, wastewater treatment ponds, community farms, private hobby farms, ranches, zoos, renewables projects, and more -- from both the visitor's side and also from a behind the scenes perspective, talking to the employees and owners there about how they work.<p>Indoors, we went to aquariums, landfills and transfer stations, sewage processors, high efficiency refrigerator manufacturing shops, private net-zero energy homes, schools, museums, city councils, public meetings, arboretums, barns, and whatnot.<p>It was a good swath of the parts of society that touch the environment and outdoor recreation, and profoundly shaped how I view Americana and rural areas in particular. No longer were they globs of indistinguishable wastelands, but filled with interesting (if sparsely populated) peoples and functions that operate largely beneath the radar, unknown to most of the country. That was especially the case after having spent time in the Silicon Valley tech and strip mall bubble.<p>Most places in my experience would be happy to organize a group tour like that if you just ask nicely (I ran a few). Totally worth it.