House on the Rock

Alex Jordan began building on Deer Shelter Rock in the 1940s and kept going for decades, adding rooms and then whole buildings full of collections - much of which he had made rather than acquired, so the antique automated orchestras play by compressed air with no musicians and many of the antiques are constructions. The Infinity Room is a glass corridor cantilevered about forty-five metres out over the valley with no support at its end, and it moves. The Carousel Room holds a machine with over two hundred figures, none of them horses, and thousands of lights - claimed as the largest indoor carousel in the world, and nobody is permitted to ride it. A model whale-like sea creature about sixty metres long fills another hall.

What you actually see

• The Infinity Room - forty-five metres unsupported over the valley.
• A carousel of over two hundred figures - no horses, and no riding.
• A sixty-metre sea creature - filling its own hall.
• Automated orchestras - playing by compressed air, mostly built not collected.

When to go

May to October; parts close in winter. A full day.

Honest expectations

It is enormous - the full route is several kilometres of walking indoors. Many exhibits are not what they present themselves as, which some visitors find off-putting and others find the point. Tickets by section add up. It overwhelms children and some adults.

Nearby

Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home, is a few kilometres north.