10457 Best Sights in USA

The Billy the Kid Museum houses 20,000 square feet of exhibits about the young scofflaw, as well as antique wagon trains, guns, household goods, and other artifacts of the frontier era. There's an interesting film about the Kid and the Lincoln County wars he was involved in. The museum is closed the first two weeks of January.

Built in 1848, this cast-iron 64-foot tall lighthouse survived Katrina in 2005, but it took five years and $400,000 to reopen for public tours. Today, it still represents the resilience of Biloxi's citizenry. The lighthouse is open by guided tour only, and may be closed due to bad weather. Groups should call ahead to make reservations.

If you ever wondered how shrimp get from the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico onto your plate, step on board this working shrimp boat for a revealing 70-minute boat tour. You'll ride along as crew aboard the Sailfish as it trawls for edible treasure from the Mississippi Sound, and during the trip the day's catch will be hoisted aboard for inspection, identification, and education.

Bouncing back stunningly from its dark days as an army hospital, this hotel has become the jewel of Coral Gables—a dazzling architectural gem with a colorful past. First opened in 1926, it was a hot spot for the rich and glamorous of the Jazz Age until it was converted to an army–air force regional hospital in 1942. Following World War II, the Veterans Administration continued to operate the hospital until 1968. The Biltmore then lay vacant for nearly 20 years before it underwent extensive renovations and reopened as a luxury hotel in 1987. Its 16-story tower, like the Freedom Tower in Downtown Miami, is a replica of Seville's Giralda tower. The magnificent pool is reportedly the largest hotel pool in the continental United States.  Because it functions as a full-service hotel, your ticket in—if you aren't staying here—is to patronize one of the hotel's several restaurants or bars. Try to get a courtyard table for the Sunday champagne brunch, a local legend.

Across from the main entrance to the Biltmore Estate, Biltmore Village is a highly walkable collection of restored English village–style houses dating from the turn of the 20th century, along with some newer buildings designed to blend in with the original architecture. Stroll the brick sidewalks and tree-lined streets and visit antiques stores, clothing and jewelry shops, art galleries, and restaurants.

Frank Gehry is known around the world for his architectural masterpieces. In L.A. alone he’s responsible for multiple houses and buildings like the Gehry Residence, Loyola Law School, and Walt Disney Hall. But one of his most interesting creations, completed in 1991, is the Binoculars Building, a quirky Venice spot that is exactly as advertised: a giant set of binoculars standing on their end. While you can't tour the building, you can take a clever Instagram shot out front.

In the town of Oracle, about 30 minutes northwest of Tucson, this unique, self-contained cluster of ecosystems opened in 1991 as a facility to test nature technology and human interaction with it. Now managed by the University of Arizona, the biomes include tropical rain forest, savanna, desert, thorn scrub, marsh, and ocean areas. The newest biome, the Landscape Evolutionary Observatory, tracks rainfall in simulated desert environments to study the effects of climate change on water sources and plant life in this region.

A 1-mile walking tour (given through an App with audio) takes you inside the biomes and gives an overview of Biosphere projects, from the original "human missions"—where scientists literally ate, slept, and breathed their work in a closed system—to current research. A gift shop sells souvenirs and light snacks.

Affiliated with the world-renowned Scripps Institution of Oceanography, this excellent aquarium sits at the end of a signposted drive leading off North Torrey Pines Road and has sweeping views of La Jolla coast below. More than 60 tanks are filled with colorful saltwater fish, and a 70,000-gallon tank simulates a La Jolla kelp forest. A special exhibit on seahorses features several examples of the species, plus mesmerizing sea dragons and a seahorse nursery. Besides the fish themselves, attractions include interactive educational exhibits based on the institution's ocean-related research and a variety of environmental issues.

In the Steese National Conservation Area you can take a four- to five-day or 126-mile float trip on the lively, clear-water Birch Creek, a challenge with its several rapids; Mile 94 of the Steese Highway is the access point. Along the way you should see plenty of moose, caribou, and dozens of species of birds. This stream winds its way north through the historic mining country of the Circle District. The first takeout point is the Steese Highway Bridge, 25 miles from Circle. Most people exit here to avoid the increasingly winding river and low water. From there Birch Creek meanders on to the Yukon River well below the town. Fairbanks outfitter CanoeAlaska can arrange shuttles for these trips.

Located near the mouth of West Penobscot Bay, this crescent-shape beach is well-sheltered from the wind and tends to have a mild surf well-suited to swimming and tide-pooling. Amenities: parking (fee). Best for: swimming; walking.

A Tombstone institution, known as the wildest, wickedest night spot between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast, the Bird Cage Theater is a former music hall where Enrico Caruso, Sarah Bernhardt, and Lillian Russell, among others, performed. It was also the site of the longest continuous poker game recorded: the game started when the Bird Cage opened in 1881 and lasted eight years, five months, and three days. Some of the better-known players included Diamond Jim Brady, Adolphus Busch (of brewery fame), and William Randolph Hearst's father. The cards were dealt round the clock; players had to give a 20-minute notice when they were planning to vacate their seats, because there was always a waiting list of at least 10 people ready to shell out $1,000 (the equivalent of about $30,000 today) to get in. In all, some $10 million changed hands.

When the mines closed in 1889, the Bird Cage was abandoned, but the building has remained in the hands of the same family, who threw nothing out. You can walk on the stage visited by some of the top traveling performers of the time, see the faro table once touched by the legendary gambler Doc Holliday, and the 24-karat gold-trimmed hearse that carried Tombstone's deceased to Boot Hill. The basement, which served as an upscale bordello and gambling hall, still has all the original furnishings and fixtures intact, and you can see the personal belongings left behind by the ladies of the night when the mines closed and they, and their clients, headed for California. Nightly 90-minute ghost tours ($35) are also popular.

The bird sanctuary on the southeast edge of Jungle Gardens is sometimes so thick with egrets that it appears to be blanketed with snow. The largest egret colony in the world (20,000) begins nesting here in February or March, and offspring remain until the following winter. Herons and other birds find refuge here as well. Climbing up the wooden platform to watch how groups of birds interact with one another and their surroundings is magical.

With 565 acres of lush fields, forests, swamps, and butterfly gardens, this nature center is a wondrous haven for birds and scores of other native wildlife. Miles of walking trails meander through the property, and nature programs are offered year-round. Check the website for the latest hours and program offerings.

Historians consider Birmingham the "cradle of the civil rights movement," and this museum traces African Americans' struggle for equality back to the 1800s. A series of galleries show the stark differences between blacks' and whites' daily lives over the years. The Movement Gallery focuses on dramatic episodes of the 1955–63 civil rights movement. Located in the Civil Rights district, the museum can be part of a larger tour including Kelly Ingram Park, where large civil rights demonstrations were staged, and the16th Street Baptist Church, the site of a 1960s bombing that killed four young girls.

Admission is free to three floors housing more than 25,000 paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, and decorative arts dating from ancient to modern times. Find the country’s largest museum collection of African ceramics, including 400 clay vessels and figures from across the African continent. The 4,000-object Asian collection is the largest in the Southeast. European, American, pre-Columbian, Native American, and Alabama artists are all represented here. The museum's Oscar's Cafe serves lunch Tuesday through Friday and brunch on some Sundays.

In honor of the soda's 100th anniversary in 1998, the local bottling company opened the Birthplace in the same corner store where teacher-turned-pharmacist Caleb Bradham brewed his first batch of "Brad's Drink." He later renamed it Pepsi-Cola, marketing the syrup to other soda fountains, and a conglomerate was born. This old-fashioned shop feels like a museum, with its reproduction of Bradham's fountain and exhibits of memorabilia, including the original recipe that included coriander, nutmeg, and a half gallon of alcohol. Enjoy an ice-cold bottle of Pepsi while roaming the gift shop, full of Pepsi history and souvenirs ranging from T-shirts to thimbles.

The redbrick structure this museum is housed in was built in 1897 to serve as the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Offices. The rooms today are filled with colorful exhibits, photographs, and artifacts that offer a glimpse into the everyday life of Bisbee's early mining community. The exhibit Bisbee: Urban Outpost on the Frontier paints a fascinating portrait of how this "Shady Lady" of a mining town transformed into a true mini urban center. Upstairs, the Digging In exhibit shows you everything you ever wanted to know about copper mining, including what it felt and sounded like in a mining car. This was the first rural museum in the United States to become a member of the Smithsonian Institution Affiliations Program, and it tells a story you can take with you as you wander through Bisbee's funky streets.

A short drive north of Old Faithful and accessed via an easy ⅔-mile loop stroll, this basin is also the trailhead for the Mystic Falls Trail. The namesake "biscuit" formations were reduced to crumbs when Sapphire Pool erupted after the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake. Now, Sapphire is a calm, beautiful blue pool again, but that could change at any moment.

This elaborate creation, which resembles a medieval castle replete with turrets, buttresses, and ornamental iron, is the prodigious (some might say monomaniacal) one-man undertaking of Jim Bishop, a self-taught architect who began work in 1959. Once considered a blight on pastoral Route 165, the castle is now a popular attraction. Not yet complete, it is three stories high with a nearly 165-foot tower. Those who endeavor to climb into the structure must sign the guest book–cum–liability waiver. Bishop finances this enormous endeavor through donations and a gift shop.

At this natural and cultural history museum, an aquarium focuses on manatee rehabilitation, and a first-floor gallery features fossils that tell the story of prehistoric Florida. Explore rotating exhibits on various topics; glass cases and roll-out drawers on the second floor showcase items normally out of public view. Topics covered in programs at the Bishop Planetarium (with a domed theater screen) range from black holes to the origin of life itself.

Built in 1787, this restored upper-class house embodies Colonial and Federal elegance. It was the home of Bishop William White (1748–1836), rector of Christ Church, the first Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania and spiritual leader of Philadelphia for 60 years. White, a founder of the Episcopal Church after the break with England, was chaplain to the Continental Congress and entertained many of the country's first families, including Washington and Franklin. The second-floor study still contains much of the bishop's own library. The building is currently not open to the public. 

Entering the park from the south on U.S. 385 takes you past Gobbler Ridge and into the hills commonly found in the southern Black Hills region. After a couple of miles, the landscape gently levels onto the Bison Flats, one of the mixed-grass prairies on which the park prides itself. You might see a herd of grazing bison (the park has between 450 and 550 of them) between here and the visitor center. You can also catch panoramic views of the parklands, surrounding hills, and limestone bluffs.

Dinosaurs roamed the Bisti Badlands Wilderness areas when they were part of a shallow sea some 70 million years ago. Hoodoos (mushroom-shaped rock formations in subtle shades of brown, gray, and white) lend the 45,000 acres an eerie, lunar appearance. De-Na-Zin (pronounced duh-nah-zen and named for a petroglyph found nearby) is the much larger and less visited of the two sections, and here you can find hillier and more challenging terrain, plus numerous fossils and petrified logs. At Bisti (pronounced biss-tye), you can encounter deeply eroded hoodoos whose striations represent layers of sandstone, shale, mudstone, coal, and silt. In many spots you'll climb over mounds of crumbly clay and silt that look a bit like the topping of a coffee cake (but gray). Both sections are ideal for photography, and backcountry camping is permitted—and not to be missed during a full moon, if your timing is good. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which administers the land, stipulates that you remove nothing from either area, preserving its magical appearance for those who follow. The most fascinating terrain is 2 to 3 mi from the parking areas, and there are no trails (or water facilities), so bring a compass and be alert about your surroundings and where you are in relation to the sun—it's relatively easy to get lost in this vast, incredible place. And how 'bout bringing some more water?

From the viewing platforms along the 8½-mile self-guided tour at the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, you can watch for snow geese, sandhill cranes, and other exotic birds, along with more-familiar species.

In a town dominated by beer, craft ciders offer a refreshing alternative to the typical IPA. True to its name, Bivouac's design incorporates an open front and an interior seemingly held together by ropes—the rear table with suspended bench seating is a favorite of larger parties. Cider aficionados and newcomers alike can sample a wide range of styles through customizable flights, while skeptics can stick to the selection of wine, craft beer, and craft cocktails. When it's time to eat, look for comfort food and shared plates on the eclectic menu. Check out Bivouac's sprawling sister business next door, the Adventure Lodge, with a general store, cider bar, coffee shop, and open seating.

Guided 45-minute tours take you past stalactites, stalagmites, and rare formations of delicate helictites in three underground chambers, one of which also contains a lake. Black Chasm isn't the largest cave in the Gold Country, but its crystals dazzle both eye and camera—the Landmark Chamber, the tour's third stop, inspired a scene in the 2003 film The Matrix Reloaded. Outside is an area where kids can "pan" for crystals.  The same outfit also conducts tours of California Cavern State Historic Landmark, 32 miles south of Volcano, though the days open are less regular.

On the north side of the historic part of town is the 26-foot-high Black Eagle Falls, one of the places where the Missouri River takes a sharp dive on its 500-foot descent through town. A pedestrian bridge from the parking area leading to an island alongside the falls makes a nice place to watch birds. The adjacent golf courses and baseball diamond give the area plenty of green space, but it's hard not to notice the concrete dam looming above.

Surrounded by water on three sides, Black Falcon Pier is a stop on Boston's Harborwalk that seekers of amazing views won't want to miss. There's not much to do out this way at the end of the Seaport District except gaze at the fishing vessels, barges, and cruise ships navigating the inner harbor. However, lots of visitors find themselves out this way as Black Falcon Pier is home to Flynn Cruiseport Boston, where major cruise ships dock daily with Boston as a port of call.