3966 Best Sights in USA

Incorporating elements from Ogden's original 1870s train depot that was destroyed by a fire in 1923, the impressive Spanish Revival replacement has been developed into a landmark cultural center with two art galleries and four diverse museums. The Browning Firearms Museum celebrates the many achievements of the museum's namesake and showcases the sporting and military firearms that were popular in the Old West before Browning formed his own company. The Browning–Kimball Classic Car Museum pays tribute to the golden age of automobiles with a small but dazzling collection of restored cars from the first half of the 20th century. The Utah State Railroad Museum thrills train enthusiasts with its meandering exhibits detailing all phases of Utah's railroad history; a highlight is the outdoor Eccles Rail Center, which includes half a dozen restored train cars. The smallest museum of the bunch, the Utah Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, features the Utah Cowboy Hall of Fame and honors artists, rodeo champions, entertainers, musicians, ranchers, and writers who have promoted the Western lifestyle. The Myra Powell Gallery mounts monthly photography exhibits, while the Gallery at the Station showcases local art in an enclosed passenger platform.

Also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial, it is inspired by the iconic photograph taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The memorial depicts six marines raising the current U.S. flag and honors all U.S. Marine Corps personnel whose lives were lost since 1775. It's a 15-minute walk from the Metro station at Arlington National Cemetery, some of it uphill.

Thousands of minerals and jewels from around the world, with a focus on those from Arizona and Mexico, are on display at this newly opened museum. The university's vast collection---including a massive quartz geode and a rare tapestry made of diamonds, gold, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds---can be seen here. You can also learn about the process of extracting minerals from rocks, as well as the university's collaborative research project with NASA that involves collecting and analyzing mineral samples from asteroids.

Thanks to Berkeley's temperate climate, more than 10,000 types of plants from all corners of the world flourish in the 34-acre University of California Botanical Garden. Free garden tours are given regularly with paid admission. Benches and shady picnic tables make this a relaxing place for a snack with a breathtaking view. Call or go online before you travel to reserve your visit.

A top research university, UC Davis educates many Wine Country vintners and grape growers. Top majors include psychology, biological science, and economics. Campus tours depart from the welcome center, near the Mondavi Center, a striking modern glass structure that presents top-tier performing artists. Other worthy stops include the Arboretum and the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

UConn's large, sprawling main campus offers lots for visitors to see and do. The William Benton Museum of Art's permanent collection includes centuries-old European and American paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and sculptures, and the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts presents a series of 25--30 music, dance, and theater programs during the academic year. The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry has more than 2,500 puppets on display (UConn is one of two colleges in the country that offer a puppetry degree); and, depending on the season, you might catch a Connecticut Huskies football game at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, or watch the amazing national championship-winning men's and women's basketball teams play at home in Storrs.

The Morgan horse, Vermont's official state animal, has an even temper, high stamina, and slightly truncated legs in proportion to its body. This farm, about 2½ miles west of Middlebury, is a breeding and training center where in summer you can tour the stables and paddocks.

The Anthropology Museum at the university takes visitors on a journey through human evolution, starting in Africa millions of years ago. Part of the museum also celebrates hunter-gatherer societies throughout world history.

Kids especially enjoy looking at the butterflies, mosquitoes, and other crawling and flying critters at the Insect Gallery at UW. The collection includes preserved insects, as well as a small zoo of live ones.

This Smithsonian-affiliated museum gives a visual portrait of the history of the 15 counties of the South Carolina Upstate, including life-size dioramas. There are two floors of interactive displays and a small theater where special programs are regularly presented.

One of the most notable things about this popular beach is the series of large objects that look like yellow school buses buried in the sand. These are actually designed to stabilize the shoreline (this beach is known for rapid erosion). The structures, called T-groins, may not please the eye, but that doesn't keep locals from flocking here. Upham is a wide beach with tons of natural landscaping, and it's near Postcard Inn and the TradeWinds. There's a snack bar that slings burgers and beer at its north end. Amenities: food and drink; showers; toilets. Best for: partiers; sunset; swimming; walking.

Easily the fastest growing brewery in the region, Urban South sells its Holy Roller IPA (a juicy New England–style) and the extremely popular Paradise Park lager (a light beer adored for its colorful can design) all over town. Stop by the large warehouse taproom for more playful and interesting specials, with everything from triple and grapefruit IPAs to Juvie Juice, a hard iced tea collaboration with Rapper Juvenile. Keep an eye out for crawfish pop-ups during spring.

You can tour this 307-foot-long Balao-class submarine (with a "guppy" conversion), that was launched in 1944 and conducted search-and-destroy missions in the South Pacific. A free audio tour, available with the price of admission, tells amazing stories of what life was like for a crew of 80 men, at sea for months at a time, in these claustrophobic quarters. Then you can step through the narrow walkways, climb the ladders, and glimpse the torpedoes in their firing chambers. Tickets are available at the Independence Seaport Museum.

Launched in 1854, the USS Constellation was the last—and largest—all-sail ship built by the U.S. Navy. Before the Civil War, as part of the African Squadron, she saw service on antislavery patrol; during the war, she protected Union-sympathizing U.S. merchant ships from Confederate raiders. The warship eventually became a training ship for the Navy before serving as the relief flagship for the Atlantic Fleet during World War II, finally arriving in Baltimore in 1955 for restoration to her original condition. You can tour the USS Constellation for a glimpse of life as a 19th-century navy sailor, and children can muster to become Civil War–era "powder monkeys." Recruits receive "basic training," try on replica period uniforms, participate in a gun drill, and learn a sea chantey or two before being discharged and paid off in Civil War money at the end of their "cruise." Purchase single admission to the Constellation or combined admission to the two other Historic Ships and restored lighthouse. At this writing the ship will head to drydock to undergo repairs from October 2014 to March, 2015.

Commodore George Dewey's flagship at the Battle of Manila in the Spanish-American War is the oldest still-afloat steel warship in the world. Dewey entered Manila Harbor after midnight on May 1, 1898. At 5:40 am he told his captain, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley," and by 12:30 they had destroyed the entire Spanish fleet. You can tour the entire restored ship, including the officers' staterooms, galley, gun batteries, and pilothouse. Admission is included with your ticket to the Independence Seaport Museum.

This 1958 Navy destroyer, berthed along the marina near the ferry docks, is open for self-guided tours. Allow between one and two hours to walk through the narrow passages to view the cafeteria, medical office, barbershop, prison cell, cramped bunk rooms, and captain's quarters. Navy veterans are often on hand to answer questions and talk about what it would have been like to sail aboard this impressive ship.

Each year, from late August through early September, approximately 1 million fans come here for the U.S. Open, which claims the title of highest-attended annual sporting event in the world. The rest of the year, the 34 courts (19 outdoor and 12 indoor, all DecoTurf, plus three stadium courts) are open to the public for $40–$80 hourly. Ball machine rentals are also available for $18 per hour. Make reservations up to two days in advance. Parking is free but limited.

A brick building in the historic Main Street district houses four floors of hands-on exhibits for all ages. There's a Dinorama, with dinosaur models and fossils, and a Weather Room, with Doppler radar. Kiddies can walk into a replica Iroquois longhouse, don firefighting gear, and pretend to fly a 17-foot-long airplane. Outside you can explore the inside of an old Adirondack locomotive, dining car, and caboose parked alongside the building.

Siberian tigers, Alaskan grizzly bears, and California sea lions are some of the 200 animals that reside in this city park with views of the Mohawk Valley. A petting zoo and live animal shows are options in summer.

Located between the Alamodome and the Tower of the Americas, this fascinating museum features 65,000 square feet of exhibits that focus on the major cultural groups who made Texas what it is today. Exhibits explore the customs, traditions, food, music, and ways of life of the many people who came to define the Texan identity. Highlights include a re-created sharecropper's house, a cowboys and cattle drives exhibit, large-scale murals depicting Native American cultures, and an in-depth Tejano exhibit on the intersection of Spanish and Indigenous peoples that birthed a new culture.

This nature center occupies a 1940s homestead just across from the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens. In summer, you can sign up for wildflower walks, morning birding expeditions, evening beaver-pond tours, and the "S'mores and More" family campfire program.

The museum has two sections, the Egan and the Hazelet, named after their respective streets. The highlights of the museum at 436 S. Hazelet include a 35- by 40-foot model of what Old Town looked like before the 1964 earthquake and artifacts of the historic event that registered 9.5 on the Richter scale. An award-winning film that screens often describes the quake. Two blocks away, the 217 Egan site explores the lives, livelihoods, and events significant to Valdez and surrounding regions. On display are a restored 1880s Gleason & Bailey hand-pump fire engine, a 1907 Ahrens steam fire engine, and a 19th-century saloon, and there are exhibits about local Alaska Native culture, early explorers, bush pilots, and the 1989 oil spill. Every summer the museum hosts an exhibit of quilts and fiber arts made by local and regional artisans, and other exhibits are presented seasonally.

Don't judge a book by its cover: what's inside this very ordinary-looking building is extraordinary. Operated mostly through the efforts of an enthusiastic team of volunteers, the museum has an impressive collection of memorabilia and aircraft from World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam and more recent conflicts, as well as extensive displays of vintage military flying gear and uniforms. There are posters that were used to help identify Japanese planes, plus a Huey helicopter and the cockpit of an F-106 that you can sit in. In the north hangar a group of dedicated aviation volunteers busily restores old planes. It's an inspiring sight, and a good place to hear some war stories. In the spring the museum puts on the Tico Warbird Airshow, featuring fighter and bomber aircraft that formerly flew in combat around the world. The lobby gift shop sells real flight suits, old flight magazines, bomber jackets, books, models, and T-shirts.

Learn about Yosemite Valley's geology, vegetation, and human inhabitants at this visitor center, which is also staffed with helpful rangers and contains a bookstore with a wide selection of books and maps. A 23-minute film, Spirit of Yosemite, plays every half hour in the theater near the visitor center.

Best known for its quiet beach, a prime diving spot, this park is also popular with day hikers. A ¼-mile stroll on a boardwalk leads to the bizarre Pygmy Forest, where acidic soil and poor drainage have produced mature cypress and pine trees no taller than a person. Hike the moderate 4¼-mile Pygmy Forest and Fern Canyon Loop past the forest and sword ferns that grow as tall as 4 feet. The visitor center has displays on ocean life and the historical significance of the redwood lumber industry along the coast.

Heavenly Gondola cars glide above this 756-acre day-use-only park that straddles the California–Nevada border steps south of Heavenly Village. Several trails wind up the mountain to sigh-worthy vistas. Colorful spring wildflowers and fall foliage provide further incentive to bring a picnic and hike, bike, or ride horseback. The park's Rim Trail Connector leads to the Tahoe Rim Trail, which for more than 165 miles follows the ridge lines of the mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe.

More than 300 acres of Vanderbilt University's campus is a designated arboretum, with more than 6,000 trees, that can be explored using self-guided tours available via smartphone. Numerous trees have plaques that tell visitors the story of their ecological and historical significance, while others have QR codes that visitors can scan with their phones to learn more about a specific species. Visit the website for specific tour information and start locations.

If a day at the shore just doesn't seem quite complete without a piña colada and serious people-watching, then this beach is for you. Its white powdery sand often looks like a kaleidoscope, with multihued towels and umbrellas dotting the landscape in front of the nearly 3 miles of tony north Naples condos and luxe resorts. If you walk far enough—which many people do—you'll come across the architecturally stunning mega-mansions of Bay Colony perched up on the dunes. A covered public parking garage allows for easy access to this beach, which really comes alive at sunset with onlookers. Amenities: food and drink; parking (fee); showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: partiers; sunsets; walking.

Taste wines by famed local vintner Steve Clifton (known for his Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Italian varietals like Barbera), feast on lunch and snacks at the on-site restaurant, and visit with farm animals (chickens, goats, llamas, sheep, miniature donkeys, and more) at this family-oriented tasting room, farm stand, and event center at an historic estate, established in 1853. If the weather’s balmy, sit on the patio overlooking the vineyard and listen to live music, which typically plays on weekends.

Sculpted from a rock quarry in 1923 and fed by artesian wells, this 820,000-gallon municipal pool remains quite popular because of its themed architecture—a fantasy version of a waterfront Italian village—created by Denman Fink. The pool has earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places and showcases a nice collection of vintage photos depicting 1920s beauty pageants and swank soirées held long ago. Paul Whiteman played here. Johnny Weissmuller and Esther Williams swam here, and you should, too (note: children must be at least 3 years old and 38 inches tall). A snack bar, lockers, and showers make these historic splash grounds user friendly as well, and there's free parking across De Soto Boulevard. Call before visiting to confirm that renovations (which closed the pool in late 2022 through early 2023) are complete.