10405 Best Sights in USA

So Cleveland's terrain isn't exactly alpine, but the guides here take all comers to rocky outcrops in the Cleveland Metroparks. Outdoor dates are limited to the summer, but the indoor facility, with its indoor top rope climbing wall, bouldering area, and weight-lifting equipment, is open year-round. Rental equipment and classes are available. The gym is a 10-minute drive from downtown Cleveland.

At the junction of NM 434 and NM 518, make a right and head a couple of miles north to Cleveland Roller Mill Museum, a fixture in Mora Valley, which served as the region's main flour mill in the late 1800s. Milling demonstrations are held over the Labor Day Millfest, and in summer you can visit the artists' cooperative, where local artisans sell their sculpture, weaving, jewelry, and other crafts. The museum is run by the proprietors of surrounding Cassidy Farms, a nursery specializing in native conifers and shrubs.

Paleontologists and geologists have excavated more than 12,000 dinosaur bones from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, making this the densest concentration of Jurassic fossils ever found. Since the quarry's discovery by herders in the 1920s, scores of dinosaur remains have been uncovered here, and much of what the world knows about the Allosaurus was discovered on these grounds. Although many of the bones found in the quarry now reside in museums around the world, a trip to the remote landscape surrounding the quarry pit is worth the journey. Paleontologists still come here for digs every year. The visitor center, which generates its own electricity from rooftop solar panels, has a reconstructed dinosaur skeleton and exhibits about the quarry, and the area has some short hiking trails. The center is 15 miles on a gravel road from the nearest services, so bring food and water and dress for desert conditions. It's 33 miles south of Price: take Highway 10 south to the Cleveland/Elmo turnoff and follow the signs.

There's free admission for ages 15 and younger.

Detailing city history, the Clewiston Museum tells stories not only of Big Sugar and the Herbert Hoover Dike construction, but also of the World War II British Royal Air Force pilots training at the Clewiston airfield. Artifacts from the Seminole tribe and even fossils found by a local paleontologist are on display, too. Historical ecotours are held on Friday 9–4:30 ($25) and include bird-watching, lunch, and a tour through the museum and nearby Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Museum.

Cycling trips through the Italian wine country inspired Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford, best known for the Clif energy bar, to establish a Howell Mountain winery and certified organic farm whose bounty they share at two valley-floor spaces. Sessions at the Main Street tasting room center on current releases paired with small bites. A block west at the Enoteca Private Tasting Salon ( 1334 Vidovich Ave.), the culinary team prepares bites for the elevated Cima experience. The estate Cabernet Sauvignons featured at the Enoteca tastings, which include the splendid Pane e Vino lunch, show winemaker Laura Barrett at her most nuanced, but she crafts whites, a Grenache rosé, and reds for all palates.

Little wonder that the farthest island from Portland served by ferry service is also the most secluded and natural. Roads are unpaved, and most of the woods and beaches here are conservation land. Food isn't always easy to find here; there is only one store, and hours can be limited, so bring a lunch if you're looking to picnic. If a beach is on your agenda, head toward Stone Beach for great views of the nearby islands.

At this picnic area, there are several wooden tables under shade trees, plus restrooms, but no running water. The area is wheelchair accessible, although the nearby Cliff Palace dwellings are not.

This ½-mile loop winds through a wooded prairie oasis in the middle of dry, rocky ridges and climbs 200 feet to a peak above White River Valley for an incomparable view. Look for chipmunks, squirrels, and red-winged blackbirds and eagles, hawks, and vultures at hilltop. Even casual hikers can complete this trail in far less than an hour, but if you want to observe the true diversity of wildlife present here, stay longer. Moderate.

An easy 1-mile (round-trip), one-hour walk near Cape Royal, Cliff Spring Trail leads through a forested ravine to an excellent view of the canyon. The trailhead begins at the Cape Royal parking lot, across from Angels Window Overlook. Narrow and precarious in spots, it passes ancient dwellings, winds beneath a limestone overhang, and ends at Cliff Springs.  Do not drink the water. Easy.

The Grandview section of the park is home to an outdoor theater for seasonal productions put on by Theatre West Virginia. Founded in 1955, performances aim to share the culture of West Virginia, including such musical productions as Hatfields and McCoys and Honey in the Rock.

The roof of Seattle's major arena dates from the 1962 World's Fair, but everything beneath it is the product of a $1.15 billion rebuild completed in 2021. The only way to see the inside is to attend an event—it's home to Seattle's WNBA and NHL teams and hosts concert throughout the year. If you do, you're likely to be impressed by its features including a spectacular entrance with 50-foot-tall windows, 39 plant species spread over a 1,700-square-foot "living wall," and more LED lights than in any other arena in the world.

Picnicking and fishing are popular at this 9-acre rest area commanding scenic views on the Deschutes River.

Each year, this clinic cares for and rehabilitates more than 5,000 wildlife patients, from bald eagles to loggerhead sea turtles. The center offers a look inside the world of wildlife medicine through exhibits, videos, interactive displays, touch screens, and critter cams that feed live footage from four different animal spaces. Wildlife walks give a behind-the-scenes look and can be reserved for $25 per person. This is an excellent facility, but the displays may be too graphic for young visitors.

Seyval blanc is the specialty of this family-run operation housed in an 1800s converted barn. The owner, when he's around and about, conducts tours himself, displaying wit, style, and a passion for wines and winemaking.

Searching worldwide in the early 1970s for the best non-European site to grow Cabernet, this French-owned outfit's founding winemaker selected land now called Hirondelle Vineyard. He chose well: Clos du Val (in French, "small vineyard of a small valley") built its reputation on intense Cabernet Sauvignon grown on the Stags Leap District estate. Grapes for a Cabernet Franc and the much-praised Yettalil Bordeaux-style red blend also come from Hirondelle, the French word for "swallow," a bird species prevalent here. Guests sample these wines and others in a glass-fronted vineyard's-edge hospitality center. Hosts retract the windows in good weather, unifying the tasting room and adjoining patio.

Claes Oldenburg's 45-foot-high, 10-ton steel sculpture stands in front of the Center Square Building, above one of the entrances to SEPTA's City Hall subway station. Lauded by some and scorned by others, this pop-art piece contrasts with the traditional statuary so common in Philadelphia.

Operated by the History Museum of Mobile, this new branch, which opened in 2023 in a newly constructed building in the Africatown historic area of Mobile, tells the story of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship, which sailed into Mobile Bay with 110 enslaved people in 1860, more than 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade had been outlawed. The wreck of the ship itself was discovered in the Mobile River only in 2019, and the museum includes many artifacts that were found and preserved from the wreck. But the exhibit mostly focuses on the lives of the 110 people who survived the sailing (and their descendants), who eventually made their homes as free people in Mobile's Africatown. Because of the size of the facility, advance reservations are required and walk-ins are not allowed.

The highest road-access overlook on the Crater Lake rim, Cloudcap has a westward view (best enjoyed in the morning) across the lake to Wizard Island and an eastward view of Mt. Scott, the volcanic cone that is the park's highest point.

At this 3,538-acre park you can see firsthand the unusual geology of this remote part of northwestern Georgia. Hike down the canyon, which drops 1,100 feet from the rim, and you're literally walking through millions of years of geologic time. If you make it all the way to the bottom—the trail totals 4 miles—you'll be rewarded with sights of two waterfalls. There are great tent and RV camping sites here, as well as cottages and yurts.

Built in 1712, this house (whose name rhymes with "fluff") is now the only local survivor of its era aside from Old North Church, which stands nearby. Picture the streets lined with houses such as this, with an occasional grander Georgian mansion and some modest wooden-frame survivors of old Boston's many fires—this is what the North End looked like when Paul Revere was young. Today, Clough House is home to two new attractions: the Printing Office of Edes & Gill, which offers visitors live Colonial-printing demonstrations, and Heritage Goods + Gifts, a shop dedicated to New England artisans and small businesses with a special focus on locally made products from BIPOC- and women-owned businesses.

A claw-foot tub overflowing with Old Hollywood Ginn bottles recalls the era of speakeasies and bootleg hooch at the storefront tasting room of Napa's first distillery since Prohibition. Engaging staffers maintain a partylike mood, dispensing boozy tidbits—like why gin is spelled "ginn"—along with cocktails and flights of fruit-based spirits. The distillery's products include rum, whiskeys, the flagship grape-based vodka, brandies, and bottled cocktails. The whiskeys and rum aren't poured here, but you can taste them down the street at the same-owned The ArBaretum cocktail bar or, when it reopens following renovations, at the distillery itself.

Though he showed very little of his work and sold even less during his lifetime, artist Clyfford Still has nonetheless been credited as a significant contributor to the abstract expressionist movement, if not one of the most instrumental in its development. The vast majority of his extensive body of work had been sealed from the public since his death in 1980, but in 2004 his second wife chose Denver as the final resting place for a carefully curated portion—a little more than a hundred works of the more than 2,400 pieces, including paintings, drawings, and sculptures. The nine galleries reveal Still's progression in chronological displays, and true to Still's wishes, it offers no restaurant. Periodically, the museum refreshes the works on display to present a new side of the artist's vision.

Half this museum set inside converted vintage downtown storefronts houses a collection of works by renowned painter John Clymer (1907–89), an Ellensburg native who was one of the most widely published illustrators of the American West, focusing many of his oils and watercolors on wildlife and indigenous culture. The other galleries mount rotating exhibitions featuring other established and emerging Western and wildlife artists.

To glimpse how the desert looked before development, head 14 miles northeast of Indio to this 20,000-acre preserve watched over by the Bureau of Land Management. It has a system of sand dunes and several palm oases formed when underground water rose up through the San Andreas Fault lines. A variety of increasingly endangered species live here including Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizards, flat-tailed horned lizards, giant red velvet mites, and giant palm-boring beetles. One section, the Thousand Palms Oasis, includes a visitor center, primitive toilets, and a mile-long trail that meanders past pools supporting the tiny endangered desert pupfish. Guided hikes and bird-walks are offered there November through April. Be aware that it's exceptionally hot in summer here.

Considered one of the Cape's prettiest beaches, Coast Guard Beach, part of the National Seashore, is a long beach backed by low grass and heathland. A handsome former Coast Guard station is here, though it's not open to the public, and the beach has a very small parking lot (restricted to residents and vehicles displaying handicapped placards from mid-June to Labor Day), so the best bet is to head to the Salt Pond Visitor Center and follow signs to the Little Creek Staging Area parking lot. From there, take the free shuttle to the beach. Shuttles run frequently and can accommodate gear and bicycles. At high tide the size of the beach shrinks considerably, so watch your blanket. Amenities: lifeguards; parking (fee); showers; toilets. Best for: sunrise; surfing; swimming; walking.

In 1890, Mrs. Herman B. Miller planted three clumps of Japanese timber bamboo near her farmhouse 15 miles south of Savannah. As the bamboo took to the warm Southern climate, it spread to what now stands today at the Bamboo Farms at the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens. The gardens, deeded to the University of Georgia in 1983 for research and cultivation, now boast a 4-acre bamboo maze, a children's garden, and stunning seasonal formal and shade gardens including beds of iris and daffodil bulbs and the wonderful camellia trail in late winter/early spring. The annual Christmas lights event glimmers with fun for the whole family.

A great rainy-day educational spot for families, this small natural history museum near the mouth of Grays Harbor and Oyhut Bay Seaside Village highlights the seaside environment, local history, and Native American traditions. Displays include tsunami debris, artifacts from the founding of the city, and Native American basketry. Whale bones and a vast shell collection let you examine, and in many cases touch, the shoreline wildlife up close.

Cobscook Bay is a mishmash of small coves and sub bays, as though a giant tried to claw his way inland from Lubec and Eastport. Even for Maine, the coast here is nooks and crooks, and a number of exceptional parcels on these wildly shaped waters have become part of a nonprofit, foundation-funded public park system with 20 parks and miles of shore frontage. Amenities include woodsy screened-in picnic shelters, restrooms, water fountains, and spiffy kiosks with large maps and information about the park's ecology and history. Old Farm Point Shorefront Park off Route 189 serves as an outdoor (unstaffed) visitor center for Cobscook Shores and has a few short trails. Black Duck Cove and Race Point are two of the larger parks. The park system draws bikers, paddlers, hikers, walkers, and campers.

Columbus State University's Coca-Cola Space Science Center, part of the Riverwalk, houses a multimedia planetarium with several showtimes offered daily, an observatory, a replica of an Apollo space capsule, a space shuttle, and other NASA-related exhibits, including cool flight simulators.

This is one of the Space Coast's nicest beaches—and the place where the great professional surfer Kelly Slater got his start. It has one of the East Coast's steadiest surf breaks, as well as wide stretches of hard sand that are excellent for biking, jogging, power walking, and strolling. In some places, there are dressing rooms, showers, playgrounds, picnic areas with grills, snack shops, and surfside parking lots. Beach vendors offer necessities, and lifeguards are on duty in the summer. A popular entry road, Route 520, crosses the Banana River into Cocoa Beach. At its east end, 5-acre Alan Shepard Park, named for the famous astronaut, aptly provides excellent views of launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral. Facilities here include 10 picnic pavilions, shower and restroom facilities, and more than 300 parking spaces. Parking is $15 for the day. Shops and restaurants are within walking distance. Another enticing Cocoa Beach entry point is 10-acre Sidney Fischer Park, in the 2100 block of Route A1A in the central beach area. It has showers, playgrounds, changing areas, picnic areas with grills, snack shops, and plenty of well-maintained parking lots ($20 per day). Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards (seasonal); parking (fee); showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: sunrise; surfing; swimming; walking.