10457 Best Sights in USA

Adjacent to the Columbia River, this is one of Washington's great parks. Its 4½-mile-long riverfront has boat ramps, a golf course, picnic areas, playgrounds (including an aquatic one), train ride, skate park, and family fishing pond. In summer, hydroplane races are held here.

This shaded picnic area near the sequoias is relatively level. Tables, restrooms, drinking water, and grills are available.

The smell of its bread baking is so good that Columbus Baking Co. could charge admission. On a side street in Syracuse's Little Italy section, the bakery has just one product and makes it 10 paces from where customers buy it.

Part antiques store, part museum, this eclectic site boasts the world’s largest collection of lunch boxes and other pop-culture treasures. There are seven “museums” or displays within the collective: The Lunch Box Museum, The Georgia Radio Museum, The Royal Crown Cola Museum, The Chero-Cola Museum, The Nehi Drink Museum, The Tom Huston Peanut Museum and The Car Museum. Evoking nostalgia while showcasing the industrial history of his hometown is key to founder and curator Allen Woodall, Jr.’s vision. The soft drink brands and Tom’s Snacks originated in Columbus in the early 20th century.

The park system includes 14 parks, totaling more 23,000 acres throughout seven Central Ohio counties. Facilities vary across the system and include bridle and bike trails, Indian mounds, a botanical park, pioneer cemetery, historic farm depicting a 19th-century homestead, wetlands, and a prairie. Clear Creek is the most remote and primitive.

The state's largest art and history museum invites visitors to celebrate creativity and culture through the experience of American art, regional history, tranquil gardens, and more. The museum reopened in May 2024 following a transformative renovation including a new children's gallery and garden, history galleries, orientation spaces, courtyard, and grab-and-go café. The art galleries have been reimagined and historic features in the Bradley Olmsted Garden have undergone repair. Art enthusiasts, history buffs, nature lovers, and learners both young and old will find something of interest here.

People-watching and/or eating takeout lunch are the things to do in this park. Swing by in the morning, and you'll see men and women practicing tai chi; the afternoons bring intense games of cards and mah-jongg. In the 1880s, a neighborhood-improvement campaign brought about the creation of the park, which was, in the mid-19th century, the site of the infamous area—ruled by dangerous Irish gangs—known as the Five Points because it was the intersection of Mulberry Street, Anthony (now Worth) Street, Cross (now Park) Street, Orange (now Baxter) Street, and Little Water Street (no longer in existence).

Highway 155 passes through the Colville Indian Reservation, one of the largest reservations in Washington, with about 7,700 enrolled members of the Colville Confederated Tribes. This was the final home for Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce, who fought a series of fierce battles with the U.S. Army in the 1870s after the U.S. government enforced a treaty that many present-day historians agree was fraudulent. Chief Joseph lived on the Colville reservation until his death in 1904. There's a memorial to him off Highway 155 east of the town of Nespelem, 17 miles north of the dam; four blocks away (two east and two north) is his grave. You can drive through the reservation's undeveloped landscape, and except for a few highway signs you'll feel like you've time-traveled to pioneer days. The Colville Tribal Museum ( 512 Mead Way, Coulee Dam  509/633–0751  Closed Sun.–Tues. and Oct.-Mar.) is worth a visit.

Located about 3 miles northwest of Wolf Trap, this operating gristmill dates from the first decade of the 19th century, although the country store was added in the early 20th century. In addition to the restored gristmill, there are two exhibit rooms inside the miller's home. It offers tours every hour on the hour, with the last tour leaving at 3; educational programs; special events; and occasional outdoor concerts. You can picnic on the grounds, feed the ducks, and learn about America's technological roots. The Colvin Run Mill General Store originally served the local community and today offers penny candy, freshly ground cornmeal and wheat flour, and various old-fashioned goods. The mill itself usually operates Sunday afternoon from April to October. Call ahead to see if conditions permit grinding.

The newest museum addition to Balboa Park celebrates San Diego's popular Comic-Con convention and all things related. Rotating exhibits explore topics such as the history of animation, cosplay design and the evolution of Pac-Man, as well as tracing the growth of Comic-Con itself from a small gathering of enthusiasts 50 years ago to the international showcase it is today. Interactive exhibits offer visitors chances to tinker, animate, and game, while daily scavenger hunts offer prizes. The gift shop is worth a browse with its interesting selection of collectibles and books.

Among those buried in this graveyard, which dates back to 1665, are several governors, a Declaration of Independence signatory, famous lighthouse keeper Ida Lewis, and Desire Tripp, whose unusual February 1786 gravestone commemorates the amputation of her arm. Many tombstones were made in the stone-carving shop of John Stevens, which opened in 1705 and still operates today. The historic African American section of the cemetery, which contains the graves of slaves and freedmen alike, is known as "God's Little Acre." The Newport Historical Society sometimes offers walking tours.

Commissioned in the French boulevard style, the mall is a grand allée of shade trees extending down the middle of the Back Bay's Commonwealth Avenue. Studded with statuary, it serves as the green link between the Public Garden and the Back Bay Fens. One of the most interesting memorials, at the Exeter Street intersection, is a portrayal of naval historian and author Samuel Eliot Morison seated on a rock as if he were peering out to sea. The Boston Women's Memorial, installed in 2003, sculpted by Meredith Bergmann, is between Fairfield and Gloucester streets. Statues of Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone, and Phillis Wheatley celebrate the three women's progressive ideas and contributions to Boston's history.

A dramatic and personal memorial near Dartmouth Street is the Vendome Hotel Fire Memorial, dedicated to the nine firemen who died in a 1972 blaze at the Back Bay's Vendome Hotel, which, now office space, is across the street. The curved black-granite block, 29 feet long and waist-high, is etched with the names of the dead. A bronze cast of a fireman's coat and hat drapes over the granite.

From an outstretched hand to a Constellation shaped like a drinking gourd, dozens of images and symbols are woven into this sweeping and remarkable trompe-l'oeil mural, which makes a humble concrete bridge appear ivy-covered and made of intricately carved stone. The public art is the work of nationally known artist William Cochran who used ideas submitted by Frederick residents and others nationwide as inspiration. The bridge and the waterway it spans are part of the multimillion-dollar construction, development, and renovation efforts that revitalized the Carroll Creek Park area. Restaurants offer outside seating along the walkways that flank the creek and bands play during summer festivals. Thousands of visitors now enjoy this area's charms year-round.

The center's Halseth Gallery houses a permanent collection of nearly 500 mostly American paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs, including works by Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses, and Rufino Tamayo. The center also draws some of the best traveling art exhibitions from around the country. Concerts and other programs are presented throughout the year as well.

Como Park has picnic areas, walking trails, playgrounds, and swimming facilities. The adjacent Como Park Conservatory, in a domed greenhouse, has sunken gardens, a fern room, biblical plantings, and seasonal flower shows.

Como Park Zoo is home to large cats, land and water birds, primates, and aquatic animals.

Just beyond Bar Harbor proper, this easy-to-moderate 0.8-mile round-trip trail through woods to the rocky shore passes through land that belonged to George B. Dorr—Acadia National Park’s first superintendent and a key player in its creation. Views extend to Ironbound Island across Frenchman Bay, and you can check out remnants of Dorr's estate, including the manor house's foundation, remains of a saltwater pool, stone steps to the ocean, and old gardens and apple trees. There's parking, but it's only about 1½ miles by sidewalk from downtown on Main Street/Route 3. There are historic markers along the way; coming or going, you can connect with the Bar Harbor Shore Path via a side street. Check if the Shore Path has fully reopened after major storm damage in 2024. Moderate.

This direct-to-consumer Newberg-area winery produces Pinot Noir along with Chardonnay, and Tempranillo. Take in estate views from the patio of the winery's hilltop tasting room, while you taste wines presented in graduated cylinders, an homage to the previous owner, a particle physicist-turned-winemaker.

This moderately difficult 2½-mile hike guides visitors east- and west-facing viewpoints with distinctly different rewards. A gentle ascent along the iconic white-blazed Appalachian Trail first leads to a concrete trail marker. A short westbound spur trail reveals a rocky outcrop at Compton Peak for spectacular views of Dickey Ridge and Massanutten Mountain. An eastbound spur trail delivers visitors to a curious hexagonal-patterned geological feature made of greenstone lava and basalt called a columnar jointing. Hiking time is about two hours. Moderate.

A half-dozen or so covered picnic tables are scattered over this area, which rests against a badlands wall ½ mile south of Badlands Loop Road. There's no potable water, but there are bathroom facilities and you can enjoy your lunch in peaceful isolation at the threshold of the Badlands Wilderness Area. The Conata Basin area is to the east, and Sage Creek area is to the west.

The original contents of Emerson's private study, as well as the world's largest collection of Thoreau artifacts, reside in this 1930 Colonial Revival building just east of the town center. The museum provides a good overview of the town's history, from its original Native American settlement to the present. Highlights include Native American artifacts, furnishings from Thoreau's Walden Pond cabin, and one of the two lanterns hung at Boston's Old North Church to signal that the British were coming by sea. Those with kids should ask for kid-friendly guides, scavenger hunts, and drawing sets.

The conical Concord Point Lighthouse is the oldest continuously operated lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay. Built in 1827, it was restored in 1980. You can climb up 30 feet for views of the bay, river, and town.

This 2½-mile beach, flanked by the Riegelmann Boardwalk and the amusement park rides beyond, has become an essential part of New York legend. Although open (and visited) year-round, the beach really heats up in summer, when it can feel like the entire population of New York is out sunning and swimming. In winter, you'll see Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian inhabitants of neighboring Brighton Beach strolling the boardwalk in their Sunday best. Moreover, the annual Polar Bear Plunge on January 1 sees thousands of revelers greet the new year by diving into the frigid waters of the Atlantic. Run by the Coney Island Polar Bear Club ( www.polarbearclub.org), a winter bathing club founded in 1903, it's free and open to everyone as long as they've registered on the website—although donations are highly encouraged at registration, to benefit local nonprofits and the community. Amenities: toilets; food and drink. Best for: swimming; people-watching.

The cast of talented freaks and geeks who keep Coney Island's carnival tradition alive include sword swallowers, fire-eaters, knife throwers, and contortionists. Every postmodern show is an extravaganza of 10 different acts to fascinate and impress. Next door is The Coney Island Museum with a large collection of artifacts celebrating the history of this legendary amusement area. The vibe continues at the Freak Bar, offering beverages and pinball. Museum and bar open year-round.

This cemetery contains the remains of more than 2,000 soldiers (most of them unknown) as well as the graves of generals Dabney Maury, Seth Barton, Carter Stevenson, Daniel Ruggles, Henry Sibley, and Abner Perrin.

Established in 1891, this ponderous stone building is the oldest museum in Louisiana and features heavy trusses, gleaming cypress paneling, and elaborate Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. It houses a collection of artifacts from the Civil War, including uniforms, flags, soldiers' personal effects, and a rudimentary hand grenade.

Built in 1887 by Confederate veterans, this tiny nondenominational chapel behind the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was once part of the old Confederate soldiers' home. A video and displays of Confederate memorabilia pay tribute to the soldiers.