10457 Best Sights in USA

Cutting-edge art with a message is the focus of this gallery's monthly exhibits. Contemporary paintings, photography, mixed-media artworks, sculpture, glass, and metalwork by local and international artists are displayed.

Known for its grand Italian villa and manicured gardens, this winery produces Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blancs, Pinot Noirs, Cabernet Sauvignons, and several other wines. Although whites have traditionally been the specialty, the reds—particularly the Bordeaux-style blend called Trésor—also garner attention, and some guests come just for the dessert wines. The villa's terrace and sycamore grove host many tastings.

An outdoor amphitheater is where art comes to life in the canyon. Each year Festival of Arts hosts the annual Pageant of the Masters, Laguna's signature art event. Local participants arrange tableaux vivants, in which live models and carefully orchestrated backgrounds merge in striking resemblance of classical and contemporary paintings. The pageant is part of the Festival of Arts, and is held in July through the end of August.

The Fetterman Massacre Monument is a rock monolith dedicated to the memory of Lieutenant William J. Fetterman and his 80 men, who died in a December 21, 1866, battle against Lakota-Sioux warriors. Today, an interpretive trail with 21 signs spans the entire length of the battlefield, explaining the combatants, leaders, weapons, tactics, positions, and theories of a battle that lasted all of 30 minutes. This was the worst defeat for the U.S military on the Northern Plains until the Little Big Horn battle a decade later. Five miles west of the Fetterman site is the site of the Wagon Box Fight, which also has a short interpretive trail. Fort Phil Kearny is the starting point for both battle sites, providing brochures, guides, and an overview of the history of Red Cloud's War.

While it's grown over the years, there still isn't much to the tasting room here, but there doesn't need to be: Fiddlehead only cans a few of its celebrated beers, making this the best place to sample the full variety on tap. Decide which one you like best and buy a growler to go—or, better yet, enjoy it with a pie from Folino's Pizza next door; they're mighty fine.

This area of the park has taken on a near-mythical lure for park visitors, who are drawn to challenging yet breathtaking terrain. Rangers strongly discourage inexperienced hikers from entering here—in fact, you can't enter without watching a video about how to help protect this very special section of the park and obtaining a permit ($10). Reservations open seven days in advance for a spot on the 2-mile round-trip ranger-led hikes ($16), offered from March through October, through this unique formation. A hike through these rugged rocks and sandy washes is tiring but fascinating. Hikers will need to use their hands at times to scramble up and through narrow cracks and along vertigo-inducing ledges above drop-offs, and there are no trail markings. If you're not familiar with The Furnace, you can easily get lost or cause damage, so watch your step and use great caution. The less intrepid can view The Fiery Furnace from the overlook off the main road. Difficult.

The most undeveloped area of Mission Bay Park, this is popular with bird-watchers (there's a large protected nesting site for the California tern at the northern tip of the island) as well as with dog owners, because it's the only place in the park where pets can run free. Firepits are scattered across the island for public use. In July the annual Over-the-Line Tournament, a competition involving a unique local version of softball, attracts thousands of players and oglers.

The limestone-and-shale Fillmore Glen State Park, 17 mi south of Auburn, has five waterfalls and a stream-fed, stone-walled swimming pool. Named for the nation's 13th president, the park also has a replica of the cabin where Millard Fillmore was born. (The actual site is 5 mi east.)

This mile-long green patch along Garden Springs Creek has an extensive botanical garden with more than 2,000 labeled trees, shrubs, and flowers. Follow the walking tour on well-manicured paths along the creek, or follow your whim—depending on the season—through flowering rhododendrons, hibiscus, magnolias, dogwoods, hydrangeas, and more.

A merger between the well-established David Findlay Jr. Gallery and Wally Findlay Gallery led to this combined Midtown space with the same concentration of the former's contemporary and 20th-century American artists—from Frank Stella to Barbara Grad, Byron Browne, and Leonard Nelson—and the latter's presentation of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works.

This creaky building was constructed in 1895 to house the showrooms of the Studebaker Company, then makers of carriages. Once counting architect Frank Lloyd Wright among its tenants, the building today provides space for more than 200 musicians, visual artists, and designers. Take a look at the handsome exterior; then step inside the marble-and-woodwork lobby, noting the motto engraved in marble as you enter: "All passes—art alone endures." The building has an interior courtyard, across which strains of piano music and sopranos' voices compete with tenors' as they run through exercises. Visitors can get a peek at the studios and hear live music during "Open Studios" events, held on the second Friday of each month between 5 and 9 pm.

The Finger Lakes Wine Center, on the Sonnenberg Gardens' grounds in a building near the parking lot, has a tasting room with a rotating selection of wines and sells wines and specialty foods from throughout the Finger Lakes region.

Set high along the bayside bluffs, the tower is recognizable by its pyramid shape and red paint job. Built in 1890 to hold a 1,500-pound brass alarm bell, the 75-foot wooden structure was once the key alert center for local volunteer firefighters. A century later it's considered one of the state's most valuable historic structures. Reach the tower by climbing the steep set of stairs behind Haller Fountain at the end of Taylor Street. The tenth-of-an-acre plot also has a park bench and a few parking spots.

The 168-foot-tall lighthouse—Long Island's tallest—marks the western end of the Fire Island National Seashore. The black-and-white-striped beauty, built in 1858, replaced the original 1826 lighthouse which, at 74 feet tall, was deemed too short to be effective. Tours of the tower are offered; call for tour times and reservations. On clear days Manhattan skyscrapers are visible from the top of the lighthouse, a climb up 192 winding steps. Many events are held here throughought the year, including family adventures and scavenger hunts, nature walks, ghost tours in October, and flying Santa in December. To get to the lighthouse, park on the east side of Field 5 of Robert Moses State Park and then walk ¾ mile following the marked trail.

Stretching 32 miles from the Fire Island Lighthouse, the seashore is accessible via a boardwalk from Robert Moses State Park in the west to Smith Point County Park to the east. A barrier island on Long Island's South Shore, Fire Island National Seashore offers endless opportunities for sightseeing, hiking, and wildlife viewing on nature trails as well as sunbathing or swimming on its long stretches of pristine sandy beaches. Barrett Beach/Talisman, a quiet, secluded beach around the midpoint of the island, is accessible by private boat or charter.

This one-way, 3-mile-long road takes you past Great Fountain Geyser, which shoots out jets of water reaching as high as 200 feet about twice a day. Rangers' predictions provide a two-hour window of opportunity. Should you witness an eruption, you'll see waves of water cascading down the terraces that form the geyser's edges.

This scenic picnic area overlooks the roaring Firehole River, a place where you might see elk grazing along the river's banks. There's a pit toilet.

Housed in an authentic 1876 firehouse, this museum traces the history of firefighting, from the volunteer company founded in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin in 1736 to the professional departments of the 20th century. The collection includes early hand- and horse-drawn fire engines, such as a 1796 hand pumper, an 1857 steamer, and a 1907 three-horse Metropolitan steamer; fire marks (18th-century building signs marking them as insured for fire); uniforms; other memorabilia; and a 9/11 memorial. There is also a gift shop on-site and online.

At this working craft brewery you can sample medal-winners such as the Double Barrel Ale and learn about the beer-making process on 45-minute guided tours of the brewhouse and cellar or the more comprehensive weekend-only barrel room tour. If the bourbon-barrel-aged Parabola Imperial Stout is available, it's a must-order and very deserving of its title as one of the country's preeminent beers.

Enslaved people constructed this church at night by lamplight after having worked the plantations during the day, finishing it in 1859. It is one of the first organized black Baptist churches on the continent, constituted in 1777. The basement floor still shows signs of its time as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Holes drilled in the floor are designed in a prayer symbol known as an "African cosmogram," and are rumored to actually have been air holes for slaves hiding underneath, waiting to be transported to the Savannah River for their trip to freedom. It was also an important meeting place during the civil rights era.

This small, one-room church on the north end of Cumberland Island was rebuilt in 1937 to replace a cruder 1893 structure used by former slaves from the High Point–Half Moon Bluff community. Constructed of whitewashed logs, it's simply adorned with a cross made of sticks tied together with string and 11 handmade pews seating 40 people. John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette were married here on September 21, 1996. The Kennedy–Bessette wedding party stayed at the Greyfield Inn, built on the south end of the island in 1900 by the Carnegie family.

Founded in 1886, the state's oldest African American church and the community's nexus has operated out of this historic building since 1912. FAME's gospel choirs are among the city's best, and discussions with intellectuals, authors, artists, and the community are regularly scheduled.

A fine example of Federal architecture, the oldest bank building in the country was the headquarters of the government's bank from 1797 to 1811. Designed by Samuel Blodget Jr., it was an imposing structure in its day, exemplifying strength, dignity, and security. It's closed to the public but it's popular for an outdoor visit; head to the right to find a wrought-iron gateway topped by an eagle. Pass through it into the courtyard, and you magically step into Colonial America. Before you do so, check out the bank's pediment. Executed in 1797 by Clodius F. Legrand and Sons, its cornucopia, oak branch, and American eagle are carved from mahogany—a late-18th-century masterpiece that has withstood weather better than the bank's marble pillars.

This 1872 structure, at the corner of Clarendon Street and Commonwealth Avenue, was architect Henry Hobson Richardson's first foray into Romanesque Revival. It was originally erected for the Brattle Square Unitarian Society, but Richardson ran over budget and the church went bankrupt and dissolved. In 1882, the building was bought by the Baptists. The figures on each side of its 176-foot soaring tower were sculpted by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor who designed the Statue of Liberty. The friezes represent four points at which God enters an individual's life: baptism, communion, marriage, and death. The tower is undergoing a huge restoration project to help it weather the years to come. Call ahead on a weekday and you may be given an informal tour.

This historic house of worship was built in 1775 for a congregation originally established in 1638 by Roger Williams and his fellow Puritan dissenters. The writer H. P. Lovecraft attended Sunday school here briefly as a child. Architecture and design buffs will appreciate the landmark 185-foot steeple, erected in just 3½ days, as well as the auditorium's large crystal chandelier from Ireland, installed in 1792. Guided tours are available on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 1:30 pm and Sundays at the conclusion of worship services. Smartphone-enabled self-guided tours are also an option and are available in multiple languages.

The world headquarters and mother church of the Christian Science faith mixes the traditional with the modern—marrying Bernini to Le Corbusier by combining an old-world basilica with a sleek office complex designed by I. M. Pei & Partners and Araldo Cossutta, Associated Architects. Mary Baker Eddy's original granite First Church of Christ, Scientist (1894) has since been enveloped by a domed Renaissance Revival basilica, added to the site in 1906, and both church buildings are now surrounded by the offices of the Christian Science Publishing Society, where the Christian Science Monitor is produced, and by Cossutta's complex of church-administration structures completed in 1973. You can hear all 13,000-plus pipes of the church's famed Aeolian-Skinner organ during Sunday services.

The outer reflection pool, small fountains, and surrounding area (together with the church and the Mary Baker Eddy Library, the area is known as the Christian Science Plaza) received a major face-lift recently to include more walkways and sitting areas. Church tours are held Friday and Saturday at 11 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm, and on Sunday at 1 pm and 3 pm.

Formerly known as the Savannah LGBT Center, this nexus of activism, health services, and community events is a friendly, safe space for queer folk and allies. Check in for revolving art exhibits, special lectures, and guidance toward local resources.

The tower of this church provides the best view of Nantucket—for those willing to climb its 92 steps. Rising 120 feet, the tower is capped by a weather vane depicting a whale catch. Tours are offered Thursday through Saturday from Memorial Day to mid-October.

This trail follows a ridgeline to the Second Creek drainage into the Nolin River valley, then descends along the Nolin to First Creek Lake before climbing upward past broken sandstone blocks to the trailhead at Temple Hill. Stream crossings, wet and muddy areas, and some rocky slopes may challenge footing. At 3 miles, the Second Creek Campsite can by accessed by a short spur. At 4.2 miles, a spur leads to First Creek Campsite 1. At 5.2 miles, a spur accesses First Creek Campsite 2. Horses and hiking only. 6.3 mi. Moderate. Note: First Creek Trail forms a 19.1-mile loop with McCoy Hollow Trail and Wet Prong Trail that can be accessed from either First Creek Trailhead or Temple Creek Trailhead.

A great spot for watching sunsets over Cape Cod Bay, First Encounter Beach is rich in history. Near the parking lot, a bronze marker commemorates the first encounter between local Native Americans and passengers from the Mayflower, led by Captain Myles Standish, who explored the entire area for five weeks in 1620 before moving on to Plymouth. The beach is popular with families who favor its warm, calm waters and tide pools. Amenities: parking (fee); showers; toilets. Best for: sunset; swimming; walking; windsurfing.