10457 Best Sights in USA

On a median near the Castro's huge rainbow flag stands this memorial to the people forced by the Nazis to wear pink triangles. Fifteen triangular granite columns, one for every 1,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people estimated to have been killed during and after the Holocaust, stand in a grassy triangle—a reminder of the gay community's past and ongoing struggle for civil rights.

This park has not one but two playgrounds for little ones to explore. For older kids, there are ping-pong tables, plenty of green space, and a paved 1-mile walking trail around the park’s perimeter. There are also picnic tables, pavilions, and grills if the weather calls for barbecue.

Named after Thomas "Pinky" Sekanoff, who walked across the Bering Strait to escape the Russian Revolution in the early 1900s, the 22-acre Pinky's Park remembers his life in Bethel and constant goodwill toward the kids in the community. Take a stroll on the park's nearly 2 miles of wooden boardwalks, decks, and trails. These structures are engineered to hold up to the often harsh climate while not damaging the tundra underneath. There's also a nice community garden, along with a playground and multiuse sports field that acts as a hub for all of Bethel's July 4 festivities.

In this 1,500-acre public park, you can tackle a grueling climb to the top of the namesake Pinnacle or take a short walk on the state's only certified Nature Forest Therapy Trail. Brochures at the parking area include a map and guided prompts to help you clear your mind as you experience the forest. 

This 4.6-mile round-trip hike (allow about three hours) follows the Chalone and Bear creeks first along the level Bench Trail for about 1½ miles, where it meets up with the Sycamore Trail, which ascends gradually through a tree-shaded ravine on its way to Bear Gulch. Purchase an interpretive map at the park store and keep your eyes open for signs pointing out where you might be able to spot the rare red-legged frog or the native three-spined stickleback fish. Moderate.

This 6½-mile round-trip hike with no elevation gain is an easy if somewhat long stroll, first on the Bench Trail and then alongside the Chalone River to the park's southeastern boundary. A favorite of wildlife-watching enthusiasts, it's a lovely trail for listening to birds sing along the creek, and it leads through magnificent groves of valley oaks. Easy–Moderate.

At the park's small shop and information station, near the eastern entrance, you'll find a helpful selection of maps, books, and gifts. The adjacent campground store sells light snacks.

This forested picnic area has picnic tables, fire grates, and water fountains. There is also a first-come, first-served open-air pavilion with picnic tables. After lunch, enjoy a short hike on the Appalachian Trail on the north side of the picnic grounds.

This community-focused coffee shop and bar boasts a small but mighty menu of house-made craft beer along with house white, red, and rosé wines and cocktails served inside a warm wood-paneled space and on a spacious, breezy patio. The simple food menu is made up of sandwiches, salads, pizzas (can be made gluten-free), and snacks. Note that they do keep small-town hours, closing by 9 pm each night, with the kitchen closing at 8 pm.

The 64 miles of mountain road on this highway pass a ghost town, historic towns, and Georgetown Lake. The road begins in Anaconda and ends on I–90 at Drummond, backdropped by the 159,000-acre Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness.

Often billed as the living room, public heart, and commercial soul of Downtown, Pioneer Square is not entirely square, but rather an amphitheater-like brick piazza featuring five food carts. Special seasonal, charitable, and festival-oriented events often take place in this premier people-watching venue. Directly across the street is one of Downtown Portland's most familiar landmarks, the classically sedate Pioneer Courthouse; built in 1869, it's the oldest public building in the Pacific Northwest. A couple of blocks east of the square, you'll find Pioneer Place Mall, an upscale retail center that spans four city blocks.

This open-air museum features original and reconstructed buildings from throughout territorial Arizona. Costumed guides filter through the bank, schoolhouse, jail, and print shop, as well as the Pioneer Opera House, where classic melodramas are performed daily. It's popular with the grade-school field-trip set, and it's your lucky day if you can tag along for their tour of the site.

Covering the pioneer era from the departure of the Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the hammering of the Golden Spike, this massive collection traces the history of pioneer settlers in 38 rooms—plus a carriage house—on four floors. Administered by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, its displays include clothing, furniture, tools, wagons, and carriages. Be careful with kids—this museum is as cluttered as a westbound covered wagon loaded with all of a family's possessions.

Mountains, meadows, lodgepole-pine forests, and willow-edged streams line this road, which runs north–south between U.S. 278 (west of Bannack, which is 24 miles west of Dillon) and Highway 43. Headed north, the byway skirts the Maverick Mountain Ski Area and Elkhorn Hot Springs and ends at the town of Wise River on the Big Hole River. In winter it's closed to car traffic but popular with snowmobilers.

In Tillamook's 1905 county courthouse, this extensive, three-floor museum is an intriguing, old-fashioned hodgepodge of Native American, pioneer, logging, and natural history exhibits, along with antique vehicles and military artifacts.

The 44-acre park is along the Chena River near downtown Fairbanks and has several museums, an art gallery, theater, civic center, children's playground, antique merry-go-round, minigolf course, and multiple restaurants. Owned and operated by the borough, the park also has a re-created gold-rush town with historic buildings saved from urban renewal, log-cabin gift shops, and a narrow-gauge train that circles the park. No-frills (dry) RV camping is available in the parking lot for $12 a night. No reservation is necessary.

Planted with native and exotic flowers and trees, this turn-of-the-20th-century park (Walla Walla's first) has a fine aviary. There are pickleball courts, outdoor ping pong tables, a playground, and a pretty rose garden. It was originally landscaped by sons of Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed New York City's Central Park.

Travelers passing through Capitol Gorge in the 19th and early 20th centuries etched the canyon wall with their names and the date. Directly across the canyon from the Pioneer Register and about 50 feet up are signatures etched into the canyon wall by an early United States Geologic Survey crew. Though it's illegal to write or scratch on the canyon walls today, plenty of damage has been done by vandals over the years. You can reach the register via an easy hike from the sheltered trailhead at the end of Capitol Gorge Road; the register is about 10 minutes along the hike toward the sandstone Tanks.

The Pioneer Store Museum is an amazing time-capsule-like building in Chloride. The owners have painstakingly restored the building using the complete stock of original goods and records—the store had been boarded up in its entirety in 1923. It's a treasure trove of Western boomtown history. The proprietors are great, and the Web site is a resource for general information on the area.

The town site was originally the headquarters of a cattle spread, the Bar-I Ranch. Pioneer Town, a cluster of 23 authentic buildings that re-create turn-of-the-20th-century life, includes a country chapel, the Lizard Head Saloon, original silos from the Bar-I Ranch, and a working blacksmith shop.

This museum in Bowman, south of the national park's South Unit, has permanent and changing exhibits on local paleontology, geology, and archaeology as well as anthropology and history.

The old Hot Sulphur Schoolhouse—built in 1924—houses the Pioneer Village Museum. Artifacts depict Grand County history dating back 8,500 years, including tools, clothing, a railroad snowplow, and the old Winter Park Ski Train caboose.

Once the Old El Paso County Courthouse, this repository has artifacts relating to the entire Pikes Peak area, including a Native American collection, bound newspapers and city directories dating from the 1870s, the personal papers of city founder and railroad builder General William Jackson Palmer, and early images of the Colorado Springs. The historic courtroom is absolutely elegant, and so perfectly appointed that it looks as if a judge will walk in any minute to start a trial.

A 20-minute drive southwest of Kanab, this 40-acre plot of stone buildings and sagebrush- and red rock–dotted hillsides with a pond and gardens preserves a site where indigenous Kaibab Paiute people thrived for a thousand years, followed by Spanish missionaries and Mormon pioneers in the mid-19th century. A modern visitor center contains artifacts and interactive exhibits and presents a short video detailing the history of this community and its reliance on the natural springs that run beneath it. Rangers give guided tours and crafts demonstrations during the summer months, but any time of year you can explore the grounds, buildings, orchards, and horse and cattle corrals on your own and hike the ½-mile Ridge Trail for an astounding view of the Arizona Strip, as this region is known.

Offering an impressive range of panoramas, this peaceful overlook that's popular for picnicking lies ¼ mile north of Farview Point (to which it's connected by an easy trail), slightly off the main road.

Pirogue Island State Park, a 269-acre chunk of land in the middle of the Yellowstone River, is completely undeveloped; the only way to access the park is by floating down the river or (carefully) fording during low water. The old cottonwood trees are excellent habitat for waterfowl, raptors, and deer, and the geology of the island makes it prime agate-hunting ground.

On 4,000 acres of land bought to protect the view from Mount Vernon across the river, Piscataway Park attracts history buffs, horticulturists, naturalists, hikers, and families. At National Colonial Farm you can walk through a middle-class 18th-century farm dwelling and tobacco barn, as well as reproductions of a meat house and out-kitchen used by farmers not quite as prosperous as the Washingtons on the other side of the Potomac. Guides point out the farmhouse's most valuable materials: the glass in the windows and the ropes supporting the bed. Old-time animal breeds and heirloom crop varieties are both raised here. Also on hand is an herb garden as well as bluebirds, great blue herons, and bald eagles.

This fish hatchery operated by the state's Department of Wildlife Resources produces more than 400,000 brown, rainbow, and native brook trout each year for release in local streams. You can see the fish up close in more than 50 large tanks called raceways. There's also a visitor center with information about the life cycle of trout and an educational nature trail. The Davidson River, which runs by the hatchery, is popular for fly-fishing.