10457 Best Sights in USA

You'll find a wide gravel beachfront at this park 10 miles west of Friday Harbor, overlooking waters where orcas often frolic in summer, plus grassy lawns with picnic tables and a small campground. Amenities: parking (free); toilets. Best for: walking.

This museum in an old farmhouse presents island life at the turn of the 20th century through historic photography, documents, and buildings.

Housed in a sleek, contemporary building, SJIMA presents rotating art shows and exhibits with an emphasis on island and Northwest artists, including the highly touted Artists' Registry Show in winter, which features works by nearly 100 San Juan Islands artists.

At this serene 20-acre park near Roche Harbor, you can stroll along five winding trails to view more than 150 colorful—and in many cases, large-scale—sculptures spread amid freshwater and saltwater wetlands, open woods, blossoming fields, and rugged terrain. The park is also a haven for birds; more than 120 species nest and breed here. It's a great spot for picnicking, and dogs are welcome.

A remodeled 1895 schoolhouse serving estate-grown wines, this picturesque winery is worth a visit for the scenery and its award-winning Siegerrebe and Madeleine Angevine varietals (the winery belongs to the Puget Sound AVA, the coolest-climate growing region in Washington). The vineyard's wines show up on many local menus.

Founded in 1851, San Luis is the oldest incorporated town in Colorado. Murals depicting famous stories and legends of the area adorn several buildings in the town. A latter-day masterpiece is the Stations of the Cross Shrine, created by renowned local sculptor Huberto Maestas. The shrine is formally known as La Mesa de la Piedad y de la Misericordia (Hill of Piety and Mercy), and its 15 stations with bronze statues illustrate the last hours of Christ's life. The trail leads up to a chapel called La Capilla de Todos Los Santos.

Activities at this facility geared to children under age 10 include an "imagination-powered" elevator that transports visitors to a series of underground caverns. Kids can pick rubber fruit at a farmers' market and race in a fire engine to fight a fire.

The permanent collection here focuses on the artistic legacy of the Central Coast. Temporary exhibits include traditional and cutting-edge arts and crafts by Central Coast, national, and international artists.

The westernmost of the Channel Islands, San Miguel Island is frequently battered by storms sweeping across the North Pacific. The 15-square-mile island's wild windswept landscape is lush with vegetation. Point Bennett, at the western tip, offers one of the world's most spectacular wildlife displays when more than 30,000 pinnipeds hit its beach. Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo was the first European to visit this island; he claimed it for Spain in 1542. Legend holds that Cabrillo died on one of the Channel Islands—no one knows where he's buried, but there's a memorial to him on a bluff above Cuyler Harbor.

The San Pedro River, partially rerouted underground by an 1887 earthquake, may not look like much, but it sustains an impressive array of flora and fauna and makes for great hiking and birding. To maintain this fragile creekside ecosystem, 56,000 acres along the river were designated a protected riparian area in 1988. More than 350 species of birds come here, as well as 82 mammal species and 45 reptiles and amphibians. Animals from long ago—including woolly mammoths and mastodons—also make their former presence here known through the area's massive fossil pits; in fact, many of the huge skeletons in Washington's Smithsonian Institute and New York's Museum of Natural History came from here. As evidenced by a number of small, unexcavated ruins, the migratory tribes who passed through thousands of years later also found this valley hospitable, in part because of its many useful plants. Information, guided tours and bird walks, books, and gifts are available from the volunteer staff at San Pedro House, a visitor center operated by Friends of the San Pedro River ( sanpedroriver.org).

There is something for everyone at this longtime Downtown favorite. Dating back to 1972, it’s technically still a market (there are a handful of boutiques), but it’s really a lively, vast food hall with more than a dozen tempting choices and plenty of places to sit and watch sports on TVs or enjoy live music outside. Voyager Craft Coffee's espresso drinks and the unique Hawaiian mochi (rice flour) doughnuts by Mochinut are just two of the many must-try vendors here.

One of Vermont's best swimming beaches is at Sand Bar State Park, where a 2,000-foot stretch of sand leads into shallow water perfect for wading in gently. Amenities: food and drink; parking (fee); toilets; water sports. Best for: swimming

Most of the park's caves lie within its hundreds of feet of limestone strata, but atop that limestone sits a layer of sandstone and shale. Sandstone caves can be found in this ridgetop layer, which often lead to greater limestone caverns farther down. In hope of making such a discovery, explorer Floyd Collins entered Sand Cave in 1925 … but never left. His entrapment, and attempted rescue, made headlines across the nation and caused a near-carnival of activity outside the cave entrance. That entrance is visible close at hand from the overlook at the end of Sand Cave Trail. A series of outdoor exhibit panels along the trail explain the historic events. Note: Sand Cave is closed to public entry.

You may return to the car with shoes full of bright-red sand from this giant sandbox in the desert—it's fun exploring in and around the rock. Set aside 15 minutes for this shady, ½-mile walk and plenty of time if you have kids, who will love playing amid this dramatic landscape. Never climb on this or any other arch in the park, no matter how tempting—it's illegal, and it could lead to damage to the fragile geology or even someone getting hurt. The trail intersects with the Broken Arch Trail—you can visit both arches with an easy 1.2-mile round-trip walk. Easy.

Three miles southwest of Bluff you'll find a large panel of Ancestral Puebloan rock art. The panel includes several large images of Kokopelli, the mischief-maker from Puebloan lore.

In addition to a lovely beach (a mellow alternative to the often-crowded Clearwater Beach to the north), this 95-acre park has plenty of green space, a playground, and a picnic area. Parking is a flat $5. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee) showers; toilets. Best for: solitude; sunset; swimming.

For awesome views of Albuquerque and half of New Mexico, take NM 536 up the back side of the Sandia Mountains through Cibola National Forest to Sandia Crest. At the 10,378-foot summit, explore the dramatic but relatively level and easy trails along the rim. Always bring an extra layer of clothing, even in summer—the temperature at the crest can be anywhere from 15 to 25 degrees cooler than down in Albuquerque. This is also the route to the popular Sandia Peak Ski Area.

Overlooking Long Island Sound, this 216-acre preserve, once part of a Gold Coast estate, occupies the tip of the Port Washington Peninsula. The grounds include natural and landscaped areas, with forests, meadows, freshwater ponds, and shore cliffs. Also here are three castlelike mansions. The 1904 Castlegould, the visitor center, houses changing exhibits on natural history. Falaise is a Normandy-style manor house built for Harry F. Guggenheim in 1923; the home is notable for its medieval and Renaissance style and artwork. The Tudor-style Hempstead House, used for various exhibits, overlooks the harbor. Tours through Falaise and nature walks are available.

Sandstone Visitor Center is a full-service visitor center in the south section that features a short video on the New River and a native garden, as well as a bookstore.

There are four area trails with views of the rushing New River as it leads on to tumbling Sandstone Falls. The easy 0.4-mile round-trip walk along the Sandstone Falls Boardwalk is a popular pick to get up close to the falls. On the way to the trailhead, stop at the scenic overlook that sits 600 feet above the New River. To the south, at Brooks Falls, the Big Branch Trail is a moderate 2.0-mile loop with cascades and stream crossings.

Rebuilt after a nor'easter destroyed much of it in 2022, the Sandwich Boardwalk sits higher than before, and it now has handrails, but this iconic wooden span offers the same sweeping views of Cape Cod Bay. Look out toward Sandy Neck, Wellfleet, and Provincetown or toward the white cliffs beyond Sagamore. A sand path leads to Town Neck Beach, backed by dunes covered with rugosa roses. The creeks running through the salt marsh make for great canoeing, and it's a popular spot for clamming. 

Shimmering glass was manufactured here nearly two centuries ago, and the Sandwich Glass Museum shows you what the factory looked like in its heyday. There's an "ingredient room" showcasing a wide spectrum of glass colors, along with the minerals added to the sand to obtain them, and an outstanding collection of blown and pressed glass in many shapes and hues. Large lamps, vases, and pitchers are impressive, as are the hundreds of candlesticks on display. There are glassblowing demonstrations daily on the hour from 10 to 4. The extensive gift shop sells some handsome reproductions, including many made by local and national artisans. The glass museum is part of the Sandwich Historical Society.

Stretching some 6 miles across a peninsula that ends at Sandy Neck Light, this rock-strewn beach is one of the Cape's most beautiful—dunes, sand, and bay spread endlessly east, west, and north. The marsh was harvested for salt hay in the past; now it's a haven for birds, which are seen in the greatest numbers in morning and evening. One of the secrets of this beach are its hiking trails that meander alongside and around the dunes, a fairly strenuous but lovely trek in the sand. As you travel east along Route 6A from Sandwich, Sandy Neck Road is located just before the Barnstable line, although the beach itself is in West Barnstable. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); showers; toilets. Best for: sunset; swimming; walking.

This adobe-style museum, run by the Arizona Historical Society, was built around 1870 by merchant E. F. Sanguinetti; it exhibits artifacts from Yuma's territorial days and details the military presence in the area. If you're dining at the Garden Café this makes for an interesting stop, but it's not worth a visit on its own, especially if you plan on visiting the more popular Colorado River State Historic Park.

Five miles of scenic trails meander through the garden's 78 acres of native plants. The Mission Dam, built in 1806, stands just beyond the redwood grove and above the restored aqueduct that once carried water to the Old Mission Santa Barbara. More than a thousand plant species thrive in various themed sections, including mountains, deserts, meadows, redwoods, and Channel Islands.  A conservation center dedicated to rare and endangered plant species presents rotating exhibitions.

The historical society's museum exhibits decorative and fine arts, furniture, costumes, and documents from the town's past. Adjacent to it is the Gledhill Library, a collection of books, photographs, maps, and manuscripts. Tours are by appointment only. 

At about 1 square mile, Santa Barbara Island is the smallest of the Channel Islands and well south of the others. Triangular in shape, Santa Barbara's steep cliffs—which offer a perfect nesting spot for the Scripps's murrelet, a rare seabird—are topped by twin peaks. In spring you can enjoy a brilliant display of yellow coreopsis. Learn about the wildlife on and around the islands at the island's small museum.

California's seafaring history is the focus here. High-tech, hands-on exhibits, such as a virtual sportfishing activity that lets participants haul in a "big one" and a local surfing history retrospective, make this a fun stop for families. In 2018, the museum introduced a fascinating History of Oil in the Santa Barbara Channel exhibit that traces the Chumash Indians' use of natural seeps to the infamous 1969 oil spill that spawned the modern environmental movement. The museum's shining star is a rare, 17-foot-tall Fresnel lens from the historic Point Conception Lighthouse. Ride the elevator to the fourth-floor observation area for great harbor views.