10457 Best Sights in USA

The highlights of this museum's permanent collection include ancient sculpture, Asian art, impressionist paintings, contemporary art, photography, and American works in several mediums.

A gigantic blue whale skeleton greets you at the entrance to this 17-acre complex, whose major draws include its planetarium, paleo and marine life exhibits, and gem and mineral displays. Startlingly alive-looking stuffed specimens in the Mammal and Bird Halls include a smiling grizzly bear and nesting California condors. A room of dioramas illustrates Native American Chumash history and culture while a Santa Barbara Gallery showcases the region's unique biodiversity. Outdoors, nature trails wind through the serene oak woodlands, a Chumash plant garden, and a summer butterfly pavilion.

More than 20 winery tasting rooms in 5 Santa Barbara neighborhoods form the Urban Wine Trail. Most are within walking distance of the waterfront and the lower State Street shopping and restaurant district. Santa Barbara Winery ( 28 Anacapa Street), The Valley Project ( 116 East Yanonali Street), and Grassini Family Vineyards ( 24 El Paseo) are good places to start your oenological trek.

This compact zoo's gorgeous grounds shelter elephants, gorillas, Australian wildlife, exotic birds, and big cats, and has many exhibits that educate visitors on conservation efforts to save endangered species like the California condor and the red-legged frog. For small children, there's a scenic railroad and barnyard area where they can feed domestic sheep. Kids especially love feeding the giraffes from a view deck overlooking the beach. One-hour walking tours that focus on conservation and animal care are offered weekends at 11:45 and 3:15. The palm-studded lawns on a hilltop overlooking the beach are perfect spots for family picnics.

If you stop in North Pole, don't skip this shop known for its over-the-top Christmas kitsch. Look for the gigantic 42-foot Santa statue and the Christmas murals on the side of the building, as well as the year-round department-store-style display windows. Inside, you'll find toys, gifts, Alaska handicrafts, and, of course, Christmas cookies. Santa is on duty to talk to children in summer and during the holiday season. Also in summer, visit Antler Academy inside the red reindeer barn, where guests can hand feed Santa's sleigh team. And yes, you can get your mail sent with a genuine North Pole postmark, a service offered since 1952.

Across the street from the Tumacácori National Historic Park, the Santa Cruz Spice Factory packs and sells 240 varieties of herbs and spices, including the owner's home-grown chili powders and pastes. A little museum, tasting area, and store are open Monday through Saturday.

On the northern fringes of downtown is the site of California's 12th Spanish mission, built in the 1790s and destroyed by an earthquake in 1857. A museum in a restored 1791 adobe and a half-scale replica of the mission church are part of the complex.

Jutting half a mile into the ocean near one end of the boardwalk, the century-old Municipal Wharf is lined with seafood restaurants, a wine bar, souvenir shops, and outfitters offering bay cruises, fishing trips, and boat rentals. A salty soundtrack drifts up from under the wharf, where barking sea lions lounge in heaps on the crossbeams.

This museum inside the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse chronicles local surfing history. Photographs show old-time surfers, and a display of boards includes rarities such as a heavy redwood plank predating the fiberglass era and the remains of a modern board chomped by a great white shark. Surfer docents reminisce about the good old days.

Two tables sit in the shade—with views toward the canyon—next to the parking lot at the trailhead. There is a vault toilet.

This 14-acre garden, located across the road from the Folk Art and Native American museums, provides another great reason for exploring Museum Hill. Situated on a bluff with fantastic views of the surrounding mountains, the facility is divided into four sections that emphasize distinct elements of New Mexico's flora and terrain: the Orchard Gardens, Ojos y Manos: Eyes and Hands, the Courtyard Gardens, and the Arroyo Trails. You can gain a much fuller sense of what's planted and why by embarking on one of the free guided tours, offered daily (call for hours). Also be sure to check the website to see which events might be happening at the outdoor amphitheater.

Stimulating hands-on exhibits, a solar greenhouse, oversize geometric forms, and an 18-foot indoor rock-climbing wall all contribute to this museum's popularity with kids. Outdoor gardens with climbing structures, forts, and hands-on activities are great for whiling away the time in the shade of big trees. Puppeteers and storytellers perform often.

The Mission-style Santa Fe Depot, which replaced the original 1887 station on this site when it opened in 1915 for the Panama–California International Exposition, serves Amtrak and Coaster passengers. A booth here has bus schedules, maps, and tourist brochures. Formerly an easily spotted area landmark, the graceful, tile-dome depot is now overshadowed by 1 America Plaza, the 34-story office tower across the street. At the base of this skyscraper, designed by architect Helmut Jahn, is a center linking the city's train and bus systems, as well as MTS's red trolleys, which run from the station all the way to the Mexico border. The building's signature crescent-shape, glass-and-steel canopy arches out over the trolley tracks.

Santa Monica Boulevard is part of the historic Route 66. As American songwriter Bobby Troup sang, "Get Your Kicks on Route 66," along this lively commercial core of West Hollywood. It's filled with trendy restaurants and cafés, shops and galleries, and LGBTQIA+-friendly bars and clubs. Park your car and walk from Fairfax Avenue to Doheny Drive. The fashionable West Hollywood Design District runs between La Cienega Boulevard and Doheny Drive. 

Jointly managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, this 280,000-acre desert habitat protects animals like Peninsular bighorn sheep and contains areas of geological, cultural, and scientific significance. You can experience the monument using an augmented-reality app or by hiking one of several trails that wind through it. You can access the backcountry from the Coachella Valley and the nearby alpine village of Idyllwild.

Between Santa Cruz and San Miguel, Santa Rosa is the second largest of the Channel Islands. The terrain along the coast varies from broad, sandy beaches to sheer cliffs—a central mountain range, rising to 1,589 feet, breaks the island's relatively low profile. Santa Rosa is home to about 500 species of plants, including the rare Torrey pine, and three unusual mammals, the island fox, the spotted skunk, and the deer mouse. They hardly compare, though, to their predecessors: a nearly complete skeleton of a 6-foot-tall pygmy mammoth was unearthed in 1994.

From 1901 to 1998, cattle were raised at the island's Vail & Vickers Ranch. The route from Santa Rosa's landing dock to the campground passes by the historic ranch buildings, barns, equipment, and the wooden pier where cattle were brought onto the island.

This 9,000-acre wooded preserve provides a glimpse of what this countryside was like back in the day, with bunch-grass prairies frequented by mule deer, golden eagles, and other wildlife. Trails wind through ancient oak forests and past seasonal, vernal pools and rolling grassland. A visitor and operations center has interpretive displays and maps; some of the reserve's hiking trails begin here. There are designated trails for leashed dogs, horses, and mountain bikers.

The nature center is a good place to start before heading out to explore the 6,347-acre Santa Ysabel Preserve. There are interactive exhibits, maps, info on ranger-led hikes and astronomy lectures, restrooms, and a water refilling station. This valley looks pretty much the way the backcountry appeared a century ago, with sweeping meadows surrounded by oak-studded hillsides. The San Dieguito River (Santa Ysabel Creek) emerges from Volcan Mountain here and winds its way 65 miles to San Dieguito Lagoon at Del Mar along the Coast to Crest Trail. A 7-mile trail follows the river for the first mile, from Farmer Road in Julian to the East Entrance of Santa Ysabel Preserve. Legacy oak trees shade the trail, there are spectacular views along the way, and picnic tables abound. The trail is best explored in the fall.

This simple theme park (2 mi northwest of Wilmington) with rides and live reindeer is ideal for small children. Santa and his helpers talk with children, and elves practice their crafts in shops around the park. On Sunday evenings in late December, visitors can take in the brightly lighted Village of Lights.

Dammed in 1928, this lake's name means "blue waters" in the Cherokee language. Cheoah Point Beach, in a cove on the north shore, is an attractive popular place to swim. Santeetlah has 76 miles of shoreline, with good fishing for crappie, bream, and lake trout, and is part of the Nantahala National Forest.

A massive-walled adobe structure built by Franciscan missionaries between 1776 and 1795, this is the oldest shrine in the United States to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. The church's adobe walls are nearly 3 feet thick, and among the sanctuary's religious art and artifacts is a beloved image of Nuestra Virgen de Guadalupe, painted by Mexican master Jose de Alcibar in 1783. Highlights are the traditional New Mexican carved and painted altar screen called a reredos, an authentic 19th-century sacristy, a pictorial-history archive, a library devoted to Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy that is furnished with many of his belongings, and a garden with plants from the Holy Land.

Start your visit here, on the mainland near the Sapelo Island ferry docks, where you can view exhibits on the island's history, culture, and ecology, and get helpful trip planning tips from knowledgeable staff. Check in advance to see if they are offering a bus tour of the island on the day of your visit. The sights that make up the bus tour vary, but generally include the old sugar mill, the airfield, the cemetery, Nanny Goat Beach, and the 80-foot-tall Sapelo Lighthouse. Built in 1820, it's a symbol of the thriving cotton and lumber industry once based out of Darien. You may also book a tour with one of the residents on Sapelo Island—staff can assist. To get to the visitor center and Meridian ferry dock from downtown Darien, go north on Route 99 for 8 miles, following signs for the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve. Turn right on to Landing Road at the Elm Grove Baptist Church in Meridian. The visitor center is about ½ mile down the road.

Four miles of trails lead through the 220-acre Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary, part of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Bird artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes named the woods after two yellow-bellied sapsuckers he had spotted in the area. A computer touch screen leads you through interpretive displays. The visitor center is open weekdays 8–5 (until 4 on Friday), Saturday 9:30–4, and Sunday 11–4.

Learn how the F. X. Matt Brewing Co. creates its Saranac-brand traditional lager, pale ale, pilsner, Adirondack amber, and old-fashioned root beer. The same family has operated the seven-story brick brew house for more than a century. Inhaling the yeasty aroma of fermenting hops and malt, you can see several steps of the brewing process. Tours are on the hour and end with a beer or root-beer sampling. Call in advance for reservations.

One of the state's charming, family-owned and -operated attractions fills 10 acres with native and exotic plants and animals. The gardens date from 1939, and still have an Old Florida feel. Residents include red-tailed hawks and great horned owls, American alligators, and a variety of snakes, as well as furry creatures such as lemurs and prairie dogs. You can talk to trainers; take in the Wildlife Wonder, Reptile, or Jungle Bird shows; wander through a butterfly house and garden; hand-feed flamingoes; and learn about plants like the rare Australian nut tree and the Peruvian apple cactus. A café and a jungle-theme playground are also among the offerings.

America's love affair with the car is celebrated in this museum in a former bottling plant in Saratoga Spa State Park. Included are three galleries and an orientation theater. Changing exhibits display classic and racing cars.

The museum, on the grounds of Saratoga Raceway, displays antique horseshoes, high-wheeled sulkies (the two-wheeled vehicles used for harness racing), and horse-related artwork.

Hot mineral waters flow freely through the Saratoga Hobo Hot Springs, and the adjacent cooler swimming pool is heated by the springs. People have been coming here to soak for generations, including Native Americans, who considered the area neutral territory. Hardy folk can do as the Native Americans did and first soak in the hot water, then jump into the adjacent icy waters of the North Platte River. The free pools are open all day, every day. Bathing suits are required.

The former Union Pacific Railroad depot houses the Saratoga Museum, with displays of local artifacts related to the history and geology of the area. Outdoor exhibits include a sheep wagon, caboose, and a one-bedroom cabin built by a local pioneer.

The Battle of Saratoga, fought 12 mi southeast of Saratoga Springs at this site in 1777, is recognized as the turning point in the American Revolution. The visitor center at the Route 32 entrance provides historic information and an orientation to the park, which encompasses the battlefield and two sites in the nearby villages of Schuylerville and Victory. Ten stops along a 9½-mi tour road through the battlefield explain the battle and its significance. Reenactments and other living-history programs are scheduled throughout the summer. The road is popular with bicyclists in warm-weather months and, when closed to traffic in winter, with cross-country skiers. The John Neilson House, the only structure standing on the battlefield that was here in the time of the Battle of Saratoga, might have served as headquarters for Benedict Arnold.