10405 Best Sights in USA

This Federal-period home has changed hands many times since it was built in 1794 by Richard Bland Lee, Northern Virginia's first representative to Congress. Citizen action in the 20th century saved it from destruction during construction of nearby Dulles Airport; it is now on the Register of National Historic Places. In the 1970s the house and its outbuildings were restored to their original appearance, with a representative kitchen and flower gardens. A 45-minute tour is offered every hour on the hour, and tours of the outbuildings and slave quarters are available daily at 2 pm from mid-March–mid-November. Educational programs, special events, and living-history programs are held here throughout the year.

This was the family home of local architect Thomas Sully, who designed it in 1886. The Queen Anne--style home uses mixed surfaces, including cypress shingles and bricks, on the exterior. Sully was known for his use of deep shades of color and varied textures.

Proof of Lassen Peak's volatility becomes evident shortly after you enter the park at the southwest entrance. Sidewalks skirt boiling springs and sulfur-emitting steam vents. Sulphur Works is usually the last site to close in winter, but even when the road is closed, you can access the area via a 2-mile round-trip hike through the snow.

This reproduction of a 1768 Colonial schooner by the same name was launched in 2001. With a length of 97 feet, the original Sultana was the smallest schooner ever registered on the Royal Navy Lists. The modern mission of this "Schoolship of the Chesapeake" is to provide unique, hands-on educational experiences in Colonial history and environmental science. Several two-hour public sails are available each month from April through November. Daylong public sails are scheduled on occasion. The Sultana can be seen close-up when she is anchored in the Chester River, at the end of Cannon Street. Additionally, half-day guided paddle tours operated by Sultana management are also available a few times a year in various Kent Count rivers.

At this 11-acre park more than a million gallons of water are used in the 18,000-square-foot wave pool, waterslides, children's activity pool with two slides, splash zone, and circular river for tubing and rafting. Inner tubes and life vests are provided at no extra charge.

The Summit County Huts Association has five backcountry cabins where skiers can spend the night (two are open for summer hikers). One popular touring route for backcountry skiing is the trip to Boreas Pass, just south of Breckenridge. The 6½-mile-long trail follows the route of a former railroad, with good views of distant peaks along the way.

Midway between the northern and southern entrances, Summit Lake is a fine place for an afternoon swim. A trail leads around the lakeshore, and several other trails lead east—for quite a few miles—toward a cluster of smaller lakes in the park's northeastern quadrant.

The scenic drive winds past Lookout Mountain, Round Mountain, Walton Lake, and Big Summit Prairie. The prairie abounds with trout-filled creeks and has one of the finest stands of ponderosa pines in the state; wild horses, coyote, deer, and sometimes even elk roam the area. The prairie can be glorious between late May and June, when wildflowers with evocative names like mule ears, paintbrush, checkermallow, and Peck's mariposa lily burst into bloom.

At Sumner Lake State Park you can boat, fish, camp, picnic, hike, sightsee, swim, and water-ski.

Though the original track was scrapped in 1947, an all-volunteer workforce has rebuilt more than 7 miles of track on the railroad's original right-of-way. Today the train operates along a 5-mile route in Sumpter. The historic trains leave from the McEwen and Sumpter stations; check website for departure information and reservations. A few additional fall foliage runs and Christmas trains are offered in October and December respectively.

It's a relatively easy ½-mile loop hike through wildflowers and dry meadow to this overlook, which has views of Crater Lake and Phantom Ship. Mind the cliff edges.

A stunning waterfall awaits at the end of this well-groomed, 1.3-mile trail along the cliffs and shores of picturesque St. Mary Lake. You can hike one-way and take a boat transfer back. Easy.

Sam Phillips' modest studio is the birthplace of rock 'n' roll, where Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, B. B. King, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Roy Orbison, among others, launched their careers. Tours are given every 30 minutes beginning at 10 am. The studio is seven blocks east of Downtown.

Although researchers believe it was probably a ceremonial structure, they're unsure of the exact purpose of this complex, which has no doors or windows in most of its chambers. Because the building was not quite half finished when it was left in 1276, some researchers surmise it might have been constructed to stave off whatever disaster caused its builders—and the other inhabitants of Mesa Verde—to leave.

Built in 1971, “The Center” is a museum and gallery space rich with local and international flavor. It has featured important guest lecturers like Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, and hosts year-round classes, workshops, performance theater, and rotating group exhibitions. In the summer, be sure to check out the concert series, with performers like Bonnie Raitt, or the August Arts & Crafts Festival. The Hailey location, a historic home 11 miles south of Ketchum, was the birthplace of poet Ezra Pound.

Across from the children's museum along the eastern edge of town, this splashy park has a Tadpole Pool as well as dumping buckets, spray guns, and other interactive features that will delight younger kids. The whole family will go for the diving pool, Sunny's Lazy River, and five waterslides. The park is generally closed from October to President's Day weekend (except during some local school breaks).

You may not be able to find monkeys in the wild in the Tampa Bay area (at least not naturally), but you can catch them bouncing around in their cages at this low-key facility. The alleged final home of Cheetah, the chimp who played Tarzan's sidekick for a couple of years in the 1930s, the sanctuary houses a whole slew of primates. One of the first you'll meet is Pongo, a massive Bornean orangutan; if he's in the right mood, he will greet you when you walk up.

The sanctuary also hosts baboons, lemurs, spider monkeys, macaques—you name it—many of them former pets or onetime laboratory test subjects that aren't deemed able to make it in the wild. There are also a few reptiles (you can get a picture of yourself holding a baby alligator) and a colorful array of birds. You may find the colorful plastic toys in the primate enclosures odd, but they actually serve to enhance the animals' senses.

A cool oasis amid St. Pete's urban clutter, this lush 4-acre plot was created from a lake that was drained in 1903. Explore the cascading waterfalls and koi ponds, and walk through the butterfly house and exotic gardens where more than 50,000 tropical plants and flowers from across the globe thrive amid groves of some of the area's most spectacular palm trees. The flock of wading flamingoes is a favorite here.

A guide in period costume escorts you through the 1830s home of Washington Irving, whose writings include classics like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. The eclectic building, one of the nation's earliest examples of romantic architecture, includes stepped gables that recall Dutch architecture and a curved roof modeled after that of a Spanish monastery. Sunnyside was often called America's Home, because it appeared in many landscape illustrations of the period. Irving's book-lined study is a highlight.

The 1½-mile-long loop of this self-guided trail takes you through the delicate subalpine meadows near the Sunrise Visitor Center. A gradual climb to the ridgetop yields magnificent views of Mt. Rainier and the more distant volcanic cones of Mt. Baker, Mt. Adams, and Glacier Peak. Easy.

This popular (and often crowded) scenic road to the highest drivable point at the park carves its way 11 miles up Sunrise Ridge from the White River Valley on the northeast side of the park. As you top the ridge, there are sweeping views of the surrounding lowlands. The road is usually open July through September.

Exhibits at this center explain the region's sparser alpine and subalpine ecology. A network of nearby loop trails leads you through alpine meadows and forest to overlooks that have broad views of the Cascades and Rainier. The visitor center has a snack bar and gift shop.

Drive—or better yet—bicycle the 3 mi to the south end of Sunset Boulevard for the sunset flag ceremony held from May to September; listen as Kate Smith belts out "God Bless America" and the flag is lowered for the night. Cape May "diamonds" (pebbles of pure, rounded quartz) wash up on this privately owned beach not far from the Cape May Lighthouse. Just off shore, the hulking wreck of the concrete ship Atlantus pokes out from the water and creates a tideflow that causes the quartz diamonds to collect in such abundance. Find your own, or visit the gift shops where they sell them already cut down and mounted in jewelry. Then, stop into the on-site Sunset Beach Grille for homemade crab cakes.

As the name suggests, this beach park is known as one of the best places in North Pinellas County to watch the sunset. It's a small beach but a great place to barbecue. From April through November there's a weekly concert. Amenities: toilets. Best for: sunset; swimming.

As the name would suggest, this natural park near Point Loma Nazarene University is one of the best places in San Diego to watch the sunset thanks to its cliff-top location and expansive ocean views. Some limited beach access is accessible via an extremely steep stairway at the foot of Ladera Street. There are three viewing spots in Ocean Beach at Luscombs Point, Ladera Street, and Osprey Point. Beware of the treacherous cliff trails and pay attention to warning signs since the cliffs are very unstable. If you're going to make your way to the narrow beach below, it's best to go at low tide when the southern end, near Cabrillo Point, reveals tide pools teeming with small sea creatures. Farther north the waves lure surfers, and Osprey Point offers good fishing off the rocks. Birders should visit the Hillside section of Sunset Cliffs Nature Park at Ladera Street, where 16 species have been observed, including the coastal California gnatcatcher. Keep your eyes peeled for migrating California gray whales during the winter months. Check WaveCast ( www.wavecast.com/socal) for tide schedules. There are portable toilets in the lower parking lot at Ladera Street. Amenities: parking (no fee); toilets. Best for: solitude; sunset; surfing.

Sunset Crater, a cinder cone that rises 1,000 feet, was an active volcano 900 years ago. Its final eruption contained iron and sulfur, which give the rim of the crater its glow and thus its name. You can walk around the base, but you can't descend into the huge, fragile cone.

The Tunnel Fire in 2022 heavily damaged the Lava Flow Trail---a half-hour, mile-long, self-guided walk that provides a good view of the lava formations and holes in the rock where volcanic gases vented to the surface---which is now closed indefinitely. The fire also damaged and closed the Lennox Crater Trail, which climbs 280 feet to the top of Lenox Crater; should it reopen, wear sturdy, closed-toe shoes since the cinder there is soft and crumbly. Lava Flow, Bonito Vista, and A'a trails are still open despite the fire.

From O'Leary Peak, a 5-mile hike from the visitor center on Forest Route 545A, enjoy great views of the San Francisco Peaks, the Painted Desert, and beyond. The trail is an unpaved, rutted road (closed during winter), with a steep 2.5-mile hike to the top. To get to the area from Flagstaff, take Santa Fe Avenue east to U.S. 89, and head north for 12 miles; turn right onto the road marked Sunset Crater and go another 2 miles to the visitor center.

Stretching 2 miles along Ocean Beach, the city's newest park opened in 2025 by closing part of the Great Highway to traffic. It features a skate space, fitness equipment, and a nature area for kids, as well as new murals, sculptures, and art installations. Not everyone is happy about the highway closure—in the naming contest, residents' suggestions included "The Park Nobody Wanted," "The Great Mistake," and "Nowhere to Park." 

As one of the best people-watching spots in town, people flock to this stretch of Sunset Boulevard for brunch or lunch and to browse in the trendy shops that offer a range of price points. Chin Chin has a delicious Chinese chicken salad, while Saltie Girl is for those craving seafood and New York style smoked fish.

Watch the late-day sun paint the hoodoos from this famous overlook a short walk from the Lodge at Bryce Canyon (or you can drive here via the short spur road off the main park road). You'll be treated to a striking view of Thor's Hammer, a delicate formation similar to a balanced rock. Sunset Point is also the access point for the tremendously popular hike 550 feet down into the amphitheater on the Navajo Loop.