10457 Best Sights in USA

Guided bus tours offer the most informative introduction to the park. Each trip is led by a trained naturalist who drives the bus and gives a full narration. All tours include rest stops approximately every 90 minutes. Unlike the transit buses, you are not allowed to wander off on your own. The shortest is the five-hour Natural History Tour that travels to Teklanika at Mile 27. Besides moose and the occasional caribou, chances of seeing the park's large mammals are limited on this route, and glimpses of Denali are possible but not probable. The next longest option is the seven to eight-hour Tundra Wilderness Tour that reaches Stony Brook at Mile 62; this is the best choice for wildlife and photography enthusiasts. The longest narrated tour is the Kantishna Experience, a 12-hour extravaganza that runs the full 92 miles of park road to the old mining town of Kantishna. Advance reservations are required for all bus tours, and they can be made starting on December 1, with exact departure times fluctuating depending on demand and time of year. It's best to consult Doyon/Aramark for an exact schedule as departure times are often not set until a few days before.

Gain admission to eight of the town's sites and gain access to a hop-on, hop-off narrated trolley tour (July and August only) with the Tour Lockport pass, available from the Erie Canal Discovery Center and other sights.

Offering slow waves and frequent winds, this is one of the most popular beaches for surfers. For windsurfing and kiteboarding, it's only sailable with northwest winds. The 175-space parking lot at the foot of Tourmaline Street normally fills to capacity by midday, but additional parking can be found on side streets a bit north. Just like Pacific Beach, Tourmaline has soft, tawny-color sand, but when the tide is in the beach becomes quite narrow, making finding a good sunbathing spot a bit of a challenge. Parking will be difficult on evenings and weekends. Amenities: lifeguards (seasonal); parking (no fee); showers; toilets. Best for: surfing; windsurfing.

Get up-close and personal with the city's avenues, architecture, neighborhoods, and history on a two-hour stroll through Downtown or Ohio City. These walks give you a chance to take in Cleveland's many works of public art, including the ironic backwards "FREE" stamp at City Hall. Tours begin at 10 am for both the downtown option (offered on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays) and the Ohio City option (offered on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays). The Ohio City tour requires an additional $3 transit fare per person. Reservations must be made at least one day in advance.

Get a glimpse of what Phoenix was like a century ago by touring the extensive grounds and the two floors of the castle, constructed in the 1920s and early 1930s. Unfortunately, the cupola—the castle's "crown"—doesn't meet fire codes, so visitors can't get the 360-degree views that cattle baron E. A. Tovrea enjoyed. A Phoenix landmark, this 44-acre site in central Phoenix is managed jointly by the city of Phoenix and a group of loyal preservationists. Reservations are required, and tickets go on sale months in advance; plan ahead to avoid disappointment.

Check with park rangers before attempting the dirt road through Salt Valley to the Klondike Bluffs parking area. If rains haven't washed out the road, a trip to this seldom-visited area provides a solitude-filled hike that takes visitors up a rock wall, across a valley, and through sand dunes before culminating in a giant rock opening. Allow from two to three hours for this 2.6-mile round-trip hike, not including the drive. Moderate.

This relatively short but steep, less-crowded hike on the Fairyland Loop takes you to a natural bridge deep in the amphitheater. Walk through pink and white badlands with hoodoos all around on this 3-mile trip that takes two to three hours and incurs 760 feet of elevation change. Moderate.

This is one of the easiest waterfalls to see from the roadside; you can also view volcanic pinnacles here. Tower Creek plunges 132 feet at this waterfall to join the Yellowstone River. While a trail that used to go to the base of the falls has washed out, it will take trekkers down to the river.

At 750 feet tall, here you can take a glass-elevator ride traveling at 800 feet per minute, straight up, a very intense 43 seconds. Once the symbol of HemisFair '68, the 1968 World's Fair in San Antonio, locals now just call it "The Tower." Three elevators can carry almost 2,000 passengers an hour. There are two observation decks, a café, a gift shop, a 4D movie theater, and the revolving Chart House, a steak-and-seafood restaurant at the top. One admission ticket covers the elevator ride, admission to the on-site 4D theater (a multisensory movie experience), and access to the Flags Over Texas Observation Deck.

First Hill's recently renovated Town Hall cultural center hosts scores of events in its spacious yet intimate Great Hall, chief among them talks and panel discussions with leading politicians, authors, scientists, and academics.

Ideal for quiet ambles, this sandy stretch is also noteworthy for a casual restaurant, the no-frills breezy Dune Deck Café, which is perched above the waterline and offers great views for an oceanfront breakfast or lunch. The beach's huge parking lot is directly adjacent to the Eau Palm Beach (meters take credit cards), and diagonally across the street is a sizable strip mall with all sorts of conveniences, including boutiques and more eateries. Note: the beach is very narrow and large rocks loom in the water. Nevertheless, these are some of the clearest waters along the Florida coastline, and they make an idyllic background for long walks and great photos. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); showers; toilets. Best for: walking.

You know you're here if you see Palm Beach's younger generation frolicking on the sands and locals setting up chairs as the sun reflects off their gleaming white veneers. The Worth Avenue clock tower is within sight, but the gateways to the sand are actually on Chilean Avenue, Brazilian Avenue, and Gulfstream Road. It's definitely the most central and longest lifeguarded strip open to everyone and a popular choice for hotel guests from the Colony, Chesterfield, and Brazilian Court. Lifeguards are present from Brazilian Avenue down to Chilean Avenue. It's also BYOC (bring your own chair). You'll find no water-sports or food vendors here; however, casual eateries are a quick walk away. Metered spots line A1A. Amenities: lifeguards; showers. Best for: sunset; swimming.

Between Nauticus and Waterside Festival Marketplace, this park is the site of many free outdoor festivals and concerts, the annual Fleet Week and Harborfest, and a wine festival. Fun, food, and music are here most Fridays from May through October. Check the website and local newspapers for events.

Over the years, this winery—founded by Don Townshend in Green Bluff—won awards for its Cabernet Sauvignon. Now a second-generation winery, current owner Brendon Townshend moved it to Spokane in 2022 and opened a tasting room in the midst of the wine-making operations, giving visitors a closer look at the process.

Rare and one-of-a-kind toys are on display at this museum, which also houses a collection of Fisher-Price toys from 1931 to the present; a huge fully furnished dollhouse; circa-1970 puppets from the locally syndicated Commander Tom Show; and changing exhibits. The Fisher-Price toy store is next door.

If there's a train buff in your family, the Toy Train Depot in Alamogordo's Alameda Park is a must-see. Here, a narrow-gauge train rumbles along a 2½-mi track, and a depot, built in 1898, displays elaborate toy train layouts in five rooms. There are live steam engines on display, and you can hear real whistles and rumbles from nearby heavy freight trains (the attraction is only 50 yards from the Union Pacific main line). One room in the depot is an incredible re-creation of the railroad system between Alamogordo, Cloudcroft, and Ruidoso.

The National Basketball Association's Houston Rockets, the WNBA's Comets, and the American Hockey League's Houston Aeros play in this downtown arena. Concerts and other events are also held here.

Easily walkable for even the smallest kids, this family-friendly facility in gracious Liberty Park features more than 100 species of birds found on the Western Hemispheric Flyway, a migratory pattern that includes Great Salt Lake. You will see emus, bald eagles, flamingos, parrots, several types of waterfowl, and maybe even a wandering peacock. There are bird shows and educational activities daily.

A Flemish Revival mansion built in 1913 for John B. Kendrick, cattleman and one of Wyoming's first governors and senators, is now the Trail End State Historic Site. The furnishings and exhibits in the home are designed to depict early-20th-century ranching on the Plains. Highlights include elegant hand-carved woodwork and a third-floor ballroom.

This ½-mile boardwalk loop through an ancient cedar and hemlock forest is a favorite of families with small children and people with disabilities (it's wheelchair-accessible). Interpretive signs describe the habitat and natural history. Easy.

Less than ½ mile long, this loop trail winds its way through one of the finest surviving stands of old-growth western red cedar in Washington. Some of the trees along the path are more than 1,000 years old. Easy.

Meandering for 73 miles through northern Idaho, from Plummer (63 miles south of Coeur d'Alenes via U.S. 95), to Mullen and along the shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene, this former Union Pacific “rail to trail” is popular among hikers, in-line skaters, joggers, and cyclists. In the winter, it attracts snowshoers and Nordic skiers.The paved pathway, with regular camping and rest areas, rolls by the chain lakes region and marshy wetlands that are perfect for fishing and canoeing. After passing through the mountains of the historic Silver Valley mining area and under the shadow of the Silver Mountain ski resort, the trail levels out on the Palouse prairie.

This ¾-mile loop is notable for its glimpses of meadowland ecology, its colorful soda springs (don't drink the water), James Longmire's old homestead cabin, and the foundation of the old Longmire Springs Hotel, which was destroyed by fire around 1900. Easy.

Look down on a dramatic view of the Bright Angel and Plateau Point trails as they zigzag down the canyon. In the deep gorge to the north flows Bright Angel Creek, one of the region's few permanent tributary streams of the Colorado River. Toward the south is an unobstructed view of the distant San Francisco Peaks, as well as Bill Williams Mountain and Red Butte.

As you come around a bend in NM 434 heading from El Turquillo toward Mora, behold the Sangre de Cristo range, specifically the east side of Trampas and Truchas peaks, from an angle few tourists ever see. Just before Mora and the intersection with NM 518 is an intricate network of irrigation ditches that farmers employ to keep this region so fertile.

This cool oasis of fountains and walkways was built to commemorate the first landing on the moon by the Apollo 11 mission. The terrain of mounds and depressions throughout the two-block park evokes the cratered surface of the moon, and the fountain's stainless steel cylinders are designed to resemble rocket boosters.

At a pullout just north of Fairbanks you can see and touch the famous Trans-Alaska Pipeline. This 48-inch-diameter pipe travels 800 miles from the oil fields on the North Slope of the Brooks Range over three mountain ranges and over more than 500 rivers and streams to the terminal in Valdez. There the crude oil is pumped onto tanker ships and transported to oil refineries in the Lower 48 states. Since the pipeline began operations in 1977, more than 18 billion barrels of North Slope crude have been pumped. Currently the pipe is carrying about 450,000 barrels per day (less than a quarter of its peak figures from 1988).