10457 Best Sights in USA

Sited in a Colonial Revival manor house on Yorktown's waterfront, the Watermen's Museum was floated across the York River on a barge in 1987. In it you can learn more about the generations of men who have wrested a living from the Chesapeake Bay and nearby waters. The five galleries house ship models, dioramas, and artifacts themed on Chesapeake watermen, bay boats, harvesting fish, aquaculture, tools, and treasures. Outdoor exhibits include an original three-log canoe, dredges, engines, and other equipment used by working watermen past and present.

Venetian-style footbridges, cobblestone walkways, and an amphitheater encircling a tidal basin set the tone at this 4-acre park along the Woonasquatucket River near where it joins the Moshassuck River to form the Providence River. In summer and fall, it's the site of WaterFire, a multisensory installation featuring music, performances, and 80 wood-fired braziers permanently placed in the middle of the river and set alight between dusk and midnight on some nights. WaterFire attracts nearly 1 million visitors annually. Gondola and riverboat tours of the park and rivers are offered seasonally during special events.

This giant wrinkle, technically called a monocline, in the earth's crust extends almost 100 miles between Thousand Lake Mountain and Lake Powell. You can glimpse the fold by driving south on Scenic Drive after it branches off Highway 24, past the Fruita Historic District. For a more complete immersion, enter the park via the Burr Trail, heading east from Boulder. Roads through the park's South District are unpaved and sometimes very rough—they can be impassable after rain, so check with the visitor center for current road conditions.

You don't have to walk the 1.2-mile round-trip trail to the summit of Waterrock Knob for a view—the vistas from the visitor center are also wonderful—but a trip to the top for sunrise or sunset can be stunning. Heading northeast from Cherokee on the Parkway, this is the first trail and notable summit. 

Although the holding tanks of a 100-year-old water-treatment plant might not seem like the best location for fine art, the 10,000-square-foot WaterWorks Art Museum is actually very attractive. Overlooking the Yellowstone River, this permanent exhibit reflects the town's Western heritage and features both regional and national exhibits and features. The museum store features a variety of original artwork, reproductions, ceramics, and a good selection of Western U.S. history books.

"New York's Thunder Road" rumbles from June to September. The season's highlight is the NASCAR Series, in mid-August. On a Thunder Road Tour ($25; May–October, most days at noon), you drive the track in your own vehicle behind a pace car. Call for schedules and prices. You can get tickets, souvenirs, and merchandise at The Shop, at 4 North Franklin Street, downtown.

This Historic New England--operated farm on Narragansett Bay, in existence since 1789, is still a working farm. The farmers use sustainable practices to raise heritage-breed cows and sheep and to produce wool blankets for local markets. They also host educational programs; for example, during the annual Sheep Shearing Day in May you can visit the baby lambs, see the flock being shorn by local shearers, and watch spinning and weaving demonstrations. You can also stroll more than 2 miles of trails and view seasonal farm activities on this 265-acre property.

In the shadow of Krakatau, the volcano that looms over the park, is this wide beach with chairs by the hundreds. Arrive early to claim the best spot, or upgrade by renting a premium seat that includes a sun canopy. Park yourself in a chair and do absolutely nothing, or venture into the water, where, every so often, a set of waves washes across the bay. So the choice is yours: swim and splash, or rest and relax. Or maybe a little of both. For people with disabilities: A sloped entry makes it easier for guests using wheelchairs to enter the pool unassisted or with the help from someone in their party.

One of Yakima Valley's most buzzed-about winemakers, Wautoma Springs was founded by Jessica Munnell and Tom Merkle, two highly respected names in the state's viticultural community. They've quickly developed a following for a crisp Sauvignon Blanc with melon and grapefruit notes, and an inky reserve Malbec (it's actually named Inky) that you'll want to serve at your next steak dinner. The tasting room is in a newer section of Vintner's Village, in an airy, high-ceilinged building with comfy seating.

With views of the Hudson River and New Jersey's dramatic Palisades cliffs, Wave Hill is a former 19th-century estate with residents that have included Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain. Today it's a renowned 28-acre public garden and cultural center that attracts visitors from all over the world, with exquisite theme gardens, from an aquatic garden to a shade border. Grand beech and oak trees tower above wide lawns, an elegant pergola overlooks the majestic river view, and benches on curving pathways provide quiet respite. The 1843 Wave Hill House is home to The Café and hosts workshops, talks, and concerts. Exhibitions in the Glyndor Gallery take place spring through fall each year. On the grounds, visitors enjoy a wide range of gardening and wellness programs and walks year-round.

This statue at River Street and East Broad Ramp is a beloved symbol of Savannah's Southern hospitality. It commemorates Florence Martus, a sister to the lighthouse keeper, who waved to ships as they came into Savannah's port for more than 44 years. She would wave a white towel and, when young, always had her dog by her side. Late in her life, locals threw her a huge birthday party at Fort Pulaski with more than 5,000 guests. Despite having welcomed so many sailors to port, she died without ever having been wed.

Imagine a white-bearded Mark Twain relaxing in a rocking chair on one of the broad verandas of one of the park's first lodges, a whitewashed series of two-story buildings from the Victorian era. Plop down in one of the dozens of white Adirondack chairs on the sprawling lawn, and look across the road at the area's only golf course, one of the few links in the world that does not employ fertilizers or other chemicals.

Nathaniel Hawthorne lived at the Old Manse in 1842–45, working on stories and sketches; he then moved to Salem (where he wrote The Scarlet Letter) and later to Lenox (The House of the Seven Gables). In 1852 he returned to Concord, bought this rambling structure called The Wayside, and lived here until his death in 1864. The home certainly appealed to literary types: the subsequent owner of The Wayside, Margaret Sidney, wrote the children's book Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (1881), and before Hawthorne moved in, the Alcotts lived here, from 1845 to 1848. Notably, The Wayside is a site on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program, as the Alcotts helped at least one enslaved person on his way to Canada and freedom. An exhibit center, in the former barn, provides information about the Wayside authors and links them to major events in American history (open for special events). Hawthorne's tower-study, with his stand-up writing desk, is substantially as he left it.

Set on the campus of UNC-Greensboro, the museum is known for its permanent collection, which includes lithographs and bronzes by Henri Matisse and more than 400 Japanese woodblock prints. There's an outdoor sculpture garden, and ever-changing exhibitions of 20th-century and modern American art.

Honoring the history of the 19th-century Black community of Weeksville, one of the first communities of free Blacks in New York (founded by James Weeks), this Crown Heights museum with an industrial-modern building by Caples Jefferson Architects has rotating exhibitions, botanical gardens, and three preserved houses on gravely Hunterfly Road in the back, dating back to 1838. Tours inside these structures depicting life in the 1860s, 1900s, and 1930s can be booked through their website.