10455 Best Sights in USA

Crowned with a large outcrop of Arkansas novaculite, the summit of West Mountain provides views of Hot Springs, the national park, and the surrounding peaks, including Music Mountain, the park's tallest peak at 1,329 feet. This overlook is the last stop along the West Mountain Scenic Drive before heading back down the mountain. It's a nice place to stretch your legs, with access to Sunset Trail.

This small ranger station is just past the park's western entrance, about 10 miles east of Soledad. Here you can get maps and information, watch a 13-minute film about Pinnacles, and view interpretive exhibits. No food or drink is available here.

The ruins of a 19th-century iron foundry stand here amid a babbling brook and 87 acres of preserved marshland and woodland. Scenic trails and interpretive features recount how the foundry once buzzed with activity as the original commercial hub of Cold Spring village. Its employees manufactured Civil War cannons, cannon balls, and guns, as well as cast-iron facades for SoHo warehouses and even the nation's first domestically made locomotive. Today there's also a replica of a historic gun platform. To get here from Main Street, turn south onto Kemble Avenue and take it to the end, proceed through the gate, turn left, and follow the path to the site. The preserve is accessible from the Cold Spring Metro-North train station.

This 404-acre city park on the banks of the Eno River boasts a restored mill dating from 1778—one of 32 that once dotted the area. Also on-site are a 19th-century Greek revival farmhouse that was occupied by John Cabe McCown, the onetime owner of the mill, and a museum that showcases early-20th-century photographer Hugh Mangum's pictures of the surrounding area. The Festival for the Eno, held around July 4, includes musicians, artists, and craftspeople from around the region.

Between the Potomac and the Tidal Basin, this park is known for its flowering cherry trees, which bloom for two weeks in late March or early April. It also includes a slew of memorials, including those honoring Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and George Mason, as well as the World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War Veterans memorials. It's a nice place to play ball, picnic, or just relax while admiring the water views.

For a long, moderately strenuous trek, try this 12½-mile loop. The difficult West Ridge segment passes redwoods looming above a carpet of ferns. The slightly less taxing Friendship Ridge portion slopes down toward the coast through spruce and hemlock forests and accesses Fern Canyon. The moderate James Irvine Trail winds along a small creek amid dense redwood stands. For a less intensive experience, hike only one section. Moderate.

Located in Seattle's business district are 11 murals depicting local history. Some are trompe-l'œils, like the realistic 1918 street scene, The Junction, which appears to vanish into the horizon. Another mural is taken from a postcard of 1920s Alki. The most colorful is The Hi-Yu Parade, with its rendition of a Wizard of Oz–theme float reminding locals of a 1973 summer celebration. In 2019, a new Mural Alley off the 4700 block of California Ave SW added five new murals to the collection, and the original 11 underwent restoration between 2018 and 2020.

This 1925 log cabin houses a bookstore and doubles as a warming hut in winter. There are restrooms in the parking area. In summer, check for informal ranger-led discussions beneath the old sequoia tree.

In a joint effort with neighboring Silver Cliff, this remote and picturesque town at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains became the state's first International Dark Sky Community in 2015. Nestled in quiet Custer County, mountains shade the town from light pollution to the east, preserving the dark nights that provide a perfect backdrop for stargazing year-round. Once a mining town, Westcliffe's 600 residents now thrive mostly on agriculture and ranching, but spring and summer festivals attract tourists from around the world to the charming Main Street, as does the access to outdoor activities. Westcliffe offers over 200 miles of hiking and biking trails in the summer and alpine cross-country ski routes in the winter. Rock climbing and fishing are also easily accessed from here.

The library, in the heart of downtown Westerly, also serves neighboring Pawcatuck, Connecticut. The library's Hoxie Gallery holds art exhibitions. Adjacent to the library, Wilcox Park, a 14½-acre Victorian strolling park designed in 1898 by Warren Manning—an associate of Frederick Law Olmsted, co-creator of New York's Central Park—has a pond, a meadow, an arboretum, a perennials garden, sculptures, fountains, and monuments. The Runaway Bunny, a sculpture inspired by the children's book of the same name, is popular with the little ones. A garden market, arts festivals, concerts, and Shakespeare-in-the-park productions are held periodically.

You can almost hear the murmur of passengers and rhythmic, metal-on-metal clatter as you stroll past the old cabooses, railcars, and engines, such as Sante Fe Number 95, that are on display outside the historic Barstow station housing this museum. Inside, the memorabilia includes a train simulator, rail equipment, a model railroad, items from the depot’s Harvey House days, and period dining-car china from railways around the country.

Housed at Hood River's tiny airport (general aviation only), the museum's impressive, meticulously restored, propeller-driven planes are all still in flying condition, and the oldest date back to the 1910s. The antique steam cars, Model Ts, and sleek Depression-era sedans are road-worthy, too. Periodic car shows and an annual fly-in draw thousands of history buffs and spectators.

Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s Western Head Preserve flanks the coast on the south side of Cutler Harbor. This pristine 247-acre preserve is known for its awesome Bold Coast views. Along the steep cliffs, wind and salt spray have sculpted spruce and fir trees into odd, stunted shapes. Cranberries, iris, and juniper grow from rock ledges. There are beaches here.

The permanent exhibits here include oral histories, artifacts, and kid-friendly interactive displays tracing the lives of Native Americans, ranchers, homesteaders, immigrants, and railroad workers who lived in the area from 1880 onward. Native American interpretive programs are also offered. The impressive castlelike building that houses the center, and a gift shop, is almost as interesting as the exhibits. At noon on the third Thursday of every month, there is a historical presentation.

Puffing through dark stone tunnels and along majestic cliffs, this scenic rail excursion allows passengers to relive the glory days of trains in Cumberland and beyond. A 1916 Baldwin locomotive carries you uphill through the Narrows and scenic mountains as a narrator explains the region's history. The journey is 32 mi (3½-hours) round-trip to Frostburg. A 90-minute layover in Frostburg, a college town, allows time for lunch at one of the many restaurants on the city's main street, just up the hill. A diesel engine typically runs on weekdays, with the more popular steam engine saved for weekends. For a fun twist, try dinner and drinks on a murder-mystery train or take the kids on the North Pole Express at Christmastime.

The Western New Mexico University Museum (WNMU) contains the world's largest permanent display of distinctive black-on-white Mimbres pottery (it's especially notable for its crisply painted animal forms). The Mimbres collection—which the museum bought for a remarkable $1,000 from the family of the man who procured most of the pieces by illicit pot hunting—fills the main floor of this 1917 Trost & Trost building that once housed WNMU's science classes and gym. Town history exhibits are displayed downstairs, including a period classroom and the original gym floor. Set on a hill on the west end of town, WNMU's campus offers a nice view of the surrounding mountains and the valley below; the museum's topmost floor is window-lined, and visitors can enjoy the broader view from that vantage point, as well as historic photos and other university memorabilia. Mimbres designs are reproduced on mugs and more in the gift shop.

Developed beginning in 1836 and landscaped by the Olmsted Brothers, this 18-acre park is one Portland's oldest preserved spaces. It offers wonderful sunset views in spots, as well as a network of wooded trails, places to sit and people-watch, and paths that pass by the neighborhood's historic homes.

A good place to start is at the head of the Western Promenade, which has benches and a nice view. From the Old Port, take Danforth Street all the way up to Vaughn Street; take a right on Vaughn and then an immediate left onto Western Promenade. Pass by the Western Cemetery, Portland's second official burial ground, laid out in 1829—inside is the ancestral plot of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow—and look for street parking.

This museum, housed in two Italian Renaissance–style mansions, is considered Cleveland's oldest cultural institution. It chronicles the history of the Western Reserve, a tract of land on the south shore of Lake Erie in northeast Ohio, and houses a library and a top-notch auto and aviation collection.

You can see how the rich—and their servants—lived at the History Museum. The museum includes the Chisholm Halle Costume Wing, one of the nation's top-ranked collections, with garments from the late 1700s to the present. Guided tours of the Hay-McKinney Mansion are given every day between noon and 5.

Car Collectors magazine has called the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum one of the top 10 collections in the nation. Nearly 200 antique, vintage, and classic automobiles, from Model T's and the first enclosed automobile to late-model Jaguars, are on display. There are models dating to 1895, when Cleveland was a center of car manufacturing. The aviation collection includes a 1912 Curtiss Hydroaeroplane.

One admission ticket covers all three museums at the complex.

Dinosaurs, placed throughout the building, are among the prehistoric animal and plant specimens on display at the WWCC Natural History Museum. Species range in age from 67 million to 180 million years old. Don't miss the fossilized fish and the baby alligator. The museum also has rotating exhibits.

By day this historic pier is a good place to stroll—if you don't mind weatherworn wood and sandy, watery paths—and watch surf competitions, as the water here is a popular surf spot. By night visitors and locals—beach bums and surfers among them—head here to party. Weekends see live music.  The pier is also a great place to view launches from Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral.

Exhibits in this early-19th-century house depict life in the area from the 1700s through 1850. Photographs of early Westhampton Beach are on display, as are several spinning wheels and a turn-of-the-20th-century peanut-roasting machine used at the local general store. Special events include walking tours and lectures.

Built in 1904 and barely established as the most sumptuous hotel in town before it was ravaged by fire following the 1906 earthquake, this grande-dame hotel designed by Walter Danforth Bliss and William Baker Faville reopened in 1907 with the addition of a luxurious Italian Renaissance–style residence designed to attract loyal clients from among the world's rich and powerful. The hotel's checkered past includes the ill-fated 1921 bash in the suite of the silent-film superstar Fatty Arbuckle, at which a woman became ill, leading to her death. Arbuckle endured three sensational trials for rape and murder before being acquitted, by which time his career was kaput. In 1975, Sara Jane Moore, standing among a crowd outside the hotel, attempted to shoot then-President Gerald Ford. Of course, the grand lobby contains no plaques commemorating these events.  Some visitors make the St. Francis a stop whenever they're in town, soaking up the lobby ambience or enjoying a cocktail at the bar or holiday tea at the Oak Room Restaurant.

The city's oldest cemetery is the final resting place of Edgar Allan Poe and other famous Marylanders, including 15 generals from the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Dating from 1786, the cemetery was originally known as the Old Western Burying Grounds. In the early 1850s, a city ordinance demanded that burial grounds be part of a church, so a building was constructed above the cemetery, creating catacombs beneath it. In the 1930s, the schoolchildren of Baltimore collected pennies to raise the necessary funds for Poe's monument. Tours of Westminster Hall (which include the Burying Ground and Catacombs) are offered from April through November every first and third Friday at 6:30 pm and every Saturday at 10 am.

Weston Manor, built in 1789 by the Gilliam family, is a classic example of Virginia Georgian architecture, a formal five-bay manor with hipped roof. The family immigrated to Virginia in the 1600s as indentured servants, eventually acquiring several area plantations. Family members were descendants of Pocahontas, and a cousin married Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Maria. The distinctive interior moldings, wainscoting, and chair rails are 85% original.

This home was built circa 1720 by Colonel William Byrd II (1674–1744), an American aristocrat and founder of the city of Richmond who spent much of his time and money in London. He was in Virginia frequently enough to serve in both the upper and lower houses of the Colonial legislature at Williamsburg and to write one of the first travel books about the region (as well as a notorious secret diary, a frank account of plantation life and Colonial politics). Byrd lived here with his beloved library of 4,000 volumes. The house, celebrated for its moldings, carvings, and classic proportions, is open only during Garden Week in late April and to group tours of at least 10 people. However, it is worth the short drive off Route 5 to walk on the grounds beside the peaceful James River and smell the boxwoods. The grounds are arrayed with tulip poplars at least 100 years old, and other flowers are well tended. Three wrought-iron gates, imported from England by the colonel, are mounted on posts topped by figures of eagles with spread wings. Byrd's grave is here, inscribed with the eloquent, immodest, lengthy, and apt epitaph he composed for himself.

About 10 miles east of Westport, stop by this winery anchored by a 40-foot-tall lighthouse, first and foremost taking a self-guided stroll through the 15 acres of gorgeously tended gardens and some 60 whimsical outdoor sculptures, and then visiting the quirky International Mermaid Museum, which contains exhibits on ocean ecology. Wine tastings are another event here, and about 30 varieties are offered, including a respectable Bordeaux blend, a Pinot Gris-Riesling blend, and an array of sweeter, sometimes fruit-based creations. The attractive Sea Glass Grill, open daily for lunch, specializes in contemporary American fare.

This famed promontory is a Malibu pilgrimage for any visitor to the area. Go tide-pooling, fishing, snorkeling, or bird-watching (prime time is late winter to early spring). Hike to the top of the sandstone cliffs at Point Dume to whale-watch—their migrations can be seen between December and April—and take in dramatic coastal views. Westward is a favorite surfing beach, but the steep surf isn't for novices. The Sunset restaurant is between Westward and Point Dume ( 6800 Westward Beach Rd.). Otherwise, bring your own food, since the nearest concession is a long hike away. Some pathways and stairways may be temporarily inaccessible due to construction work. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); showers; toilets. Best for: surfing; walking.

One of the stalwarts of Distillery Row, this highly respected outfit (formerly known as House Spirits) opened in 2004 and now occupies this spacious 14,000-square-foot facility. It's earned international acclaim for its Westward American Single Malt Whiskey, made with locally sourced barley. In the cozy tasting room, you can also browse a fine selection of barware, books, and other booze-related gifts. Tours are offered every afternoon, but weekends are busy, so best to reserve a spot in advance. There's an additional tasting room at Portland International Airport and a bottle shop in Nob Hill. If you plan to check out a few of the spots on Distillery Row, be sure to order a Distillery Row Passport (www.distilleryrowpdx.com) or download the app, which gives credit toward tastings and tours and discounts at a number of restaurants, hotels, and shops around the city.