10455 Best Sights in USA

This forest straddles New Hampshire and Maine, with the highest peaks on the New Hampshire side. The Maine section, though smaller, has magnificent rugged terrain. Hikers can enjoy everything from hour-long nature loops to a day hike up Speckled Mountain. The mountain is part of the 14,000-acre Caribou-Speckled Mountain Wilderness Area, one of several in the forest, but the only one entirely within Maine. The most popular Maine access to the national forest is via Route 113, which runs south from its terminus at U.S. 2 in Gilead, 10½ miles from Bethel. Most of Route 113 is the Pequawket Trail Maine Scenic Byway—the section through the forest is spectacular come fall and closed in winter for snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. Three of the forest's campgrounds are in Maine; backcountry camping is allowed.

The forest this trail passes through is no ordinary woodland. To your left is the Big Woods, one of the last remaining stands of original Old Growth forest in Kentucky. The trail descends into the Green River Valley to the north side of Dennison Ferry, and the White Oak backcountry campsite.  2.5 mi. Moderate. There is no ferry, and no cross-river access to the Dennison Ferry Day-Use Area.

President Calvin Coolidge used this great camp on Lake Osgood as his "summer White House" in 1926. Although built in 1907 and expanded in 1911 by William Massarene and Addison Mizner, the camp is noted for blending rustic architecture with a rather modern sensibility. If you're not staying at one of the guest cabins here, you may see the camp only as part of a guided tour. The tours (1½ to 2 hours) take in the bowling alley, tennis house, dining and great rooms, boathouse, and guest cabins. A Japanese teahouse on a small island is accessed by an arched stone bridge. The camp is 12 mi northwest of Saranac Lake.

The cliffs fall away on three sides at the end of this level, 1.8-mile out-and-back hike until you get a dramatic view of the White Rim and Monument Basin. There are restrooms but limited parking at the trailhead.

This museum is housed in a long building that served as a barracks for U.S. Army officers. Inside are exhibits such as a collection of guns dating to the Civil War and the plow used by Nathan Meeker to dig up the Utes' pony racetrack.

This 250-acre park in the heart of downtown is a cultural and recreational campus. At its west end is the Indianapolis Zoo and White River Gardens and on the east are several attractions including the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. Connecting the sides across the White River is the Historic Old Washington Street Pedestrian Bridge, originally built in 1833. Gentle banks slope to the river, with groves of weeping willows and other trees that invite visitors to picnic or just enjoy the view. The Promenade, which follows the upper banks of the White River, is built from 1,272 blocks of Indiana limestone and is accented with 14 stone tablets carved with renderings of famous buildings made of Indiana limestone, including New York's Empire State Building. A focal point of the Promenade is the hand-carved Rose Window, a limestone frame measuring more than 7 feet in diameter. The park also encompasses Victory Field baseball park, an outdoor music pavilion, Military Park, River Promenade, Pumphouse Visitors Center, and Celebration Plaza.

Open in summer, this small center serves almost exclusively serious hikers and campers venturing into the Stronghold or Palmer unit. If that's you, stop here to view park videos and for maps and details about road and trail conditions. The center is on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. While you're here you can see fossils and Native American artifacts, and learn about Lakota culture.

Directly behind this visitor center are four covered tables, where you can picnic simply and stay protected from the wind. There are also restroom facilities.

Here you can see outdoor displays of more than 50 rockets and missiles along with indoor exhibits honoring historic contributions of scientists including rocketry genius and inventor Wernher von Braun. The museum also contains accounts of early Native American inhabitants who occupied the surrounding Tularosa Basin. A newer display is an exhibit building with a cutout of the interior of the V-2 missile.

Though only the fifth-highest in the region, Whiteface Mountain is one of the best-known mountains in the Adirondacks. Veterans Memorial Highway twists and climbs 8 mi to the top of the mountain. Close to the peak is a parking lot; from here you can ride an elevator or hike the rest of the way up. Scenic gondola rides are available in the summer.

From the ridgetop near Mammoth Cave Campground, Whites Cave Trail makes its way down the wooded flank of Mammoth Cave ridge toward a spot where White Cave lies nestled underneath the forest floor. This small grotto with no known connection to the Mammoth Cave system isn't open to the public, but the trail passes by its entrance. 0.6 mile. Moderate.

Near Highlands and Cashiers, Whiteside Mountain is one of the highest continuous cliffs in the East. The sheer cliffs of white granite rise up to 750 feet, overlooking the Chattooga River in the Nantahala National Forest. A 2-mile loop (moderate) takes you to the top of the cliffs, including a long section following the striking ridgeline. The cliffs are also popular with rock climbers. Peregrine falcons nest here, and the cliffs are closed to climbers during falcon mating season.

U.S. 180 leads northwest about 50 mi from Silver City to Glenwood and Whitewater Canyon—the gateway to the western reaches of the Gila. Return to U.S. 180, and go north 3 miles (just before the very little town of Alma, where you can get some snacks at the Alma Grill or Trading Post), and turn east onto NM 159. Your rewarding destination, about 45 minutes in, on a sometimes one-lane dirt road, is Mogollon (muh-gee-yohn). The gold-mining town, established in the 1880s, was a ghost town for many years but has been revived in the last few decades by a dozen or so residents who live there year-round. A small museum, an antique shop, and a café operate on the weekends. Book a stay at the Silver Creek Inn (www.silvercreekinn.com) and you can spend the weekend exploring this interesting relic of the American West, as well as the breathtaking, and huge, Gila National Forest bordering it.

This relative new kid in the valley has quickly earned kudos for its value-friendly bottles, many of them priced below the $25 mark, including a silky, steak-friendly Cabernet Sauvignon and a bright and light rosé that's ideal on a hot summer night of grilling. If visiting the high-ceilinged tasting room on a cool day, opt for a seat by the fireplace or out on the patio, which is warmed by a fire table and space heaters. 

This is a reconstruction of Waiilatpu Mission, a Presbyterian outpost established on Cayuse lands in 1836. The park preserves the foundations of the mission buildings, a short segment of the Oregon Trail, and, on a nearby hill, the graveyard where the Native American victims of an 1847 measles epidemic and subsequent uprising are buried.

In addition to offering pick-your-own blueberries, tomatoes, and pumpkins on a seasonal basis, Whitney's sells fresh produce, herbs, and dairy products. A deli and a bakery are also on-site, as well as an outdoor playground and greenhouse.

Whitney's Farm has a large market with baked goods and a deli; you can also pick your own seasonal fruit. The fun Pumpkin Fest takes place on weekends, mid-September–October.

You don't have to be a Democrat to enjoy this historic building, which became the headquarters for the Women's National Democratic Club in 1927. The exquisitely decorated mansion, built in the 1890s and designed by D.C. architect Harvey Page for opera singer Sarah Adams Whittemore, has housed senators and cabinet members over the years. Now it's best known for its library, where Eleanor Roosevelt did her radio broadcasts, and its full-length portraits of first ladies, painted in a whimsical style by folk artist April Newhouse.

The Wichita Center for the Arts forms the hub of the local arts community, with a gallery, a theater, and various activities. The permanent art collection contains works from regional and national artists, and recent temporary exhibitions have included watercolors by Kansas artists and pastel on paper. The center has a lively program of classes and workshops, from four-week and 12-week fine-arts classes—ranging from pottery to printmaking and photography—to one-day workshops on topics like jewelry making and painting (while sipping wine). Performances in the theater range from Pulitzer Prize-winning plays to original scripts from Kansas playwrights.

Named for a Baptist minister who was one of Providence's first settlers, this main artery in the Fox Point district is home to antiques stores, art galleries, and trendy cafés. It also hosts the Coffee Exchange, one of the area's most popular gathering spots. Sidewalk sales are held in the spring and fall. Once home to mainly working-class Portuguese-Americans, the Wickenden Street area has become a popular area for off-campus student housing; Our Lady of the Rosary Church on adjacent Traverse Street still conducts some weekend Masses in Portuguese. Broadway impresario George M. Cohan was born at 536 Wickenden St.; look for his statue at the corner of Governor St.

This triangular little patch of green, donated to the city in 1870 by politician Charles Wicker, is a neighborhood favorite and home to softball fields, a children's water playground, a dog park, and outdoor movies. The handsome central fountain is a great spot for chilling out and people-watching in warm weather.

At the top of the hill behind the capitol, on a rise sometimes known as "Chicken Ridge," stands the former residence of James Wickersham, pioneer judge, delegate to Congress, prolific author, and gutsy outdoorsman. The white New England–style home, constructed in 1898, contains memorabilia from the judge's travels throughout Alaska—from rare Native basketry and ivory carvings to historic photos and a Chickering grand piano that came "'round the Horn" to Alaska in the 1870s. The tour provides a glimpse into the life of this dynamic man.

Dating to 1709, Wickford began as a fishing village, later a modestly busy port, and today retains its Colonial charms with street after street lined with preserved buildings dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, including a number of former sea captain's homes. One of the oldest Episcopal churches in America, the circa-1707 Old Narragansett Church, was originally located about five miles away but moved to Wickford in 1800. Wickford Harbor is a popular haven for pleasure boaters, and the calm waters also attract kayakers and standup paddleboarders. Fresh fish can still be bought off the town dock at the end of Main Street, and a pair of small bridges over tidal coves help define the pleasantly walkable shopping area on Brown Street. Several walking trails access undeveloped areas on the outskirts of town, and the town beach is a short walk or bike ride south along scenic route 1A. Wickford hosts Daffodil Days in the spring, the Wickford Art Festival in July, Wicked Week Halloween festivities late October, and the Festival of Lights in December.

Round-trip, Widforss Trail is 9.6 miles, with an elevation change of only 200 feet. Allow five to six hours for the hike, which starts at 8,080 feet and passes through shady forests of pine, spruce, fir, and aspen on its way to Widforss Point, at 7,900 feet. Here you'll have good views of five temples: Zoroaster, Brahma, and Deva to the southeast, and Buddha and Manu to the southwest. You are likely to see wildflowers in summer, and this is a good trail for viewing fall foliage. It's named in honor of artist Gunnar M. Widforss, renowned for his paintings of national park landscapes. Moderate.

At the source of several of Ouray's famed springs, this European-style spa and inn features rock-hewn vapor caves with a steamy soaking pool. In addition, there's a small outdoor pool, fed by continuously flowing hot-spring water. Massages and other treatments are offered at the spa. This is a strictly no-smoking facility, and no children under five are allowed in the caves.

In eastern Arizona, at the Wigwam Motel—where the basic rooms are inside 30-foot-tall wood-and-concrete tepees—you'll see a vast collection of classic cars, from a '59 Chevy Impala to a '51 Studebaker Land Cruiser in the parking lot.

This 85-acre hollow with picnic tables and a waterfall is a good place for a casual hike along a marked 1.6-mile loop trail that passes through a rare maritime oak-holly forest and winds along and over Dundery Brook. The trail passes a boulder dedicated to Queen Awashonks, who ruled the local Sakonnet tribe during the early Colonial period.

After President William McKinley was assassinated at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated as the nation's 26th president in the library of this Greek Revival mansion. You can take guided tours and view exhibits and gardens. Architectural walking tours are also available. The site underwent a major yearlong renovation in 2008 to rebuild the carriage house and to update and add exhibits.

Contrasting views of the Hill Country and the downtown skyline make it worth the winding country road trip to this gorgeous nature preserve just west of town. Wander among the 227 acres on a network of walking trails or take a guided tour offered on weekends (by reservation only). The cool folks at the on-site research center (partnered with local St. Edward's University) offer numerous outdoor-oriented classes, nighttime stargazing sessions, and even live concerts by local and touring musicians. Reservations to hike the basin trails are not required on weekdays but highly recommended on weekends. Staff closes the gates whenever the parking area is full.

Formerly Wild Blueberry Land and built to resemble a giant blueberry, this museum's deep-blue geodesic dome is a can't-miss landmark along U.S. 1. Exhibits focus on the native plant’s ecosystem; the canning of the fruit during the Civil War to help feed soldiers; local blueberry farmers; and research efforts to improve management of the wild crop. The gift shop sells items like candles and socks with a blueberry theme or design; books about Maine wild blueberries and the culture it feeds; and foods made with the fruit, such as blueberry jam, vinegar, pie, and chocolate truffles. Outside, look for the wild blueberry patch in the native pollinator garden.