242 Best Sights in USA

At this lush green oasis, high atop bluffs near the confluence of the Columbia and Wenatchee rivers, visitors can commune with a blend of native rocks, ferns, mosses, pools, waterfalls, rock gardens, and conifers on a mile of paths. Herman Ohme purchased the land in 1929 as a private family retreat and developed the gardens—now owned and managed by Chelan County—for his wife, Ruth.

On Madison's far-east side, this garden has been acclaimed by Horticulture Magazine as being among North America's top ten. What sets the 16-acre garden of roses, herbs, and rocks apart is its authentic Thai pavilion, the only example in the continental United States and a gift from Thailand's government in 2001. It is surrounded by native plantings. Tropical plants and flowers, plus a rushing waterfall and free-flying birds, thrive in the gardens' year-round glass-pyramid conservatory heated to between 65°F and 95°F.

One of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside Japan, this serene landscape unfolds over 12½ acres of Washington Park, just a short stroll up the hill from the International Rose Test Garden. Designed by a Japanese landscape master, there are five separate garden styles: Strolling Pond Garden, Tea Garden, Natural Garden, Sand and Stone Garden, and Flat Garden. The Tea House was built in Japan and reconstructed here. An ambitious expansion designed by renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma added the Cultural Village, which contains a tea garden café, library, art gallery, and gift shop. The east side of the Pavilion has a majestic view of Portland and Mt. Hood. It's a pretty walk to get here from Downtown, but the garden is also easily reached by bus.  Knowledgeable volunteers guide daily public tours, which are free with admission; reservations are required (and can be booked online).

With more than 21 acres of display gardens and another 80 undeveloped acres laced with 5 miles of hiking trails, this tranquil, mesmerizing nature space provides many enjoyable hours of strolling. Of special interest are the Perennial, Fragrance, and Water Conservation gardens, the Daylily Collection, the Water Pavilion, and the Children's Garden. Lectures on everything from bugs to gardening in arid climates, workshops, and concerts are presented regularly. The popular Summer Concert Series attracts well-known musicians, from Bonnie Raitt to Pink Martini, as well as prominent performing arts companies like Ballet West. The pristine amphitheater seats approximately 3,000 people on its expansive lawn. The excellent Botanic Gift Shop offers books, soaps, sculptures, and fine gifts.

Opened in 2015 as the state's first botanic garden devoted to desert conservation, this beautiful space in the red hills on downtown's northern edge is ideal for a peaceful stroll and learning about water-efficient plants. More than 5,000 of them—including fragrant mesquite trees, prickly pear cactus, blue agave, Joshua trees, weeping yucca, and desert willows—thrive here, along with a meandering stream that's stocked with desert suckers, Virgin River chub, and other native species. Paths also lead past a number of boulders that preserve the tracks of dinosaurs that roamed here some 200 million years ago. The garden adjoins rugged Pioneer Park, a 52-acre expanse of rock-climbing and hiking terrain, with barbecue pits, picnic pavilions and tables, and both short and long trails.

This massive rock formation, estimated to be 200 million years old, includes special points of interest like a 100-foot waterfall; a 1,000-ton balanced rock; a suspended bridge (great for pictures); an old-school fantasy creation—Fairyland Caverns, lighted with black lights—that still wows the kids; and the legendary summit, 1,700 feet above sea level, named Lover's Leap, from which you can see seven states. Your self-guided trail tour will wind through 14 acres of rock formation and gardens with more than 400 species of native plants, trees, and shrubs, many of which are tagged, to the delight of gardeners. There's a Starbucks on-site—an indication of the site's popularity. Special events scheduled throughout the year include a brilliant display of holiday lights, beginning in late November.

The Roozen family and Washington Bulb Company established this 1,200-acre estate in Mount Vernon in 1985—it's the world's largest family-owned tulip-, daffodil-, and iris-growing business. Sixteen acres of greenhouses are filled with multicolored blossoms, and more than 200,000 bulbs are planted in the show gardens each fall. The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, held in April, is the main event, when the flowers pop up in neat, brilliant rows across the flat land, attracting thousands of sightseers. The garden and store are open year-round, and the staff is full of helpful advice for both novice and experienced gardeners. RoozenGarde is 6 miles east of La Conner. 

A wisteria-draped gazebo, the Carnivorous Plant Collection, and a Japanese garden with a lily pond teeming with fat koi fish are a few of the highlights of these 55 acres in Duke University's West Campus. More than 5 miles of pathways meander through formal plantings and woodlands. The Terrace Café serves lunch weekdays and brunch Saturday and Sunday seasonally.

The grounds at this 52-acre estate are a magnificent example of late-Victorian gardening and design. The rose garden overflows with 4,000 bushes; the other themed plantings include Japanese, pansy, blue-and-white, and rock gardens. An early-1900s conservatory houses the orchid collection and other exotic plants. The stunning 1887 Queen Anne mansion was built as a summer home by a wealthy New York City banker and his wife, who became Canandaigua's biggest benefactress. The library, the couple's favorite room, looks out on the Italian garden. The great hall features a massive leaded-glass window and an 1874 Steinway. Walking tours are offered weekdays at 1 and weekends at 10 and 1 from Memorial Day through September.

Just outside the Athens city limits, you'll find this tranquil, 313-acre wonderland of aromatic gardens and woodland paths. It has a massive conservatory overlooking the International Garden that functions as a welcome foyer and houses an art gallery, gift shop, and café. There's also a 2½-acre children's garden with interactive elements designed to engage children through all their senses. New in 2021 is a porcelain and decorative arts museum featuring eight galleries of nature-inspired artwork.

Sixty-three acres showcase the landscape design of Francis Cabot, founder of the Garden Conservancy. Display gardens span 12 of the acres, in settings ranging from rock cliffs and woodlands to placid pools and verdant lawns. Don't overlook the picture-perfect conservatory, where the winter garden includes trees and flowers native to South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.

These two public gardens offer a relaxing retreat along a stream that runs between two busy roads. The Bicentennial Garden houses sculptures (including large-scale interactive wind chimes), a Sensory Garden, a pétanque court, and a reconstructed mill and waterwheel. The Bog Garden includes wooden walkways that meander over water and wetlands.

Established by Congress in 1820, this is the oldest continually operating public garden in the United States. The conservatory sits at the foot of Capitol Hill and offers an escape from the stone-and-marble federal office buildings surrounding it. Inside are exotic rain-forest species, desert flora, a room full of orchids, and plants from all parts of the world. Walkways suspended 24 feet above the ground in the Tropics house provide a fascinating view of the plants. Established in 2006, the National Garden is an outdoor gardening laboratory featuring a Rose Garden, Pollinator Garden, First Ladies' Water Garden, and Regional Garden of Mid-Atlantic plants. Across Independence Avenue, Bartholdi Fountain and Gardens is a peaceful spot with shaded benches around the historic 30-foot fountain by the sculpture of the Statue of Liberty.

During azalea season (mid-April through May), this 451-acre oasis operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is a blaze of color. In early summer, clematis, peonies, rhododendrons, and roses bloom. At any time of year, the 22 original Corinthian columns from the U.S. Capitol, re-erected here in 1990, are striking. All 50 states are represented by a state tree in the Grove of State Trees. Since 2014, a pair of American bald eagles have made a home near the azaleas, and the nest can be seen via an unobstructed viewing scope. The arboretum has guided hikes throughout the year, including a Forest Bathing Walk, and dogs are allowed on the grounds as long as they're on a leash at all times. Check the website for schedules and to register. Don't miss the Bonsai and Penjing Museum.

At this 35-acre pleasure garden circling a country estate even the old tennis court has been transformed into a garden. If you enjoy flowers and paths, this is a great stop. It's lavish, but its over-the-top opulence is part of what makes it so enjoyable.

This lovely attraction is composed of 66 acres of gardens and lawns in White Rock Lake Park. Spend an hour or two here to escape the noise and traffic of the city, walk nature trails, admire sculpture, and recline in soft, manicured grass. The annual Dallas Blooms event, in early spring, boasts spectacular displays of tulips, daffodils, and other blooming bulbs. Fall delivers more than 150,000 autumn flowers as well as great displays of pumpkins and other gourds.

As you amble through the manicured landscape, past Japanese sculptures and perfect miniature pagodas and over ponds of carp, you may feel transported to a more peaceful plane, especially after sampling a cup of meditative Japanese green tea. Or maybe the shrieks of kids clambering over the almost vertical "humpback" bridges will keep you firmly in the here and now. Either way, this garden is one of those tourist spots that's truly worth a stop (a half hour will do). And at 5 acres, it's large enough that you'll always be able to find a bit of serenity, even when the tour buses drop by. The garden is especially lovely in March and April, when the cherry blossoms are in bloom.

Two blocks encompass the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Metreon (a busy, nondescript urban shopping mall), and Moscone Convention Center, but the gardens themselves are the everyday draw. Office workers and convention-goers escape to the green swath of the Great Lawn, the focal point of which is the memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. Powerful streams of water surge over large, jagged stone columns, mirroring the enduring force of King's words, which are carved on the stone walls and on glass blocks behind the waterfall. Moscone North is behind the memorial, and an overhead walkway leads to Moscone South and its rooftop attractions.

The gardens are liveliest during the week and during the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, from May through October (ybgfestival.org), with free performances.

Atop the Moscone Center perch a few lures for kids. The historic 1906 Looff carousel ( $5; $3 with museum admission) twirls daily 10–5. The carousel is attached to the Children's Creativity Museum ( creativity.org), an interactive arts-and-technology center ( $20) geared to children ages 3–12. Outside in the children's garden, kids adore the slides, including a 25-foot tube slide, at the play circle. Also part of the complex are an ice-skating rink and a bowling alley.

This garden's 67 lush acres feature azaleas, magnolias, and camellias that flourish near two freshwater lakes that attract waterfowl. This is not an ornate flower garden—it's more of a naturally beautiful place to take a stroll beside the river, enjoying native plants in bloom, trailside sculptures, and abundant birdlife. Take note of the greatest specimen in the gardens: a gargantuan five-century-old oak. June through October you can flutter among 300 to 400 butterflies in the huge butterfly house. The last tickets of the day are sold a half hour before closing. No pets (except service animals) are permitted.

The garden showcases perennials hardy enough to make it in Southcentral Alaska in several large display gardens, a pergola-enclosed herb garden, and a rock garden amid 110 acres of mixed boreal forest. There's a 1-mile nature trail loop to Campbell Creek, with views of the Chugach Range and a wildflower trail between the display gardens. Interpretive signs guide visitors and identify plants along the trail. Docent tours are available upon request, and events occur throughout the year, including a winter lights display complete with hot drinks and kicksleds. From June through August, the garden offers a complimentary shuttle from Downtown's Log Cabin Visitors Center.

You may feel like royalty here as you rest on the benches by the exquisitely tiled fountains—the garden's highlight—and it's no wonder: the garden's landscaping was inspired by the gardens surrounding the Alcazar Castle in Seville, Spain. Bordered by boxwood hedges, the garden is open year-round, allowing for a seasonally shifting color palette. The flower beds, for example, are ever-changing horticultural exhibits featuring more than 7,000 annuals for a nearly perpetual bloom.

This landmarked complex is a testament to the creative genius of the late American sculptor Ann Weaver Norton (1905–82), who was the second wife of Norton Museum founder, the industrialist Ralph H. Norton. A set of art galleries in the studio and main house where she lived is surrounded by 2 acres of gardens with 300 species of rare palm trees, eight brick megaliths, a monumental figure in Norwegian granite, and plantings designed to attract native birds.

Among Belle Isle's other attractions is the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, with one of the largest orchid collections in the country.

Step into "Edankraal," the studio of Anne Spencer, a late poet of the Harlem Renaissance, and where she penned her most significant works. Hers is the only work of a Virginian to appear in the Norton Anthology of Modern American and English Poetry. A librarian at one of Lynchburg's segregated black schools, Spencer (1882–1975) penned most of her work in this back-garden sanctuary, which has been left completely intact along with her writing desk, bookcases, mementos, and walls, tacked with photos and news clippings.

A world-class sculpture and botanical venue, Annmarie Garden Sculpture Park and Arts Center is a 30-acre property on the St. John Creek. The sculptural art is by artists both local and from around the world. One of the more intriguing installations is a series of 13 "Talking Benches." Each tells an ecological story by depicting a plant that grows in southern Maryland, including dogwood, loblolly pines, papaw trees, and tobacco. Smooth, user-friendly pathways curve through the grounds. Don't miss the lyrical brass statue of a crabber in front of the museum. The figure and water feature perfectly captures the dependence of the area on the seafood industry. Little here is off-limits, and picnickers are welcome to settle in virtually anywhere. Be sure to visit the mosaic-filled restrooms. Annemarie Garden has a special Christmas display, "The Garden in Lights," from mid-December through New Year's Eve. Children get in free and there are many specialized programs that provide a hands-on art experience.

With many varieties of rhododendrons and azaleas, the Japanese-style garden is spectacular from late May to mid-June as the pink, white, purple, and yellow-orange flowers not only bloom but reflect in a stream-fed pond. Whatever the season there’s plenty to admire at this Land & Garden Preserve locale, especially in fall when the many native plants brighten the landscape. You can contemplate on a bench along the winding paths as intended, perhaps by the white sand garden—raked to evoke moving water. Created with azaleas from famed landscape designer Beatrix Farrand’s Bar Harbor garden, Asticou was designed by Charles Savage, a self-educated garden designer who managed his family’s nearby Asticou Inn. Check the website for "Garden Walks & Talks" and, in mid-July every other year, an evening Japanese lantern stroll.

If you've ever seen an engraving by ornithologist John James Audubon, you'll understand why his name is synonymous with birds. See his works in this three-story house, which was built in the 1840s for Captain John Geiger and is filled with period furniture. It now commemorates Audubon's 1832 stop in Key West while he was traveling through Florida to study birds. After an introduction by a docent, you can do a self-guided tour of the house and gardens. An art gallery sells lithographs of the artist's famed portraits.

This 93-acre natural sanctuary is home to 13 gardens with more than 2,000 varieties of annuals, perennials, wildflowers, and trees. There's a greenhouse, marked ecology trails (leashed dogs are welcome), a pretty pond, and a boardwalk through a red maple swamp. Brilliant, bold colors make the wildflower garden stunning in spring.

Established in 1728 by pioneering botanist John Bartram, this is America's oldest surviving botanical garden. Bartram, with his son William, collected and identified thousands of indigenous North American (and beyond) plants, showcasing them for both scientific and commercial purposes. Today, the 45-acre National Historic Landmark on the west bank of the Schuylkill River boasts a diversity of flora to wander leisurely about—from flowering shrubs and trees (azalea, rhododendron, magnolia) to rare specimens like the Franklinia, a tree that died out in its native Georgia, surviving today only because Bartram cultivated it. The best months to come are April–June, when the gardens are fragrant and filled with the lively chatter of birds, but summer and fall also have their charms. The original 18th-century farmhouse still stands, and you can tour its rooms and various exhibits, including Native American artifacts from the property dating back 3,000 years.

Drive or take a cab, as the grounds are tucked down a driveway in an out-of-the-way part of Southwest Philadelphia.

This estate houses the MFAH's decorative arts collections and lets you step back in time to witness the elegant lifestyle of the first half of the 20th century. Noted Houston philanthropist and collector Ima Hogg donated the 28-room mansion, complete with period pieces dating back to the 1600s, to the Museum of Fine Arts. Be sure to take the time to wander through the beautifully manicured gardens—you'll feel as if you're strolling the grounds of a French château. The woodland trails are especially wonderful, like something out of a fairy tale. Guided and self-guided tours of the mansion must be scheduled in advance (no reservations are necessary in order to tour the gardens).