2155 Best Sights in USA

Reflecting a time when the South End was the most prestigious Boston address, this slice of a park is framed by lovely Italianate bowfront houses.

A tower, arched doorways, and a large round window form bold masses on the exterior of this church, designed in 1887 by Daniel Burnham and John Root. The Romanesque interior, with vaulted arches, gives a feeling of breadth and spaciousness. The parish was organized to serve Irish workers at the nearby Union Stock Yards.

Several stream crossings and boulder outcrops add interest to this winding trail. Turnhole Bend Trail intersects it at 3.8 miles. At 7.2 miles, Sal Hollow backcountry campsite is accessible via a short spur trail. At 8.3 miles a trail on the left leads to the Miles-Davis Cemetery. Another trail at that point leads to the Bluffs backcountry campsite 0.6 miles westward. The trail ends at a junction with Buffalo Creek Trail. Horses and hiking only. 8.6 miles. Moderate.

A fully restored 1912 passenger depot offers a fascinating look at the history of the Erie Lackawanna Railroad, whose anticipated arrival led to the creation of the city of Salamanca. Exhibits include old switches and lanterns, an extensive collection of vintage photographs, and a restored red caboose outside.

Near Derby Wharf, this 9¼-acre site focuses on Salem's heritage as a major seaport with a thriving overseas trade. It includes the 1762 home of Elias Derby, America's first millionaire; the 1819 Custom House, made famous in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter; and a replica of the Friendship, a 171-foot, three-masted 1797 merchant vessel. There's also an active lighthouse dating from 1871, as well as the nation's last surviving 18th-century wharves. The 1770 Pedrick Store House was moved from nearby Marblehead and reassembled right on Derby Wharf; the two-story structure once played a vital role in the lucrative merchant seaside trade. The grounds are open 24/7, but buildings open on a seasonal schedule.

Dedicated by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel in 1992, this quiet, contemplative space—an antidote to the relentless marketing of the merry-witches motif—honors those who died because they refused to confess that they were witches. A stone wall is studded with 20 stone benches, each inscribed with a victim's name, and sits next to Salem's oldest burying ground. Many people leave small tokens on the sites to commemorate the victims to this day. Six locust trees were planted to represent the injustice of the trials, as they are the last to bloom and the first to lose their leaves.

There's an unusual historic landmark on the Sausalito Ferry Pier—a drinking fountain inscribed "Have a drink on Sally" in remembrance of Sally Stanford, the former San Francisco brothel madam who became Sausalito's mayor in the 1970s. Sassy Sally would have appreciated the fountain's eccentric attachment: a knee-level basin with the inscription "Have a drink on Leland," in memory of her beloved dog.

The castle-like seat of city government was the city's tallest building from its 1894 construction to 1973. On Washington Square, at the spot where the original Mormon settlers circled their wagons on their first night in the Salt Lake Valley, this building served as the state capitol for 19 years. Hundreds of trees, including species from around the world, and many winding paths and seating areas make the grounds a calm downtown oasis. In summer the grounds host major Salt Lake arts and music festivals. Free tours are given on Monday at noon during the summer and by request at other times through Preservation Utah.

A great family spot, Salt Pond Beach Park features a naturally made, shallow swimming pond behind a curling finger of rock where keiki (children) splash and snorkel. This pool is generally safe except during a large south summer swell. The center and western edge of the beach are popular with bodyboarders and bodysurfers. The beach is also an easy spot to see stilts, tattlers, shearwaters, and other seabirds, as well as an occasional resting monk seal. Pavilions with picnic tables offer shade, and there's a campground that tends to attract a rowdy bunch at the eastern end. On a cultural note, the mudflat behind the beach is the last spot in Hawaii where salt is harvested in the dry heat of summer, using pans passed down within families. The park is popular with locals, and it can get crowded on weekends and holidays. Amenities: lifeguard; parking (no fee); showers; toilets. Best for: sunset; swimming; walking.

Four habitats across 6,000 acres make up this underwater park and ecological reserve. When the water is clear, this is a diver's paradise with reefs, kelp beds, sand flats, and a submarine canyon reaching depths up to 600 feet. Plunge to see guitarfish rays, perch, sea bass, anchovies, squid, and hammerhead sharks. Snorkelers, kayakers, and stand-up paddleboarders are likely to spot sea lions, seals, and leopard sharks. The Seven La Jolla Sea Caves, 75-million-year-old sandstone caves, are at the park's edge.

Although you can explore the park on your own, the best way to view it is with a professional guide.

You'll feel as if you're out to sea when you step inside this sturdy, ship-shape (literally), Streamline-Moderne structure, dubbed the Bathhouse Building and built in 1939 as part of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration. The first floor of the museum, part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, has stunningly restored undersea dreamscape murals and some of the museum's intricate ship models. The first-floor balcony overlooks the beach and has lovely WPA-era tile designs. A short walk from the museum (past the cable car turnaround) is the national historical park's Visitor Center ( 499 Jefferson St.), whose fun, large-scale exhibits make it an engaging stop for learning more about San Francisco's fascinating maritime past in a building that was a Del Monte cannery warehouse. If you've got young kids in tow, the museum makes a great quick, free stop. Then pick up ice cream at Ghirardelli Square across the street and enjoy it on the beach or next door in the grassy Maritime Garden, where you can watch the cable cars turn around.

Topped with a swirl like an art-deco nautilus, the library's seven-level glass atrium fills the building with light. Local researchers take advantage of centers dedicated to gay and lesbian, African American, Chinese, and Filipino history. The sixth-floor San Francisco History Center has fun exhibits of city ephemera, including a treat for fans of noir fiction: novelist Dashiell Hammett's typewriter.

A labor of love from the same vintage-transit enthusiasts responsible for the F-line's revival, this one-room museum and store celebrates the city's streetcars and cable cars with photographs, models, and artifacts. The permanent exhibit includes the replicated end of a streetcar with a working cab—complete with controls and a bell—for kids to explore; the cool, antique Wiley birdcage traffic signal; and models and display cases to view. Right on the F-line track, just across from the Ferry Building, this is a great quick stop.

The San Pedro River, partially rerouted underground by an 1887 earthquake, may not look like much, but it sustains an impressive array of flora and fauna and makes for great hiking and birding. To maintain this fragile creekside ecosystem, 56,000 acres along the river were designated a protected riparian area in 1988. More than 350 species of birds come here, as well as 82 mammal species and 45 reptiles and amphibians. Animals from long ago—including woolly mammoths and mastodons—also make their former presence here known through the area's massive fossil pits; in fact, many of the huge skeletons in Washington's Smithsonian Institute and New York's Museum of Natural History came from here. As evidenced by a number of small, unexcavated ruins, the migratory tribes who passed through thousands of years later also found this valley hospitable, in part because of its many useful plants. Information, guided tours and bird walks, books, and gifts are available from the volunteer staff at San Pedro House, a visitor center operated by Friends of the San Pedro River ( sanpedroriver.org).

Most of the park's caves lie within its hundreds of feet of limestone strata, but atop that limestone sits a layer of sandstone and shale. Sandstone caves can be found in this ridgetop layer, which often lead to greater limestone caverns farther down. In hope of making such a discovery, explorer Floyd Collins entered Sand Cave in 1925 … but never left. His entrapment, and attempted rescue, made headlines across the nation and caused a near-carnival of activity outside the cave entrance. That entrance is visible close at hand from the overlook at the end of Sand Cave Trail. A series of outdoor exhibit panels along the trail explain the historic events. Note: Sand Cave is closed to public entry.

Santa Monica Boulevard is part of the historic Route 66. As American songwriter Bobby Troup sang, "Get Your Kicks on Route 66," along this lively commercial core of West Hollywood. It's filled with trendy restaurants and cafés, shops and galleries, and LGBTQIA+-friendly bars and clubs. Park your car and walk from Fairfax Avenue to Doheny Drive. The fashionable West Hollywood Design District runs between La Cienega Boulevard and Doheny Drive. 

Jointly managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, this 280,000-acre desert habitat protects animals like Peninsular bighorn sheep and contains areas of geological, cultural, and scientific significance. You can experience the monument using an augmented-reality app or by hiking one of several trails that wind through it. You can access the backcountry from the Coachella Valley and the nearby alpine village of Idyllwild.

The nature center is a good place to start before heading out to explore the 6,347-acre Santa Ysabel Preserve. There are interactive exhibits, maps, info on ranger-led hikes and astronomy lectures, restrooms, and a water refilling station. This valley looks pretty much the way the backcountry appeared a century ago, with sweeping meadows surrounded by oak-studded hillsides. The San Dieguito River (Santa Ysabel Creek) emerges from Volcan Mountain here and winds its way 65 miles to San Dieguito Lagoon at Del Mar along the Coast to Crest Trail. A 7-mile trail follows the river for the first mile, from Farmer Road in Julian to the East Entrance of Santa Ysabel Preserve. Legacy oak trees shade the trail, there are spectacular views along the way, and picnic tables abound. The trail is best explored in the fall.

Dammed in 1928, this lake's name means "blue waters" in the Cherokee language. Cheoah Point Beach, in a cove on the north shore, is an attractive popular place to swim. Santeetlah has 76 miles of shoreline, with good fishing for crappie, bream, and lake trout, and is part of the Nantahala National Forest.

Hot mineral waters flow freely through the Saratoga Hobo Hot Springs, and the adjacent cooler swimming pool is heated by the springs. People have been coming here to soak for generations, including Native Americans, who considered the area neutral territory. Hardy folk can do as the Native Americans did and first soak in the hot water, then jump into the adjacent icy waters of the North Platte River. The free pools are open all day, every day. Bathing suits are required.

After more than four decades of laughs, SNL continues to push buttons and nurture comedic talents. All "live from New York." Requests for advance tickets (two per applicant) must be submitted during the month of August by email only, sent to  [email protected]; you may ask for a ticket for either the dress rehearsal (8 pm) or the live show (11:30 pm). All recipients are determined by lottery. Standby ticket reservations for up to four people open at 10 am on the Thursday prior and are distributed at 12:01 am on the day of the show; see the NBC ticket website for information. You must be 16 or older to sit in the audience.

Once the private collection of Savannah businessman Don Cole, this assemblage of more than a thousand sculptures, artifacts, tribal costumes, carved masks, pottery, and other sacred objects from West and Central Africa is now on display for the general public in a beautifully restored yellow mansion. The museum has works and artifacts from more than 180 cultures and also hosts workshops and lectures relating to African history.

You can explore this Maine Audubon–run nature center on foot or by kayak or canoe and on your own or as part of a guided walk or paddle. Canoes and kayaks are available to rent and come with a life jacket and map. The salt marsh is Maine's largest and is an excellent place for bird-watching and peaceful paddling along its winding ways. The center has a discovery room for kids and a good gift shop. Programs include birding walks and full moon and sunset tours. Entrance is free, as are many programs, including family nature walks held on Wednesdays.

On a clear day, you'll have unbeatable views of Scargo Lake, Dennis Village's scattered houses below, Cape Cod Bay, and distant Provincetown from the top of this tower. A wooden tower built on this site in 1874 was one of the Cape's first tourist attractions; visitors would pay a nickel to climb to the top for the views. That tower burned down, and the present all-stone 30-foot tower was built in 1901 to replace it. Winding stairs bring you to the top.

A key part of downtown Everett's steady renaissance, this striking contemporary nonprofit art center has spacious, high-ceilinged galleries that mount diverse rotating exhibits throughout the year, and a gift shop carries works by nearly 200 regional artists. There's also a state-of-the-art hot shop where visitors can watch glass blowing. The center has a full program of classes in different mediums. 

On the beautifully landscaped campus of Southern Oregon University, this museum includes a light-filled gallery devoted to special exhibits by Oregon, West Coast, and international artists. The permanent collection has grown considerably over the years, and includes pre-Columbian ceramics and works by such notables as Alexander Calder, George Inness, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Hallways and galleries throughout the rest of the 66,000-square-foot complex display many works by students and faculty.  Steps from the museum, the university's Hannon Library is a gorgeous building with a dramatic four-story atrium, plenty of comfy seating, and quite a few notable artworks as well.

In what is technically Roxborough but feels very removed from the dense row houses, visitors can explore more than 355 acres of woods and trails in what is part nature center, part education center, and part art exhibition and performance location (usually in connection with nature). Trails are free and open dusk till dawn every day, while most events and workshops have a fee. There is also access via a trail that connects to the Schuylkill River Trail.

On any given day, runners, cyclists, walkers, dog walkers, and loungers can be found at the expansive Schuylkill River Park. The park runs along the river from Lombard Street to Manning Street, spanning more than three city blocks on the edge of Center City before University City. Even during the coldest months, the park is packed with people and their dogs in the on-site dog parks, children on the playground, athletes shooting hoops at the basketball courts, and people enjoying the skyline vantage points.

Housed in a former grand bank building, this free museum in the heart of Old City features two floors of science-focused displays that tell the interesting "stories" behind the science of everyday items like dresses and batteries. A variety of fascinating exhibits feature science instruments, art, photos, videos, rare books, product packaging, and various displays such as their collection of microscopes and chemistry sets through the years. There's always a rotating temporary exhibit as well as educational programming and a gift shop. The museum produces a popular podcast called "Distillations" that does a deep dive on many scientific topics.  This small museum is a great place to visit in between the larger historical sites.