2155 Best Sights in USA

Established in 1891 as the country's first designated national forest, this 2.4-million-acre tract of alpine woodland, sagebrush flats, and verdant meadows extends west from Cody to Yellowstone National Park (which is roughly the same size). At both the headquarters south of downtown and the Clarks Fork, Greybull, and Wapiti Ranger Districts office on the west side of Cody (E203A Yellowstone Ave., Cody), you can pick up maps, buy permits, and obtain advice on the many activities you can pursue in the forest—hiking, camping, fishing, mountain biking, horseback, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing—and the best places to enjoy them. Some highlights include the well-preserved ghost town of Kirwin, about 65 miles south of Cody, and the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone, a designated Wild and Scenic River during its 20½-mile course through the forest about 30 miles northwest of Cody.

If the crowds become overwhelming, and you have access to a vehicle, consider a visit to the Shrine of St. Thérèse, "out the road"—it's a peaceful site that's perfect for quiet contemplation. Built in the 1930s, this beautiful stone church and its 15 stations of the cross are the only structures on a serene tiny island accessible via a 400-foot-long pedestrian causeway. Visitors enjoy the Merciful Love Labyrinth, the black-granite Columbarium, and the floral gardens along the Good Shepherd Rosary Trail. Sunday services are held at 1:30 pm from Memorial Day through Labor Day. For those wishing to explore the area for more than a few hours, the shrine offers a lodge and four rental cabins that run the gamut from rustic to resplendent. A round-trip taxi ride may cost $60 or more.

Sierra Nevada, one of the country's largest national craft breweries, situated its East Coast brewery and distribution center on a 190-acre site on the French Broad River. The beautifully landscaped complex includes a good restaurant, tasting room, gift shop, and hiking and biking trails. Sierra Nevada offers the best brewery tours in the region, ranging from a 45-minute brewhouse tour to a three-hour Beer Geek tour.

Tours book up quickly, so reserve as far in advance as possible.

This 8-acre nature preserve on the edge of Miami's busiest urban neighborhood is one of the last remnants of Brickell's natural tropical hardwood hammock. It conserves 162 plant species, most of which are native to the area, such as the strangler fig and gumbo-limbo tree. The park features lovely bike and walking trails, as well as a recreation center and plenty of intriguing historical plaques along the way.

Bisecting the Boardwalk Trail loop, the wide Sims Trail runs a straight line through the swamp on an elevated causeway. It's a pleasant walk that sees fewer crowds than the Boardwalk loop, and it's the fastest route to access the wilderness trails deeper in the park. Easy.

Winding down the forested ridge, this trail passes by places where water has left the ridgetop and shaped the landscape on its way down. The most striking of these is the enormous sinkhole at the middle that gives the trail its name. Footing can be tricky. 1 mile. Moderate.

Marking the city's connections with eleven global "sister cities" such as Kobe, Japan, this small, family-focused park has a prime location near Logan Circle, the Logan Philadelphia hotel, and the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. A play area for kids features a rocky area to explore and a toy-boat and wading pond, and kids can cool off in a fountain with water jets, April through October. Sister Cities is also home to Robert Indiana's AMOR (Spanish and Latin for "love") sculpture, a companion to nearby LOVE Park's famous LOVE. The handy seasonal café (closed mid-December to early March), in a modern building with floor-to-ceiling windows, has light fare including kid-friendly items.

A Tlingit war canoe sits beside this brick building officially named Harrigan Centennial Hall. Check out the museum's collection of Tlingit, Victorian-era, and Alaska-purchase historical artifacts, including spruce-root basketry, nautical instruments, and mining tools.

Three miles south of Hamilton, turn east onto Route 38, also known as the Skalkaho Highway, and you'll find yourself on a beautiful 45-mile route leading into the Sapphire Mountains, past towering Skalkaho Falls and on to Philipsburg and the Georgetown Lake area. This fair-weather road is best traveled in summer, since 20 miles of it are gravel. Mountain bikers tour here, and there are plenty of hiking trails through the 23,000-acre Skalkaho Wildlife Management Area. Note that trailers are not recommended. Only 10 miles of the Skalkaho Highway are plowed in winter, which means the area is excellent for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.

During the town's early years, Gig Harbor's waterfront was lined with wooden structures set on pilings over the water; fishermen used these netsheds to store gear and tackle. Today just 17 of these structures remain, with the town's still active commercial fishing fleet still using some of them. This 3-acre park preserves the historic home and netshed once owned by the Skansie Brothers, lifelong fishermen and boat builders. Festivals and a summer farmers' market are held on the grassy lawn, which includes a pavilion, picnic tables, and a platform overlooking the harbor.

Run by a dedicated, local nonprofit, this volunteer-staffed 15-acre park near the northern entrance to Joshua Tree National Park educates visitors on the region's celestial and terrestrial attributes. It has an observatory dome with a 14-inch telescope, nature trails that feature desert plants, a meditation garden, numerous sculptures, and an orrery (a 20 billion–to-1 scaled model of the solar system). The campus is always open for walks or stargazing with your own equipment, but the big dome and telescope are only available during the free Night Sky Programs, which are held once a month on the Saturday night nearest the new moon. Programs usually start an hour after sunset and last two hours. The observatory also hosts an annual Night Sky Festival.

Why get a crick in your neck—or worse, risk looking like a tourist—while appreciating New York City's famous skyscrapers? Instead, visit this small museum, where you can appreciate highly detailed, hand-carved miniature wood models of Midtown and Lower Manhattan; explore the past, present, and future of the skyscraper—from New York City's Empire State Building to Dubai's Burj Khalifa (taller than the Empire State Building and Chicago's Willis Tower combined)—and examine the history of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. Exhibits continue to evolve, so expect models of current or future buildings, videos, drawings, floor plans, and talks that reveal the influence of history, real estate, and individuals on shaping city skylines.

This garden cemetery on the National Registry of Historic Places served as a place of inspiration and a final resting place for American literary greats like Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Each Memorial Day, Alcott's grave is decorated in commemoration of her death.

This community-funded gallery embraces the ethos that art is for the people. It's a central initiative in Seattle's local art scene. Slip Gallery's frequently shifting exhibits are eclectic, modern, and thought-provoking, featuring timely art often tied to political, climate, and social justice themes. From drag shows and community art days to Belltown Art Walk and a magazine launch, Slip occasionally hosts events in this creative space.

In mid-September, hundreds of elk congregate in the morning and evening at the Slippery Ann Wildlife Viewing Area. During the autumn mating season the bulls bugle and spar with their antlers while herds of cows come to watch and be courted. Be sure to bring binoculars and zoom lenses for your camera, because you must keep your distance from these massive animals.

A small picnic area with two tables is available at Sloan's Crossing Pond. Accessible.

Sloan's Crossing Pond is an anomaly—a standing body of water in a place where most water disappears under the earth. This accessible boardwalk encircles the pond, offering turnouts with outdoor exhibit panels explaining the aquatic life of a woodland pond. A small picnic area is available. 0.4 miles. Easy.

The transformation of an industrial boiler house into an edgy arts compound is quintessential DUMBO. This 12,000-square-foot structure now hosts large-scale avant-garde exhibitions and runs a prestigious residency program. Don't be surprised if you pass a smartphone-clutching event planner on your way in; it's also a popular wedding venue.

Located in Southpoint Park, right before the entrance to Four Freedoms Park, this fenced-off, ivy-covered ruin was an 1856 smallpox hospital that was in operation during the island's time as Blackwell's Island. While this city landmark is off-limits, informative placards on the site tell much about the building's history and design by James Renwick Jr., whose resume includes the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. The hospital ruins are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. If you're in a taxi on the FDR Drive across the river, you'll notice the ruins are floodlit at night, creating an eerie spectacle from afar. While in this area, also see the FDR Hope Memorial, a bronze sculpture depicting Roosevelt in his wheelchair, greeting a young girl wearing leg braces.  

If you want to see masterpieces but don't want to spend a long day wandering around one of the major art museums, the Smart, which turned 50 in 2024, may be just your speed. Its diverse exhibition program features art from around the globe.

Built between 1897 and 1912 with funds donated by foundry owner Richard Smith, this memorial to Pennsylvania heroes of the Civil War marks a major entrance to West Fairmout Park. Among those immortalized in bronze are Generals George Meade and Winfield Scott Hancock (both on horseback), and Smith himself.  At the base of each tower is a curved wall with a bench. If you sit at one end and listen to a person whispering at the other end, you learn why they're called the Whispering Benches. For information about the memorial's 14 statues and busts, see  associationforpublicart.org.

Founded in 1899, this beloved facility has more than 50 pieces of age-specific equipment for children 10 and younger. An outdoor favorite on the 6½-acre site in East Fairmount Park is the Ann Newman Giant Wooden Slide, measuring 39 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 10 feet tall. The playground, run by a nonprofit organization, includes the 16,000-square-foot Playhouse, a mansion-like building with areas such as Smithville (a miniature town), a library, and a climb-on train. Everyone using Smith must register and get a wristband to enter the site. 

From Childe Hassam's The South Ledges, Appledore to Nelson Shanks's The Four Justices, the Smithsonian American Art Museum features one of the world's largest collections of American art that spans more than four centuries. Over the past few decades, the museum has broadened its collection to include modern and contemporary art, too. Among the artists represented are Benny Andrews, José Campechi, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Isamu Noguchi, Robert Rauschenberg, Mickalene Thomas, and Charlie Willeto. The museum shares a National Historic Landmark building with the National Portrait Gallery.

On the first floor, you'll discover an enormous tinfoil altarpiece by James Hampton and more than 60 sculptures and paintings by Emery Blagdon that represent his thought-provoking and constantly changing Healing Machine. You can also experience American works from the 1930s, many created as part of New Deal programs. Highlights here include Marvin Beerbohm's Automotive Industry, Lily Furedi's Subway, and Edward Hopper's Ryder's House. Also on the first floor is the Direct Carving exhibit, which showcases artists who work directly on a piece of stone or wood.

Art from the Colonial period to the dawn of modernism is displayed throughout the galleries on the second floor. Discover masterpieces by Mary Cassatt, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Thomas Moran, Harriett Whitney Frishmuth, George Catlin, Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer, and John Singer Sargent, to name just a few.

The museum's third floor features modern and contemporary paintings and sculpture and the Watch This! gallery, where you can see a selection of works from the museum's media art and film collection. Highlights include Nam June Paik's billboard-size piece with 215 monitors showing video images from the Seoul Olympics, Korean folk rituals, and modern dance.

At any given time, many of the museum's holdings are in storage, but you can view more than 3,000 artworks in its Luce Foundation Center, a visible storage space on the third and fourth floors, where visitors can also watch the museum's conservators at work. Free docent-led tours of the museum are available every day at 12:30 and 2.

A pioneer in the community museum movement, in a historically Black neighborhood in Southeast Washington, this museum examines the impact of contemporary social issues on urban communities, including environment, urban life, and encounters with other cultures. The engaging exhibitions employ video, art, crafts, and photography, along with dynamic public programs including musical performances, crafts workshops, and storytellers. The museum's striking facade features traditional African design elements: brickwork patterns evoke West African kente cloth, the concrete cylinders reference the stone towers of Zimbabwe, and diamond-patterned adornments resemble those found on the adobe houses of Mali. The museum is near the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. There's free on-site parking.

This unique underground building houses stunning galleries, a library, photographic archives, and educational facilities dedicated to collecting, conserving, and studying Africa's arts and culture from different perspectives. The rotating exhibits illuminate African visual arts, including sculpture, textiles, photography, archaeology, and modern art. Currents: Water in African Art showcases the power of art through pieces like intricately carved wooden masks and figures paying tribute to water spirits and deities. The museum's educational programs for children and adults include films with contemporary perspectives on African life, storytelling programs, and festivals, including Community Day. The hands-on workshops, such as traditional basket weaving, bring Africa's oral and cultural traditions to life. Workshops and demonstrations by African and African American artists offer a chance to meet and talk to practicing artists.

One of the world's great natural history museums offers 20 exhibition halls—including a fully renovated Dinosaur and Fossil Hall, filled with not only fossils, but also glittering gems, creepy-crawly insects, and other natural wonders. There are more than 145 million specimens in the collection. Marvel at the enormous African bush elephant, which greets you in the rotunda, and learn about elephant behavior and conservation efforts. Discover Q?rius, a state-of-the-art discovery space for all ages featuring 6,000 objects, on-site experts, and an array of digital tools that focus on the natural world. Walk among hundreds of live butterflies in the Butterfly Pavilion ($8 adults, $7 children/seniors). Check out giant millipedes and furry tarantulas in the O. Orkin Insect Zoo (don't miss the daily live tarantula feedings). See perfectly preserved giant squids, a jaw-dropping replica of a whale, and the ecosystem of a living coral reef in the Sant Ocean Hall. Watch as paleobiologists study some of the museum's collection of 46 million fossils, which includes the nation's T. rex found in Montana in 1988.

The National Museum of Natural History has the Hope Diamond, but the National Postal Museum has the envelope wrapping used to mail the gem to the Smithsonian—part of a collection that consists of nearly 6 million postal and philatelic objects. Exhibits, underscoring the important part the mail has played in America's development, include horse-drawn mail coaches, a railroad mail car, airmail planes, and a collection of philatelic rarities. Learn about stamp collecting, and tour Systems at Work, an exhibit that demonstrates how mail has gone from the mailbox to its destination for the past 200 years and features a high-def film highlighting amazing technologies. The William H. Gross Stamp Gallery, the largest of its kind in the world, has an additional 20,000 objects never before on public display, showing how closely stamps have intertwined with American history. The museum is next to Union Station in the old Washington City Post Office, designed by Daniel Burnham and completed in 1914.

A 6.1-mile round-trip loop takes you by streams and, in spring and summer, lots of wildflowers, including trailing arbutus. At Smokemont Campground near Cherokee, this is an easy trail to access. The only downside is that there are no long-range views. Moderate.