242 Best Sights in USA

One of the best picnic spots in a very picnic-friendly park, the 55-acre arboretum specializes in plants from areas with climates similar to that of the Bay Area. Walk the Eastern Australian garden to see tough, pokey shrubs and plants with cartoon-like names, such as the lilly-pilly tree. You don't have to go to Muir Woods to see the largest living things on earth: the botanical garden boasts a 4-acre redwood grove in the heart of the city. Kids gravitate toward the large, shallow fountain and the pond with ducks, turtles, and egrets.  Free public tours are given Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday at 1:30, with an additional tour Saturday at 10:30. No reservations are required.

Five miles of scenic trails meander through the garden's 78 acres of native plants. The Mission Dam, built in 1806, stands just beyond the redwood grove and above the restored aqueduct that once carried water to the Old Mission Santa Barbara. More than a thousand plant species thrive in various themed sections, including mountains, deserts, meadows, redwoods, and Channel Islands.  A conservation center dedicated to rare and endangered plant species presents rotating exhibitions.

This 14-acre garden, located across the road from the Folk Art and Native American museums, provides another great reason for exploring Museum Hill. Situated on a bluff with fantastic views of the surrounding mountains, the facility is divided into four sections that emphasize distinct elements of New Mexico's flora and terrain: the Orchard Gardens, Ojos y Manos: Eyes and Hands, the Courtyard Gardens, and the Arroyo Trails. You can gain a much fuller sense of what's planted and why by embarking on one of the free guided tours, offered daily (call for hours). Also be sure to check the website to see which events might be happening at the outdoor amphitheater.

One of the state's charming, family-owned and -operated attractions fills 10 acres with native and exotic plants and animals. The gardens date from 1939, and still have an Old Florida feel. Residents include red-tailed hawks and great horned owls, American alligators, and a variety of snakes, as well as furry creatures such as lemurs and prairie dogs. You can talk to trainers; take in the Wildlife Wonder, Reptile, or Jungle Bird shows; wander through a butterfly house and garden; hand-feed flamingoes; and learn about plants like the rare Australian nut tree and the Peruvian apple cactus. A café and a jungle-theme playground are also among the offerings.

This formal garden occupies a 3.5-acre plot within the Washington Park Arboretum, but it’s its own entity, managed by the city (with much help from dedicated volunteers). It was designed in the late 1950s by landscape architects from the Tokyo Parks Division as a traditional “walking garden”: visitors follow a set path that takes them past a pagoda, a koi pond, a waterfall, and a teahouse, interspersed among the trees, shrubs, flowers, and rocks. Tuesday through Friday, volunteers lead tours twice a day. Most weeks, usually on weekends, you can take part in a 40-minute tea ceremony in the teahouse. Reservations are required; the $15-dollar charge (separate from admission) includes tea and snacks.

Situated above the campus of Western Washington University, 175-acre Sehome Hill Arboretum, with its native trees, shrubs, and other plants, has good views of Bellingham Bay and Lummi Island, especially from the facility's observation tower. More than 6 miles of trails encircle the beautifully landscaped grounds.

Founded in 1920 as a retreat and place of worship, the center also offers one of the best views along the Pacific Coast, a sweeping seascape extending north and south as far as the eye can see. Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the classic Autobiography of a Yogi, created two beautiful meditation gardens that are open to the public. The gardens are planted with flowering shrubs and trees and contain a series of koi ponds connected by miniature waterfalls. Swami's Point at the south end of the gardens is a popular surfer's break. Inspirational services are on Sunday 9:30 am–noon and Thursday 7–8 pm.

A quintessential (and free) L.A. experience, the nondenominational Lake Shrine temple and meditation garden was founded by guru Paramahansa Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship, a nonprofit spiritual organization headquartered in Los Angeles that promotes traditional yoga and meditation. The gardens, lakes, trails, windmill, and other structures are enjoyed by practitioners, locals, celebrities, and office workers alike as a place to step out of the rat race and into tranquility for a few minutes. Its miraculous survival in the Palisades fire has inspired new visitors. Free reservations are mandatory and can be made online.

A popular spring destination for Baltimore families, this 6-acre park contains more than 80,000 tulips that bloom in late April. Azaleas peak in late April and the first half of May. The gardens are usually at their best around Mother's Day.

Nestled next to Wailua Marina along the mighty Wailua River, this 30-acre botanical and cultural garden offers a glimpse of distinctive foliage, including 20 types of fruit trees, a bamboo rain forest, and tropical lagoons. Enjoy a stroll along a mile of pathways. It's a popular spot for wedding receptions and other large events, and its luau is one of the island's oldest and best.

Rare East Asian trees and plants thrive in this 67-acre woodland garden just north of downtown Glen Ellen. The colors throughout are most vibrant in spring, but year-round a visit here makes for a pleasant break from wine touring. The garden hosts more than a hundred permanent and migratory bird species.

This arboretum, 9 miles east of Winchester, has the most extensive boxwood collection in North America. Hands-on workshops and tours are available throughout spring, summer, and fall. You can stroll through the perennial and herb gardens and have a look at more than 8,000 trees. This spot is a wonderful place to bird-watch or to have a picnic.

A cool oasis amid St. Pete's urban clutter, this lush 4-acre plot was created from a lake that was drained in 1903. Explore the cascading waterfalls and koi ponds, and walk through the butterfly house and exotic gardens where more than 50,000 tropical plants and flowers from across the globe thrive amid groves of some of the area's most spectacular palm trees. The flock of wading flamingoes is a favorite here.

Hidden atop a hill above Route 3, this peaceful Land & Garden Preserve property invites with elegant formal perennial beds on land that was once the summer home of Boston landscape designer and engineer Joseph Henry Curtis. Mount Desert Island native Charles Savage, a self-taught landscape designer, was the garden's mastermind and named it for the property’s majestic white cedars, Thuja occidentalis. Welcoming the public since 1962, it's filled with colorful blooms throughout summer: there are delphiniums, daylilies, dahlias, heliotropes, snapdragons, and other vegetation. Walk the immaculately groomed grass paths or enjoy the view from a well-placed bench. You can also take a look at the sitting room in the circa-1914 Curtis home, which has a large collection of books compiled by Savage. Check the website for docent-led tours of the “lodge” as it’s known and special events like Garden Walks & Talks. There is a small parking area at the garden, or park below it on Route 3 and walk up on the Asticou Terraces trail.

A 48-acre desert garden retreat designed to promote the conservation of arid regions, Tohono Chul—"desert corner" in the language of the Tohono O'odham—uses demonstration gardens, a greenhouse, and a geology wall to explain this unique desert area. Nature trails, a small art gallery, gift shops (including folk art, prickly pear products, and a great selection of desert plants), and a bistro can all be found at this peaceful spot. You can visit the restaurant and outstanding gift shops without paying admission.

Instead of stippled paint, the medium is shrubbery in a one-of-a-kind topiary replica of Georges Seurat's postimpressionist masterpiece, A Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Fifty-four people, eight boats, three dogs, a monkey, and a cat look to a creek instead of the Seine River. The tallest figure stands 12 feet high.

Five acres of gardens are home to a variety of experiences: a tropical greenhouse; a sensory garden, where you can touch and smell the plants and listen to the abundant bird life; historical gardens that display the Mediterranean landscaping the property's original owners planted in the 1930s; a garden designed to attract birds; and a cactus garden. Other gardens showcase wildflowers, Australian plants, and Native American crops and herbs. From October through May, interact with butterflies from all over the world in their own greenhouse. A delightful café is open for breakfast and lunch daily. All paths are wheelchair accessible.

Thanks to Berkeley's temperate climate, more than 10,000 types of plants from all corners of the world flourish in the 34-acre University of California Botanical Garden. Free garden tours are given regularly with paid admission. Benches and shady picnic tables make this a relaxing place for a snack with a breathtaking view. Call or go online before you travel to reserve your visit.

Summer concerts, yoga, pop-up beer gardens---there's a lot to do on top of the Kendall Center Green Garage. To access the hidden roof garden, use the elevators in the garage and find your way up to the top for a spot of green grass and flowers (and a even a new pickleball court) in the most unlikely place.

As an heiress to the Robinson department store dynasty, Virginia Robinson lived on what is the oldest intact estate in Beverly Hills, dating back to 1911. The house and gardens cover 6½ acres of immaculately landscaped flora with a distinct Italian-villa vibe right out of Tuscany. The beaux arts--style house includes a tennis court, pool house, and five separate gardens including a rose garden, Italian terrace, palm tree forest, and more. Docent led historical and garden tours run $15, while a behind-the-scenes tour is $50 for adults only. 

The chief attraction in historic, 28-acre Wright Park is the 1908 glass-dome W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory, a Victorian-style greenhouse (one of only three such structures on the West Coast) filled with exotic flora.

A tranquil spot to take a break in the middle of the city or eat a takeout snack, this small garden with a few cafe tables surrounds a 22-foot artificial waterfall that cascades over large granite stones.

With views of the Hudson River and New Jersey's dramatic Palisades cliffs, Wave Hill is a former 19th-century estate with residents that have included Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain. Today it's a renowned 28-acre public garden and cultural center that attracts visitors from all over the world, with exquisite theme gardens, from an aquatic garden to a shade border. Grand beech and oak trees tower above wide lawns, an elegant pergola overlooks the majestic river view, and benches on curving pathways provide quiet respite. The 1843 Wave Hill House is home to The Café and hosts workshops, talks, and concerts. Exhibitions in the Glyndor Gallery take place spring through fall each year. On the grounds, visitors enjoy a wide range of gardening and wellness programs and walks year-round.

Set in Myers Park, one of the city's most exclusive neighborhoods, this 4-acre garden is a serene environment for feathered visitors and others. The grounds include a nursery and education building.

Opened in 1936 by two retired moonshiners from Detroit, this was one of the state's first roadside attractions and remained little changed until 2013, when the family decided to close its doors—and, thus, ending a rich chapter of Florida tourism history—forever. In stepped Florida landscape photographer John Brady, who negotiated a lease with the founding family and transformed the old-style cramped zoological gardens (that once featured Florida panthers, black bears, crocodiles, alligators, and tame Florida deer) into a botanical garden by conserving the flora and fauna following contemporary standards. Now in focus are diverse gardens that include old-growth trees like kapok, banyan, candle nut, egg fruit, plumeria, jaboticaba, mahogany, cashew, avocado, and mango, as well as integrated animal exhibits with tortoises, turtles, smaller alligators, flamingos, and a butterfly garden. The original buildings have been preserved and made into a modern gallery that showcases Brady's photography.

Artists, writers, and musicians from all over the United States come to this highly regarded artists' colony to work. The estate was built in 1899 by philanthropist Spencer Trask as a gift to his wife, Katrina. Although you can't visit the house, you can tour the grounds, which include a formal rose garden with fountains and an informal rock garden.

Just off Interstate 82 on the east side of the city, this 46-acre parklike property features hundreds of different plants, flowers, and trees. A Japanese garden and a wetland trail are highlights. The arboretum sits alongside the Yakima River and the 10-mile-long Yakima Greenway, a paved path that links a series of riverfront parks.

Across from Zilker Park, this botanical garden has more than 28 acres of horticultural delights, including butterfly trails, bonsai and Japanese gardens, koi-filled ponds, riparian stream beds, and cultivated rose gardens. The enchanting gardens are open year-round (attracting 150,000 annual visitors), but it's best enjoyed outside of the peak Texas summer months. There are also various family-friendly programs and hands-on learning opportunities here, as well as a lively seasonal calendar of special events and festivals.

While demurely posing as a butterfly garden today, this sunken stone grotto has a racy history—tucked between the Casa de Balboa and the Fleet Center, this area showcased a nudist colony during the 1935–36 Exposition.

Affiliated with the school's department of horticulture, the Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Garden is an outdoor laboratory of local and regional trees and plants including wildflowers, prairie plants, and perennials. The calming labyrinth garden, set in a ring of arborvitae evergreens, is modeled after one at Chartres Cathedral in France.