425 Best Sights in USA

If this charming little park and its lake of swan boats looks a little familiar to you, it’s most likely because you’ve seen it in one movie or another (Chinatown, for instance). After a major overhaul, the park has blossomed into a beautiful urban landscape, set against the backdrop of the Downtown skyline. Weekends are always bustling, as are mornings when joggers and early risers take laps around the lake.

Enjoy miles of woodland and shore trails at the Edgar M. Tennis Preserve, donated by him to the Island Heritage Trust in 1972. Keep an eye out for hawks, eagles, and ospreys, and wander among old apple trees, fields of wildflowers, and ocean-polished rocks. Leashed-dogs are welcome.

Edisto's south edge has 4 miles of public beach. At its western end, the beach faces St. Helena Sound and has smaller waves. There is beach access at each intersection along Palmetto Boulevard and free public parking along the road. The beach itself has narrowed due to storm erosion, so you'll have more room to spread out if you time your visit at low tide. These clean coastal waters teem with both fish and shellfish, and it's common to see people throwing cast nets for shrimp. It's a great beach for beachcombing. Alcohol is allowed as long as it is not in glass containers. Amenities: none. Best for: solitude; sunset; swimming.

These lush gardens are a 10-acre re-creation of 16th-century English gardens, established as an elaborate memorial to the first English colonists. Walk through the brick and wrought-iron entrance to see antique statuary, wildflowers, rose gardens, a 400-year-old giant oak tree, and a sunken garden—something will be in bloom almost any time you visit. The gatehouse, designed in the style of a 16th-century orangery, serves as a reception center and gift and plant shop. There's also a butterfly garden and a kids' pirate-themed play area. Dogs (one per person) are permitted for an additional $3.

Though not Los Angeles’s biggest park—that honor belongs to Griffith Park—Elysian comes in second and also has the honor of being the city’s oldest. It's also home to one of L.A.'s busiest and most beloved attractions, Dodger Stadium, the home field to the Los Angeles Dodgers. For this reason, baseball fans flock to this 600-acre park for tailgate parties. The rest of the time, however, Elysian Park serves as the Echo Park residents’ backyard, thanks to its network of hiking trails, picnic spaces, and public playgrounds.

Old-timers recall the superb apples grown at 115-acre Hallberg Ranch, since 2000 an elite Pinot Noir vineyard. Winery founder Brice Jones coveted this land for its temperate climate and layer of Goldridge sandy loam soil atop a bed of Sebastopol clay loam. Along with dry-farming (no irrigation), this soil combination forces vine roots to work hard to obtain water, yielding berries concentrated with flavor. Less than 10 miles from Hallberg, the winery farms the 30-acre estate Pinot Hill Vineyard, whose wines are often denser and more complex. Hosts at the ranch's contemporary tasting room pour Pinots, a Pinot Noir Blanc, and a Pinot rosé, retracting its floor-to-ceiling windows in good weather to create an extended open-air space steps from the vines.

Hikers climb from forest that was once farm fields to fir and spruce at the summit of this 914-acre preserve on the slopes of Mt. Equinox. The Equinox Golf Resort & Spa conserved this land with the Vermont Land Trust in 1996, and it's permanently protected. A loop to tranquil Equinox Pond—owned by the resort—is among the easy trails for strolling, cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. Others follow century-old stone walls, or offer rewarding climbs to views of the Battenkill Valley. 

Near the corner of Beacon and Arlington streets, the Arthur Fiedler Footbridge crosses Storrow Drive to the 3-mile-long Esplanade and the Hatch Memorial Shell. The free summer concerts here include the Boston Pops' immensely popular televised July 4 performance. For shows like this, Bostonians haul lawn chairs and blankets to the lawn in front of the shell; bring a takeout lunch from a nearby restaurant, find an empty spot—no mean feat, so come early—and you'll feel right at home. An impressive stone bust of the late maestro Arthur Fiedler watches over the walkers, joggers, picnickers, and sunbathers who fill the Esplanade's paths on pleasant days. Here, too, is the turn-of-the-20th-century Union Boat Club Boathouse, headquarters for the country's oldest private rowing club. You can also access the park by crossing the Frances Appleton Pedestrian Bridge linking the Beacon Hill neighborhood to the Esplanade.

Open year-round, with 23 sites and a restroom, Fabbri is beyond Otter Point via the one-way section of Park Loop Road and also accessible from Otter Cliff Road.

A place to play for humans and dogs, this green space has paved walking paths, sports fields, restrooms, and a dog park. The Bransford Avenue and Craighead Street entrance is a good spot to enter the park.

The most undeveloped area of Mission Bay Park, this is popular with bird-watchers (there's a large protected nesting site for the California tern at the northern tip of the island) as well as with dog owners, because it's the only place in the park where pets can run free. Firepits are scattered across the island for public use. In July the annual Over-the-Line Tournament, a competition involving a unique local version of softball, attracts thousands of players and oglers.

A boutique winery with stylish coastal decor, Fletcher Bay focuses on Bordeaux grapes along with Tempranillo and Sangiovese sourced from Washington State's Yakima and Walla Walla valleys. The casual, dog-friendly winery, set in the Coppertop Business Park, has a kids’ play area, an enclosed patio with a fireplace and heat lamps, and live music every Wednesday evening. There's also a tasting room right in town ( 500 Winslow Way E) and a rooftop wine garden above it, with live music Sunday evenings.

This 0.6-mile loop trail offers views of the Bates Old River, an oxbow lake left behind when the Congaree River changed course. The new-growth forest can be thick and muddy, so despite the short distance, it's not ideal for families. Moderate.

The history of this Civil War–era fort is told through videos in the visitor center and panels along outdoor pathways. Veterans events take place throughout the year, and there’s a gift shop and great views of the Nashville skyline. Revitalization plans for the park include adding 1½ to 2 miles of trails and additional interpretations to highlight African-American history from the Civil War to the civil rights era. Sheep are sometimes used for natural landscaping, watched over by a so-called livestock guardian dog. Be advised: you may also come across a deer on the grounds.

An active fort during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War, this site sits at the head of Machias Bay, where a naval battle was waged in 1775. Climb atop the grass-covered earthworks to take in the expansive water views. A panel display details the successive forts built here and relates the dramatic story of patriots—mostly armed with farm implements like pitchforks and axes—who captured a British tender in the bay. A stone marker honors the site as a "birthplace" of the U.S. Navy.

This historic district, which was designated by the City of Boston in 2009, features the city's largest, most cohesive grouping of late-19th- and early-20th-century industrial loft buildings. The Boston Wharf Company owned and developed the area from 1836 to 1882. Today, the small, walkable, revitalized area sits between the Fort Point Channel and the Seaport District and is home to working artist studios, bars and restaurants, and some small businesses.

Fort Raleigh is a restoration of the original 1584–90 earthworks that mark the beginning of English-colonial history in America. The site has been identified as the original site of the doomed Lost Colonists, and the question that hangs in the air here is "What happened to the 117 men, women, and children of the 1587 expedition who disappeared without a trace?" A nature trail through the 513-acre grounds leads to an outlook over Croatan Sound. Native American and Civil War history is also preserved here.

Join New Yorkers cyling, strolling, playing tennis, picnicking, and in summer, partying in droves on the lively and scenic stretch of park that runs from West 155th Street alongside the Hudson River under the George Washington Bridge (G.W.B.) and up to Dyckman Street in Inwood. The park offers unique views of Manhattan, and spectacular views of the bridge and the tree-filled cliffs of New Jersey Palisades across the way. The Little Red Lighthouse, a beloved local icon (and popular photo op) made famous in a children's storybook—The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge, written by Hildegarde Swift and Lynd Ward in 1942—is the island of Manhattan's last remaining lighthouse.  If you don't want to walk along the river from 155th Street and just want to visit the lighthouse and linger in the park under the G.W.B., enter the park at 181st Street. You can also grab a CitiBike on 181st Street.

Pack a picnic and your fishing poles, or hit the hiking, biking, horseback-riding, and motorbike trails in 250,000 acres of swamps, lakes, oaks, and pines. Bring a canoe to explore the peaceful black water of the Wambaw Creek Wilderness Canoe Trail, hike the Swamp Fox Passage of the Palmetto Trail, or pitch a tent at one of the campgrounds within the forest.

Just before the start of the one-way section of the loop road, this serene spot has views across to Winter Harbor and out to nearby islands. Open year-round, it has 26 picnic sites and a wheelchair-accessible pier where you can fish, launch your canoe or kayak, or simply soak up the view. In the warm months, a float dock is attached to the pier.

Along with a picnic area and wonderful views of Frenchman Bay, Acadia National Park's only boating and fishing pier is here. It's used by kayakers and canoeists to get on Frenchman Bay.

This state park's original name, Starvation State Park, was most likely in recognition of the early homesteaders and cattlemen who battled bitter winters, short growing seasons, and other hardships in the area. In 2019, it was renamed in memory of a beloved director of the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation. Boaters and anglers come to cast for walleye, yellow perch, and smallmouth bass in the park's 3,500-acre reservoir. There are six campgrounds within the park, two of which are developed. Bring sunscreen, as there is little natural shade on site. Note that dogs must be on a leash at all times.

One of the neighborhood's best features is the Freedom Park Trail, a particularly pleasant stretch of the PATH Foundation's more-than-250-mile trail system in the metro area. It gives runners, bikers, and dog walkers a peaceful thoroughfare inside the 210-acre Freedom Park. The PATH is the largest public green space in a major metro area developed in the United States in the last century.

If you want a party scene and beach bars with live music and dancing, then this stretch of Isle of Palms is for you. Its string of businesses is the only beachfront commercial district in the area. Bicyclists are welcome, as are pets on leashes. Parking regulations are strictly enforced. Amenities: food and drink; parking (fee). Best for: partiers; swimming; windsurfing.

One of the last stretches of the Hudson River Park to be transformed from wasteland to a verdant well-manicured oasis, Gansevoort Peninsula opened in fall 2023. The main attraction is a sandy beach on the Hudson, complete with Adirondack chairs and beach umbrellas to take in the view. The 5.5 acre pierlike space just south of Little Island also boasts a soccer field, picnic tables, and large patches of lawn for frolicking.

Hiking trails stretch across much of this park's 4,500 acres of meadows, forested hillsides, and creeks.

This is one of only two trails in the park where dogs and bicycles are permitted (the other one is Oconaluftee River Trail on the North Carolina side). Dogs must be on leashes. The 1.9-mile trail starts at Sugarlands Visitor Center and follows the Little Pigeon River. Easy.

Hundreds of orange, mushroom-like rocks known as "hoodoos" rise up from the desert floor about 30 miles northwest of Hanksville. Short, easy trails wind through the bizarre goblins making it a fun walk for kids and adults. Be forewarned that during busy times of the year, there may be a wait time to enter the park.

The large retractable windows of this boutique winery's barnlike tasting space open up to views of Cabernet Sauvignon vines—in fine weather, guests on the outdoor deck can practically touch them. Goosecross makes two Chardonnays and a Pinot Noir from Carneros fruit, but the soul of this cordial operation is its 12-acre State Lane Vineyard, planted with red Bordeaux grapes. A Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot from State Lane are the stars, along with the Holly's Block 100% Cab and the Aeros blend of the vineyard's best blocks. The last two aren't always poured, but the intentionally big Branta red wine or a Tempranillo tempered by Viognier usually is. Appointments are advised for weekend visits.