14 Best Sights in USA

Just northwest of Page, the landscape opens up to reveal Glen Canyon Dam and the waters of Lake Powell behind it. Completed in 1963, this massive concrete-arch structure spans 1,560 feet across the canyon and rises 710 feet from bedrock. At full capacity, the lake reaches depths of about 560 feet at the dam. The power plant, long considered an engineering achievement on par with Hoover Dam, generates roughly 1.3 million kilowatts of electricity—serving a five-state grid that includes Colorado, Arizona, Utah, California, and New Mexico.

The climate here is typically dry and clear, with only about 8 inches of rain annually. Summer days range from the 60s to the 90s, while spring and fall are generally mild, often in the 70s and 80s. Even in summer, evenings cool off quickly, and winter can bring occasional cold spells. Boating is possible year-round, thanks to all-weather houseboats and tour options. If you’re heading out on the water or camping nearby, note that regulations require portable toilets on the lake and along the shoreline to help protect water quality.

Originally referred to as Boulder Dam, this colossal structure, widely considered one of the greatest engineering achievements in history, was later officially named Hoover Dam in recognition of Herbert Hoover's role in the project as secretary of commerce before becoming president. Look for artist Oskar Hansen's plaza sculptures, which include the 30-foot-tall Winged Figures of the Republic (the statues and terrazzo floor patterns were copied at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Downtown Las Vegas).

The tour itself is a tradition that dates back to 1937, and you can still see the old box office on top of the dam. But now the ticketed tours originate in the modern visitor center (or online), with two options. The cheaper, more popular one is the Powerplant Tour, which starts every 15 minutes. It's a half-hour, guided tour that includes a short film and then a 537-foot elevator ride to two points of interest: the chance to stand on top of one of the 30-foot pipes where you can hear and feel the water rushing through to the generators, and the more impressive eight-story room housing still-functional power generators. Self-paced exhibits follow the guided portion, with good interactive museum exhibits and a great indoor/outdoor patio view of the dam from the river side. The more extensive Hoover Dam Tour includes everything on the Powerplant Tour but limits the group size to 20 and spends more time inside the dam, including a peek through the air vents. Tours run from 9 to 5 all year, with the last Powerplant tour leaving at 3:45 pm daily, and the last Hoover Dam Tour at 3:30. Visitors for both tours submit to security screening comparable to an airport. January and February are the slowest months, and mornings generally are less busy.The top of the dam is open to pedestrians and vehicles, but you have to remain in your vehicle after sundown. Visitors can still drive over the dam for sightseeing, but cannot continue into Arizona; you have to turn around and come back after the road dead-ends at a scenic lookout (with a snack bar and store) on the Arizona side. The dam's High Scaler Café offers fare such as cold drinks, ice cream, and hamburgers.

North American Indians called it Onguiaahram, or Thundering Waters. For hundreds of years, visitors to Niagara Falls have marveled at the sheer immensity of the surging walls of water. Its awe-inspiring views today are enhanced by misty early mornings, sun-streaked rainbows, and grand after-dark illumination with spotlights that penetrate the night sky.

Part of the longest unfortified border in the world, Niagara Falls is actually three cataracts: the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, in New York, and the Horseshoe Falls, in Ontario. American Falls is the highest (70–110 feet tall), but not by much, and it's about half as wide as the Canadian cascade (950 feet long). Bridal Veil is the smallest of the three. Several small islands dot the river here. Goat Island, part of Niagara Falls State Park, separates Horseshoe Falls from the U.S. falls and offers spectacular vantage points of both sides. Little Luna Island sits between the two U.S. cascades, between Goat Island and the mainland.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the first federal dam to span the Columbia in 1937. Its generators (visible from a balcony on a self-guided tour or up close during free guided tours offered daily in summer and on weekends the rest of the year) have a capacity of more than a million kilowatts, enough to supply power to more than 200,000 single-family homes. There's an extensive visitor center on Bradford Island, complete with underwater windows where gaggles of kids watch migrating salmon and steelhead as they struggle up fish ladders. The best viewing times are between April and October. In recent years the dwindling runs of wild Columbia salmon have made the dam a subject of much environmental controversy.

Four miles outside of McKenzie Bridge is the highest embankment dam ever built by the Army Corps of Engineers—452 feet above the streambed. The resulting reservoir, on the South Fork McKenzie River, covers 1,280 acres. The dam generates 25 megawatts of power, and includes a fish collection and sorting facility, and a temperature control tower to keep the downstream water at a suitable temperature for spawning. The public recreation areas are in the Willamette National Forest. You can visit the dam year-round, but some campgrounds are open only from April to September.

At this hydroelectric dam 50 miles east of the Bonneville Dam, you can tour a visitor center, which is located on the Oregon side of the river at Seufert Park, with surprisingly even-handed exhibits presenting differing perspectives on the Columbia River dams, with input from farmers, utility companies, environmentalists, and indigenous tribes. There's also a live feed of salmon and sturgeon scaling the fish ladder.

The dam is one of three in the area that collectively produce hydroelectric power for Seattle City Light. Although its powerhouse can only be visited on bus tours that are sometimes offered (check at the Skagit Information Center), the experience of driving across a dam makes the short detour off Highway 20 worthwhile. To see the dam from the water, continue a mile farther east along Diablo Dam Road to the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center, which offers Diablo Lake boat tours. As you cruise past Diablo Dam and then north to Ross Dam, guides share the secret of how the lake gets its vibrant turquoise color. The guides can sometimes take visitors into the Ross Dam powerhouse for a closer look.

Built in 1917 to support the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project—three dams (Gorge, Diablo, and Ross) that work together to provide power—this art deco structure has a visitor gallery with displays on project operations and history. Currently about 20% of Seattle's electricity comes from here. The best way to visit is on one of the summer tours operated by Skagit Tours in partnership with Seattle City Light and the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center.

Colorful displays about the dam, a 13-minute film on the site's geology and the dam's construction, and information about the 30-minute laser-light show (held nightly from Memorial Day weekend through September) are here. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees operation and maintenance of the dam, conducts tours daily from late May through early September, weather and maintenance schedules permitting. You can also pick up a self-guided historical walking tour that will take you from the visitor center through the old part of town, across the bridge, and into the old engineers' town. Geocachers are encouraged to bring some swag and take the geocache challenge on the visitor center's grounds.

Straddling the U.S.–Canadian border at the northern juncture of Namakan and Rainy lakes and accessible only by boat, the falls mark the hub of civilization in the park. Construction of dams to control the water flow between the lakes began in 1910, and this led to the area becoming a lodging spot for lumberjacks and fishermen. Today, Kettle Falls is home to the park's only hotel and restaurant.

Named after the eponymous character in Charles Dickens's Pickwick Papers, Pickwick Dam is considered by locals to be the playground of southwestern Tennessee's Hardin County.

Road-trippers traveling along I–5 often stop at the second-largest concrete dam in the United States—only Grand Coulee in Washington is bigger than Shasta Dam, completed in 1945. The visitor center's 20-minute film and exhibits explain the engineering and construction, but even if the facility isn't open, the photogenic view north to snowcapped Mt. Shasta makes the dam worth the detour. The landmark's history-laden guided tours were set to resume by 2024.

Local anglers line both banks of this quiet creek, where salmon run upstream from June through August in the reflection of Downtown's towers. Successful fishermen clean their catch on the footbridge, which provides prime people-watching over the water. Visitors can stop at the Bait Shack ( 212 W. Whitney Rd.) to rent reels and waders and purchase fishing permits. Farther upstream (follow Whitney Road and turn left on Post Road) is the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery, birthplace of more than six million sport fish each year. The public building has video screens and windows overlooking the hatchery floor. Outside, salmon congregate in the clear shallow water as they try to leap up the waterfalls cascading over an artificial dam.

Flanked by the desolate Mazatzal and Sierra Anchas mountain ranges, Theodore Roosevelt Lake Reservoir and Dam is an aquatic recreational area—a favorite with bass anglers, water-skiers, and boaters. This is the largest masonry dam on the planet, and the massive bridge is the longest two-lane, single-span, steel-arch bridge in the nation.