26 Best Sights in USA

With its narrow rock walls arching out from the shoreline, Alii is typical of the numerous fishponds that define southern Molokai. Many were built around the 13th century under the direction of powerful alii (chiefs), who were typically the only ones allowed to eat the harvest from the ponds. This early type of aquaculture, particular to Hawaii, exemplifies the ingenuity of Native Hawaiians. One or more openings were left in the wall, where gates called makaha were installed. These gates allowed seawater and tiny fish to enter the enclosed pond but kept larger predators out. The tiny fish would then grow too big to get out. At one time there were 62 fishponds around Molokai's coast. Visits are available only via guided tours with Ka Honua Momona International with a recommended donation of $25 per person; make online reservations. Each third Saturday of the month is a community work day, where volunteers can assist in restoration efforts.

While building a housing development in the 1970s, workers uncovered this sinkhole where giant mammoths came to drink, got trapped, and died about 26,000 years ago. The site has been protected with a high, domelike structure so archaeologists can dig up and study the bones. To date, the remains of 60-plus mammoths have been discovered, and most have been left in place, partially excavated, for visitors to see. You can watch the excavation in progress, take guided tours, and learn all about mammoths and archaeology.

Twenty-eight miles south of Carrizozo, take CR B-30 east off U.S. 54 and in 5 mi you come to Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, one of the Southwest's most comprehensive and fascinating examples of prehistoric rock art. The 21,000 sunbursts, lizards, birds, handprints, plants, masks, and other symbols are thought to represent the nature-worshipping religion of the Jornada Mogollon people, who lived in this region between AD 900 and AD 1400. Symbols were pinpointed and identified through the extensive work of two members of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico's Rock Art Recording Field School. Fragrant desert creosote and mesquite can be found here, along with cacti that blossom brilliantly in early summer. A rugged trail snakes for 1 mi, and from its top you can see the Tularosa Basin to the west and the Sacramento Mountains to the east. A short trail leads to a partially excavated prehistoric village. You can camp at the site, and there are 10 covered shelters with picnic tables, barbecue grills, restrooms, and water. Two RV sites with electricity and water are available for $10 per night.

Among the nearly 60 dinosaur skeletons displayed at this nonprofit museum and research center is the winged "Thermopolis Specimen," the only Archaeopteryx exhibited outside of Europe, and "Stan," one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons in the world, measuring 35 feet long and weighing in at nearly 6 tons. Special full-day programs allow kids and adults to try their hand at paleontology by digging in one of the several active dinosaur sites nearby (some 10,000 dinosaur bones have been excavated in the vicinity since 1993). Tours of the dig site are also offered daily in summer.

A desert creek flows through this verdant canyon, one of the most wondrous sights of West Texas, lined with walnut, maple, and other trees that explode into brilliant hues each autumn. Call the visitor center for foliage updates—the spectacular changing of the leaves usually extends into early November. You're likely to spot mule deer heading for the water here. The canyon is ground zero for several hiking trails, including Pratt Cabin (two to three hours) and the Grotto (four hours).

Dating from the early 1100s, North America's largest reconstructed Great Kiva (a partially submerged, circular earthen structure used for ceremonial and community-wide activities) and a pueblo dwelling that once contained more than 500 rooms, Aztec Ruins National Monument and Museum, makes for a rewarding stop. The ruins have been designated a World Heritage Site because of their significance in what is known as the Chaco Phenomenon, the extensive multitribal social and economic system that reached far beyond Chaco Canyon. This pueblo was abandoned by the mid-1200s. Early homesteaders thought they'd come across an ancient Aztec ruin, hence the odd name. You only need an hour or so to tour the ruin, which is less spectacular but considerably more accessible than those at Chaco.

A self-guided tour takes you to, but not through, a tower and kiva built between 1100 and 1300 AD and connected by a tunnel. The tower-and-kiva combinations in the park are thought to have been either religious structures or signal towers.

You can view more than 500 fossilized dinosaur tracks along the ½-mi wooden Dinosaur Trackway at Clayton Lake State Park, making this one of the few sites of its kind in the world. The tracks, estimated to be 100 million years old, were made when the area was the shore of a prehistoric sea. Eight species of dinosaurs, vegetarian and carnivorous, lived here. The sparkling lake that gives the state park its name is ideal for camping, hiking, and fishing.

When you visit the 800-plus acres here, with a liberal arts college serving at the cultural center, don't expect Colonial Williamsburg. St. Mary's is an ongoing archaeological dig and a work in progress. In 1934, in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of Maryland, the colony's imposing State House, originally built in 1676, was reconstructed. In the early 1970s a vast archaeological-reconstruction program began in earnest, a project that has revealed nearly 200 individual sites. In 2009 St. Mary's marked its 375th anniversary of the founding of Maryland. A living history museum of sorts, the historic town includes several notable reconstructions and reproductions of buildings. The State House of 1676, like its larger and grander counterpart in Williamsburg, has an upper and a lower chamber for the Council and General Assembly. This 1934 reproduction is based on court documents from the period; the original was dismantled in 1829, with many of the bricks used for Trinity Church nearby. The square-rigged ship Maryland Dove, docked behind the State House, represents the smaller of the two vessels that conveyed the original settlers from England. The Godiah Spray Tobacco Plantation depicts life on a 17th-century tobacco farm in the Maryland wilderness, with interpreters portraying the Spray family—the real family lived about 20 mi away—and its indentured servants, enlisting visitors in such household chores as cooking and gardening or in working the tobacco field. The buildings, including the main dwelling house and outbuildings, were built with period tools and techniques.

Other sites to see in town are the town center, the location of the first Catholic church in the English Colonies, a "victualing" and lodging house, and the Woodland Indian Hamlet. Historic interpreters in costume—some in character—add realism to the experience. Admission is about a third of the price for kids.

In the Kahalepalaoa Beach area, on the makai side of the coastal road, are historical marker signs. Follow the path to the left to find the crumbling remains of the Kahalepalaoa church, meeting hall, and school house—the island's oldest Western-style building—which once served the windward communities of Lanai. Do not attempt to explore the structure's interior; indeed, stay behind the barrier that's here. You can also follow a path at the right off the road to the Maunalei Sugar Company locomotive, a remnant of the brief period when a doomed sugar mill operation changed the landscape. Be careful of thorny keawe (mesquite) branches while exploring.

The ruins of this stone fort, built in 1816 by an agent of the imperial Russian government named Georg Anton Schäffer, are a reminder of the days when he tried to conquer Kauai for his homeland, or so one story goes. Another claims that Schäffer's allegiance lay with King Kaumualii, who was attempting to keep leadership of his island from the grasp of Kamehameha the Great. The crumbling walls of this National Historic Landmark are not particularly interesting, but the signs loaded with historical information are. A bronze statue of King Kaumualii was installed in 2021, marking 200 years since the king was kidnapped to Oahu aboard the ship Haaheo o Hawaii in July 1821, during a reception aboard. Follow the statue's gaze for a splendid view of Niihau.

In the mid-1800s passengers en route from St. Louis to California on the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route stopped here for rest and refreshment. At more than a mile in elevation, the station was the highest on the journey, but it operated for only about a year. The ruins provide a peek into the past: the bare remains of a few buildings with rock walls (but no roofs) layered on the desert floor. Do not touch. You can drive here from U.S. 62/180, but it's more interesting to stroll over via the paved ¾-mile round-trip natural trail from the visitor center.

The 1964 earthquake destroyed the town of Portage. The ghost forest of dead spruce in the area was created when the land subsided by 6 to 10 feet after the quake and saltwater penetrated inland from Turnagain Arm, killing the trees.

This site commemorates the location of the home of U.S. presidents George Washington and John Adams from 1790 to 1800, as well as nine enslaved Africans who worked as household staff. This outdoor monument, which is open 24 hours a day, shows video clips that bring the house's history alive. Inside, take note of the bow window, which is thought to have inspired the shape of the Oval Office at the White House, as well as the remains of a passage torn down in 1832 that connected the main house to the slave quarters.

This is a 100-room pueblo, built before 1400 and said to have housed Ancestral Pueblo people. Many visitors come to see the petroglyphs, as well as a solar calendar.

Worth a stop for its spectacular views from a bluff high above the ocean overlooking Waimea Bay, this sacred spot spans 2 acres and is the largest heiau (place of worship) on Oahu. At one time it was used as a heiau luakini, or a temple for human sacrifices. Puu o Mahuka may have been built in the 17th century, and its use for religious purposes ended in 1819. The remnants of its stone walls are impressive, and the site is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Turn up the road at the Pupukea Foodland and follow it to the site.

Little Bloomfield sits at the crossroads of the Four Corners. It's a great place to stay if you're heading south to Chaco Canyon; it's equally good as a stepping-off point to Farmington, Aztec, Navajo Lake, and Mesa Verde. Pick up supplies here, refuel at one of the locally run cafés, and absolutely leave time to tour Salmon Ruins.

Salmon (pronounced sol-mon) Ruins, which dates from the 11th century, is a large Chacoan Anasazi living complex on the northern edge of the San Juan River. It's a distinctive example of pre-Columbian Pueblo architecture and stonework—the masonry is more finely finished than that at Aztec; the Chaco connection is immediately clear here. The site is named for a homesteader whose family protected the ruins for nearly a century. Heritage Park contains the restored George Salmon Homestead, a root cellar, bunkhouse, sweat lodge, hogan, and other types of native housing structures. Salmon also runs off-road and Journey into the Past tours, all amiably guided by field experts; check with them about routes through Chaco Canyon, Bisti Badlands, and the rarely seen Dinétah pueblitos, their specialty.

Unpreserved in the middle of the city for years, this amazing, 6-acre historic site, formerly called "Mesa Grande Cultural Park," features a group of Hohokam structures dating to 1400–1100 BC. Once protected only by locals and the occasional landowner, it's now operated by the Arizona Museum of Natural History and was recently rechristened with a new name in the O'odham language, which means "Blue Fly's place of dwelling."

The most impressive petroglyphs, and the only ones with explanatory signs, are on the Bajada Loop Drive in Saguaro West. An easy five-minute stroll from the signposted parking area takes you to one of the largest concentrations of rock carvings in the Southwest. You'll have a close-up view of the designs left by the Hohokam people between AD 900 and 1200, including large spirals some believe are astronomical markers.

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.  

Find this spot—where signs near a heiau (shrine) also explain Kailua's early history—tucked next to the Windward YMCA. Although they may look like piles of rocks to the uninitiated, heiau are sacred stone platforms for the worship of the gods and date from ancient times; this one is 140 feet by 80 feet. Ulupo means "night inspiration," referring to the legendary Menehune, a mythical race of diminutive people who are said to have built the heiau under the cloak of darkness.

Thousands of buffalo bones are piled atop each other at the Vore Buffalo Jump, where Native Americans herded bison over a cliff between the years 1500 and 1800, when hunting was done on foot rather than on horses imported from Europe. The site is open to visitors even as it continues to be excavated by archaeologists.

The Black Water Draw Archaeological Site remains active and is open at regular hours to visitors in summer and on weekends in spring and fall. Self-guided tours on developed trails are well worth the effort for the privilege of viewing work in progress at a major archaeological site. Stay strictly on the trails, which offer options of ¾-mi or ½-mi round-trips with about 20 different interpretive stops with signs describing vegetation and geology (the wildflowers following spring rains can be spectacular). On hot days, wear a hat, use sunscreen, and carry water for these excursions. An exhibit building offers a fascinating look at ongoing excavations of prehistoric animal bones, and an ancient, hand-dug well can be viewed near the exhibit building.

Coral stone ruins are all that remain at the site that served mostly as a prison; however, the ruins are actually not the real leftovers from the fort. They were constructed as a set for the 1961 movie The Devil at 4 O'Clock. The real fort was built from 1831 to 1832 after sailors, angered by a law forbidding local women from swimming out to ships, lobbed cannonballs into town the previous year. The fort was finally torn down in the 1850s and the stones were used to construct the new prison. Cannons raised from the wreck of a warship in Honolulu Harbor were brought to Lahaina and placed in front of the fort, where they still sit today at the Lahaina Harbor flagpole.