Discover the United States: 78 places to visit

SpringSummerAutumn

New England

Acadia National Park

Cadillac Mountain, tallest on the Atlantic coast

Moderate Coastal & cliff walking Video Article Map

All seasons

Mid-Atlantic

Adirondack Park

6.1 million acres, 52 per cent of it private

Moderate Forest & estate Video Article Map

SummerAutumnWinter

Midwest & Great Lakes

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Twenty-one islands in Lake Superior

Moderate Cave & underground Video Article Map

SpringAutumn

Southwest

Arches National Park

More than 2,000 arches over a salt bed

Moderate Aurora & night sky Video Article Map

SummerAutumnWinter

Rocky Mountains

Aspen

A silver camp that came back

Moderate Alpine & high mountain Video Article Map

SpringAutumnWinter

Texas

Austin

The Texas capital, incorporated in 1839

Easy Cycling route Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Great Plains

Badlands National Park

Buttes above the largest mixed grass prairie

Moderate Gorge & canyon Video Article Map

AutumnWinterSpring

Texas

Big Bend National Park

801,163 acres at a bend in the Rio Grande

Hard Aurora & night sky Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

California

Big Sur

Where the Santa Lucia Mountains meet the sea

Moderate Coastal & cliff walking Video Article Map

All seasons

Southeast

Biltmore Estate

178,926 square feet, built 1889 to 1895

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

All seasons

New England

Boston

Founded in 1630 by Puritans from Lincolnshire

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Southwest

Bryce Canyon National Park

Amphitheatres full of hoodoos

Moderate Aurora & night sky Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

New England

Cape Cod

Named by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SpringAutumnWinter

Southeast

Charleston

Charles Town of 1670, moved here in 1680

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

All seasons

Midwest & Great Lakes

Chicago

Rebuilt after the fire of 1871

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Pacific Northwest

Columbia River Gorge

The only navigable way through the Cascades

Moderate Gorge & canyon Video Article Map

SummerAutumn

Pacific Northwest

Crater Lake National Park

The deepest lake in the United States

Moderate Lake & waterway Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Great Plains

Custer State Park

71,000 acres and a herd of 1,400 bison

Easy Hill walking Video Article Map

AutumnWinterSpring

California

Death Valley National Park

Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level

Hard Aurora & night sky Video Article Map

SummerAutumnWinter

Alaska

Denali National Park and Preserve

Bigger than the state of New Hampshire

Hard Alpine & high mountain Video Article Map

AutumnWinterSpring

Gulf South

Everglades National Park

The first park made to protect an ecosystem

Easy Lake & waterway Video Article Map

AutumnWinterSpring

Gulf South

Florida Keys

A coral cay archipelago out to Key West

Easy Coastal & dune walking Video Article Map

SummerAutumn

Alaska

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve

A monument in 1925, a park in 1980

Moderate Fjord & sea cliff Video Article Map

SummerAutumn

Rocky Mountains

Glacier National Park

More than 130 named lakes on the border

Hard Alpine & high mountain Video Article Map

SpringAutumnWinter

Southwest

Grand Canyon

277 miles long and over a mile deep

Hard Gorge & canyon Video Article Map

All seasons

Rocky Mountains

Grand Teton National Park

The forty-mile Teton Range above the valley

Hard Alpine & high mountain Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Southeast

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The most visited national park in the country

Moderate Forest & estate Video Article Map

AutumnWinterSpring

Texas

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas

Hard Aurora & night sky Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Gulf South

Gulf Islands National Seashore

White quartz sand across three states

Easy Coastal & dune walking Video Article Map

All seasons

Hawaii

Haleakalā National Park

House of the sun, on Maui

Hard Aurora & night sky Video Article Map

All seasons

Hawaii

Hāna Highway

620 curves and 59 bridges to Hana

Easy Coastal & cliff walking Video Article Map

All seasons

Hawaii

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park

Kilauea and Mauna Loa in one park

Moderate Aurora & night sky Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Midwest & Great Lakes

Indiana Dunes National Park

Fifteen miles of Lake Michigan shore

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SummerAutumn

Midwest & Great Lakes

Isle Royale National Park

The largest natural island in Lake Superior

Hard Hill walking Video Article Map

SummerAutumnWinter

Rocky Mountains

Jackson Hole

A graben valley fifty-five miles long

Moderate Alpine & high mountain Video Article Map

AutumnWinterSpring

California

Joshua Tree National Park

Two deserts and one endemic tree

Moderate Aurora & night sky Video Article Map

SummerAutumnWinter

Alaska

Juneau

The capital, on the Gastineau Channel

Easy Glacier & ice Video Article Map

SummerAutumn

Alaska

Katmai National Park and Preserve

The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes

Hard Lake & waterway Video Article Map

SummerAutumn

Alaska

Kenai Fjords National Park

The Harding Icefield and 38 glaciers

Moderate Fjord & sea cliff Video Article Map

SummerAutumnWinter

California

Lake Tahoe

The largest alpine lake in North America

Moderate Alpine & high mountain Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Midwest & Great Lakes

Mackinac Island

Michilimackinac, the Great Turtle

Easy Cycling route Video Article Map

SpringAutumnWinter

Southwest

Monument Valley

Buttes a thousand feet above the floor

Easy Aurora & night sky Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Southeast

Mount Mitchell

The highest ground east of the Mississippi

Moderate Forest & estate Video Article Map

SummerAutumn

Pacific Northwest

Mount Rainier National Park

A 14,410-foot volcano and 25 glaciers

Hard Alpine & high mountain Video Article Map

All seasons

Great Plains

Mount Rushmore

Four heads, sixty feet tall, 1927 to 1941

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Hawaii

Nā Pali Coast State Park

Cliffs 4,000 feet above the Pacific

Hard Coastal & cliff walking Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Gulf South

Natchez Trace Parkway

444 miles from Natchez to Nashville

Easy Cycling route Video Article Map

SpringAutumnWinter

Gulf South

New Orleans

French colonists on the Mississippi, 1718

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

All seasons

Mid-Atlantic

New York City

Five boroughs, each of them a county

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

New England

Newport

Mansions and sailing on Aquidneck Island

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

All seasons

Mid-Atlantic

Niagara Falls

Horseshoe Falls, most powerful in North America

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Pacific Northwest

Olympic National Park

Coast, rainforest and alpine in one park

Hard Alpine & high mountain Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Southeast

Outer Banks

Two hundred miles of barrier island

Easy Coastal & dune walking Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Texas

Padre Island National Seashore

Seventy miles of undeveloped barrier island

Easy Coastal & dune walking Video Article Map

All seasons

Mid-Atlantic

Philadelphia

Founded in 1682 by the Quaker William Penn

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SummerAutumn

Midwest & Great Lakes

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Thirteen miles of coloured sandstone cliff

Moderate Coastal & cliff walking Video Article Map

All seasons

Pacific Northwest

Portland

Where the Willamette meets the Columbia

Easy Cycling route Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

California

Redwood National and State Parks

45 percent of the old-growth redwood left

Moderate Coastal & cliff walking Video Article Map

SummerAutumnWinter

Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountain National Park

Both slopes of the Continental Divide

Hard Alpine & high mountain Video Article Map

SpringAutumnWinter

Texas

San Antonio

Named for Saint Anthony of Padua in 1691

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

All seasons

California

San Francisco

The Presidio and the Mission, both of 1776

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

All seasons

Southwest

Santa Fe

The oldest state capital, founded in 1610

Easy Art & museum Video Article Map

SpringAutumnWinter

Southeast

Savannah

The oldest city in Georgia, laid out in 1733

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

All seasons

Pacific Northwest

Seattle

Between Puget Sound and Lake Washington

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Mid-Atlantic

Shenandoah National Park

Skyline Drive, the length of the Blue Ridge

Moderate Forest & estate Video Article Map

AutumnWinterSpring

Gulf South

St. Augustine

Continuously inhabited since 8 September 1565

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SummerAutumnWinter

New England

Stowe

The Ski Capital of the East, under Mount Mansfield

Moderate Forest & estate Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Great Plains

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Less than 5 per cent of the prairie is left

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SpringAutumnWinter

Texas

Texas Hill Country

Karst hills on the Edwards Plateau

Moderate Cave & underground Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Great Plains

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

The only park named after one person

Moderate Gorge & canyon Video Article Map

All seasons

Hawaii

Waikīkī

First capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

All seasons

Mid-Atlantic

Washington, D.C.

A district belonging to no state, since 1790

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SummerAutumnWinter

New England

White Mountains

Mount Washington, and seventy-six years of wind

Hard Forest & estate Video Article Map

AutumnWinterSpring

Southwest

White Sands National Park

The largest gypsum dunefield on Earth

Easy Accessible walking Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

Great Plains

Wind Cave National Park

95 per cent of the world's known boxwork

Moderate Cave & underground Video Article Map

All seasons

Rocky Mountains

Yellowstone National Park

The first national park, 1 March 1872

Moderate National park Video Article Map

SpringSummerAutumn

California

Yosemite National Park

Granite, waterfalls and giant sequoia

Hard Alpine & high mountain Video Article Map

SpringAutumnWinter

Southwest

Zion National Park

Four life zones where three regions meet

Hard Gorge & canyon Video Article Map