The 10 Most Beautiful Places in America
It's a nation so blessed with sights -- natural and man-made --
that you could ask all 300 million residents for their favorites and
expect 300 million different answers. So how do you go about picking
the country's 10 most beautiful spots?
Well, for starters,
you go about it very boldly. You solicit opinions from travel writers
and photographers, poll your colleagues, and talk to outdoor
enthusiasts, historic preservationists and relatives who, every time
you see them, seem to have just returned from another fabulous trip. In
putting together USA WEEKEND Magazine's annual summer travel story, our
editors did all that. To help frame the unenviable -- all right, nearly
impossible -- task of limiting America's most beautiful attractions to
a mere 10, we also offered a few guidelines. Nominees had to be
publicly accessible and reasonably well-known. Iconic stature wouldn't
hurt a place's chances, and, given the want of any objective way to
measure beauty, sentimental favoritism was an acceptable tiebreaker. In
other words, we instructed our experts to follow their hearts. After
reading the top 10 list they produced, we hope you'll do the same.
1. Red Rock Country (Sedona, Ariz.)
Ever since
the early days of movies, when Hollywood has wanted to show the unique
beauty of the West, it has gone to Sedona, a place that looks like
nowhere else. Beginning with The Call of the Canyon in 1923, some
hundred movies and TV shows have been filmed in and around town. We
fell under Sedona's spell, too, and while debating our No. 1 spot kept
returning to it for the same reasons Hollywood does: The area's
telegenic canyons, wind-shaped buttes and dramatic sandstone towers
embody the rugged character of the West -- and the central place that
character holds in our national identity. There's a timelessness about
these ancient rocks that fires the imagination of all who encounter
them. Some 11,000 years before film cameras discovered Sedona, American
Indians settled the area. Homesteaders, artists and, most recently, New
Age spiritualists have followed. Many cultures and agendas abound, but
there's really only one attraction: the sheer, exuberant beauty of the
place. People come for inspiration and renewal, tawny cliffs rising
from the buff desert floor, wind singing through box canyons, and
sunsets that seem to cause the ancient buttes and spires to glow from
within. We hear the canyon's call and cannot resist.
2. Nighttime view from Mount Washington in Pittsburgh
In a nation
with a wealth of stunning cities full of compelling stories, ranking
Pittsburgh as the No. 2 beauty spot is perhaps our most surprising
choice. But the Steel City's aesthetic appeal is undeniable, as is its
very American capacity for renewal. Standing atop Mount Washington, the
steep hill that rises giddily on the city's south side, sightseers
enjoy the unforgettable panorama of the Allegheny and Monongahela
rivers flowing together to create the mighty Ohio, that waterway so
essential in the nation's settlement. The rivers cup downtown's
lustrous Golden Triangle, where landmark skyscrapers thrust upward like
rockets. At night, lights twinkle on no fewer than 15 bridges. Almost
as breathtaking as the vista itself is the urban renewal that made it
possible. A century ago, a pall of smoke lay so thick over town that
streetlights burned all day. As Pittsburgh continues an evolutionary
course that has taken it from trading post to transportation hub to
industrial goliath, we salute its reinvention into one of America's
most scenic and livable communities. In the life of a city, there's
nothing more beautiful, or inspiring, than a renaissance.
3. The upper Mississippi River
For
third-place honors, we turn to an area less celebrated than others, but
nonetheless packed with the unique beauty our nation abounds in. Its
low profile makes it all the more charming. To truly appreciate the
Mississippi, we leave the familiar territory of Huck and Tom and take a
spin on the Great River Road as it runs alongside Old Muddy's upper
reaches through Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. One of the
nation's most scenic routes, it winds over hills, atop towering bluffs
and through one 19th-century river town after another. The sites along
the way read like chapters in American history. Ancient Indian burial
mounds punctuate rolling parkland, sidewheelers ply the river, and
villages on either bank present fine examples of Steamboat Gothic, the
ornate architectural style born in the heyday of river travel. In
Galena, Ill., 85% of the buildings are on the National Register of
Historic Places. At Trempealeau, Wis., the Trempealeau Hotel has
offered haven to watermen since 1888. The whole laid-back region's real
draw is the river itself. Steady and timeless, it makes one fine
traveling companion as it rolls toward the Gulf.
4. Hawaii's Na Pali Coast
At the
country's extreme western edge, half a world away from the cradle of
the American Revolution, we gain a flash of insight into the
restlessness that drove our forebears from New England to the Pacific
Ocean and beyond. They pushed west in search of paradise. Amid the
coral reefs, beaches and mist-shrouded volcanic peaks of Hawaii's
oldest island, they surely found it. Along the Kalalau Trail on the Na
Pali coast of Kauai, verdant mountains plunge 4,000 feet into the
sparkling Pacific. A short hike inland, where Hanakapi'ai Falls pours
into a crystal pool and tropical flowers dapple the lush hillsides, the
play of color and light creates the effect of an Impressionist painting
gone native. Experience the splendor at your own risk: The hardest
thing about a trip to Kauai is boarding the plane to go back home.
5. Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
Engineering
marvel, art deco icon, monument to progress: The Golden Gate Bridge
does much more than connect San Francisco to Marin County. Named for
the strait it spans -- the 3-mile passage between San Francisco Bay and
the Pacific -- the bridge is a grand symbol of one of the world's most
striking cities. Completed in 1937, the $35 million structure of
concrete and steel embodied a city's unquenchable spirit -- and, by
extension, the nation's. Set off by its signature orange paint job,
twin 750-foot towers that seem to disappear into the heavens and
spidery cables that stretch like harp strings, the Golden Gate was
unlike anything else ever built. At 4,200 feet, the main suspension
span was easily the world's longest. (Almost 70 years later, it ranks
seventh.) Facts and figures tell only a partial story: Admired as a
practical feat, the bridge is beloved as a work of art, one of the
greatest the 20th century produced in any medium.
6. Grafton, Vt.
Had the
French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in Vermont in the autumn of
1609 instead of summer, he never would have dubbed the land "Vert
Mont." In fall, the foothills of the state's namesake Green Mountains
blaze red, yellow and orange. Among the choicest spots to take in
nature's annual art show is Grafton, right, one of the state's
prettiest hamlets and, thanks to the efforts of the non-profit Windham
Foundation, arguably its best preserved. The foundation has
rehabilitated more than 50 historic buildings, including the Old Tavern
at Grafton, a one-time stagecoach stop. Other man-made attractions
include the award-winning Grafton Village Cheese factory, a pair of
graceful New England churches, a nature museum, a smattering of art
galleries and the almost obligatory covered bridge. But the compact
village of 600 isn't really about picturesque buildings. It's about the
Yankee virtues of simplicity, modesty and saving things that matter.
Past and present harmonize sweetly in this vital community. Come fall,
you'd swear you can hear the brilliant hillsides singing.
7. Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
America has
older mountains than the Tetons, and higher ones. But it has none more
dramatic. The jagged range was formed 6 million to 9 million years ago,
when grinding pressure along the Teton Fault caused two massive
sections of the Earth's crust to come unhinged. On the rift's west
side, a block reared up to form the Teton range. On the east, a
separate block buckled under, creating the valley known as Jackson
Hole. This geologic violence is what makes the Tetons so spectacular:
Forgoing the nicety of foothills, a dozen 12,000-foot peaks shoot
abruptly from the valley floor, literally an eruption of granite. Amid
the grandeur lies glittering Jenny Lake, left. Named for the Shoshone
bride of a 19th-century trapper, the pristine, 2.5-mile-long body of
water mirrors the mountains' glory. Beloved by canoeists, hikers and
honeymooners, lovely Jenny is also popular with elk, moose and
trumpeter swans. Small and dazzling, she is one of the true jewels of
our glorious national park system.
8. From Key Largo to Key West in Florida
So little
actual land, so many associations: coral reefs, Key deer, manatees,
pirates, Key lime pie, silver palms, Bogart and Bacall downing
gangsters in Key Largo, Hemingway downing mojitos at Sloppy Joe's in
Key West. Florida's freewheeling Keys, it has been said, is where
things settle when you pick up the continent and shake it. This much is
certain: In the Conch Republic, as Key West is sometimes called, a
spirited sense of American individualism prevails. Skipping down the
fragile, ribbon-thin 110-mile archipelago on U.S. 1, visitors see
things that exist nowhere else in the country. With a peak elevation of
18 feet, the land mass can seem but an afterthought to the shimmering
Atlantic on one side and the blue-green Gulf on the other. In places
the only thing separating them is the roadway itself, panoptic water
enchanting travelers with the deliciously disorienting sensation that
they've become one with the sea. Along with famously colorful residents
and fauvist sunsets, it's one more Key reason to visit this beguiling
place.
9. Clingmans Dome along the Appalachian Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Winding
through 14 states as it makes its rugged way from Georgia to Maine, the
entire Appalachian Trail ranks high on any list of scenic gems. First
proposed in 1921 by hiking enthusiast Benton MacKaye, the trail came
into service as a continuous footpath across the Eastern states in
1937. A monumental achievement, and one that has given countless
Americans fresh appreciation for the vastness of the land, it rewards
exploration of every well-trod mile. Clingmans Dome, at Tennessee's
eastern edge, rises to 6,643 feet, the highest point along the
2,172-mile trail. The surrounding Smokies support more than 4,000
species of plants, 230 types of birds and some 65 mammal species. From
a lookout at the summit, hikers gaze upon a fog-streaked wilderness and
see the East as it existed hundreds of years ago, lush forest
stretching unbroken in every direction. Among the clouds, one feels
doubly awed: by our county's magnificent nature, and by our duty to
steward it.
10. The squares of Savannah, Ga.
In this
charmed city, the urban and the pastoral gracefully mingle in a
uniquely Southern way -- that is, with gentility and a generous dollop
of mystery. Shaded by live oaks, perfumed by magnolias and surrounded
by historic buildings, 22 enchanting public squares (including Columbia
Square, above) beckon like secret gardens. Feasts for the eyes, balm
for the soul, the vest-pocket parks serve as gathering places, serene
retreats and tourist attractions all rolled into one. Spanish moss
romantically drapes Pulaski Square, named for Revolutionary War hero
Gen. Casimir Pulaski. At Chippewa Square, lorded over by a statue of
Georgia's founder, James Oglethorpe, pay respects to the man who drew
up Savannah's triumphant 18th-century street plan. Forrest Gump had the
right idea: He contemplated life from a bench in Chippewa Square.
Source: http://www.usaweekend.com/03_issues/030518/030518springtravel.html
Has anyone been to any of these places?
-Mahi
Edited by -Mystery- - 15 years ago