The most beautiful places in the USA
21.07.2023 - 07:56
/ roughguides.com
We asked our readers to vote for the most beautiful locations in the USA. Now the results are in. This gallery showcases the top twenty most beautiful places in America as voted by Rough Guides readers.
The information in this article is inspired by The Rough Guide to the USA , your essential guide for visiting USA .
The spectacularly eroded layers of sand, ash, mud and gravel in the Badlands National Park was created over 35 million years ago, when there was an ancient sea here. The sea subsequently dried up; over the last few million years, erosion has slowly eaten away at the terrain revealing mesmerizing gradations of earth tones and pastel colours.
The crumbly earth is carved into all manner of shapes: pinnacles, precipices, pyramids, knobs, cones, ridges, gorges – or, if you’re feeling poetic, lunar sandcastles and cathedrals. The rainbow hues that colour these formations are most striking at dawn, dusk and just after rainfall.
Find more accommodation options to stay near Badlands National Park
Sunrise over Badlands National Park, South Dakota © Paul Brady Photography/Shutterstock
Once it wends its way out of Shenandoah National Park, Skyline Drive becomes the Blue Ridge Parkway, a beautiful route heading southwest along the crest of the Appalachians.
Spanning more than four hundred miles, this spectacular mountain route links North Carolina with Virginia and takes in stunning vistas, wild-flower studded hiking trails and Appalachian bluegrass shows.
Mabry Mill in Autumn — Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia © Orhan Cam/Shutterstock
East of Portland the Columbia River Gorge cuts through the snowy peaks of the Cascades for 75 miles, an important corridor between east and west for thousands of years. Scoured into a wide U-shape by huge Ice Age-era floods, the gorge is a nationally protected scenic area, where waterfalls tumble down sheer cliffs, and fir and maple trees turn fabulous shades of gold and red in the fall.
Further east, the highway passes some of the most jaw-dropping waterfalls in the region, beginning with the two-tier torrent of Bridal Veil, 4.5 miles from Vista House. Another four miles on is the spectacular, and hugely popular, Multnomah Falls, the tallest waterfall in the state, whose waters plunge 542ft down a rock face, collect in a pool, and then drop another 70ft.
Multnomah Falls, Oregon © AdobeStock
Key West isn’t the last of the Florida Keys. To reach the westernmost of the islands, you have to travel by boat or seaplane to the Dry Tortugas, 68 miles beyond Duval Street’s last bar. Romantic as it sounds today, the name merely told 16th-century mariners that the island was “dry,” meaning there was no fresh water; tortugas, Spanish for turtles, meant there was no fresh meat.
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