From waterfalls to lighthouses, here are the 11 best scenic spots in the Northeast
From waterfalls to lighthouses, here are the 11 best scenic spots in the Northeast These are the Most Treasured Views in the Northeast
From lighthouses to waterfalls to state parks, the northeastern United States offer plenty of destinations for phenomenal sightlines and gorgeous nature.
This is part of a new USA TODAY network project showcasing breathtaking – and perhaps, underappreciated – views throughout the United States. These are some of the most beautiful landmarks, scenic vistas and hidden gems you can truly treasure throughout the nation.
Here are a few of our favorites from the Northeast:
Gilette Castle State Park, Connecticut
Located in East Haddam, Gillette Castle stands atop a hill overlooking the Connecticut River and at first glance looks like an edifice straight out of Game of Thrones. The unique castle was actually built in 1914 for silent film era actor William Gillette, famous for playing the role of Sherlock Holmes. Visitors can tour the house and museum and enjoy the grounds with hiking, picnic spots and food concessions. — Norwich Bulletin staff
Gordon's Pond Trail, Delaware
What makes Gordon's Pond Trail special? These trails offer a coastal vibe that can linger from the summer into autumn, being known for coastal views and bird watching. These trails are primarily flat. The surface of the Gordon's Pond Trail is a mix of crushed stone and boardwalk, so it's a great option for walkers and anyone on wheels, too. Great blue herons, green herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, dunlins, sanderlings and other sorts of shorebirds abound, making for great photography, as well. — Delaware News Journal staff
Nubble Lighthouse, Maine
The Nubble Lighthouse, in York, Maine, is one of the most photographed sites in the nation, and each day, artists set up their easels and paint to capture its scenic beauty. The Nubble Lighthouse, officially called the Cape Neddick Light Station, is visually stunning. While visitors are not allowed on Nubble Island, Sohier Park offers close-up views of the red-roofed, whitewashed Victorian keeper's house and the cast-iron lighthouse tower. — Howard Altschiller, Portsmouth Herald
Annapolis Rock, Maryland
Annapolis Rock, a popular hiking destination along the Appalachian Trail in southern Washington County, offers stunning views. The overlook near the eastern county line is featured on the Maryland stamp in the U.S. Postal Service's Appalachian Trail collection. "It's an iconic view. It's such a popular destination for tourists and locals. To have it on a national stamp, I think, is amazing," said Dan Spedden, president of Washington County's tourism bureau, Visit Hagerstown. — Hagerstown Herald-Mail staff
Highland Light, Massachusetts
Highland Light is in North Truro, Mass., in the Cape Cod National Seashore. Both the lighthouse and the lightkeeper's house are set back from an ocean bluff within a historic district that includes an old-style links golf course and a museum. From the top of the lighthouse, you can see the Atlantic Ocean, the national seashore, dunes, golfers, the outermost tip of Cape Cod, remnants of an old Air Force station, the Jenny Lind Tower and Cape Cod Bay. A lighthouse has been on that property since 1797. — Mary Ann Bragg, Cape Cod Times
Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire
Bounded by Portsmouth, Newington and New Castle in New Hampshire and Kittery and Eliot in Maine, Portsmouth Harbor is a rough and tumble working waterfront with postcard-perfect charm. The harbor is fed by the Piscataqua River, with currents so strong that tugboats are used to guide vessels ranging from cargo ships hauling road salt and petroleum products to $3 billion nuclear submarines in for overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. — Howard Altschiller, Portsmouth Herald
Paterson Great Falls Historic Park, New Jersey
Paterson Great Falls is home to one of the nation's most spectacular waterfalls, featuring a grand 260-foot wide, 77-foot high drop that rushes into the Passaic River. The site has existed since the beginning of time, with Paterson being established around it in 1792, and is both a National Natural Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. Get a great view from either Overlook Park or Mary Ellen Kramer Park. And while you're there, you can also go down the block to the Paterson Museum at 2 Market St. Here, you can explore Paterson's history as the nation's first planned industrial city through interpretive exhibits. — Maddie McGay, The (Bergen, N.J.) Record
Niagara Falls, New York
Niagara Falls is located on the border between Niagara Falls, New York, and southeastern Ontario, Canada. Niagara comes from the word 'onguiaahra' of the Haudenosaunee people, also known as the Six Nations. The term translates to 'a thundering noise,' referring to the sound of the falls. The natural wonder is a popular tourist destination, drawing about 8 million visitors to the U.S. side each year. — Genae Shields, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Buy reprints: Purchase select prints of Niagara Falls and other Most Treasured Views
Presque Isle State Park, Pennsylvania
Presque Isle State Park sits on a 3,200-acre sandy peninsula with Lake Erie on one side and Presque Isle Bay on the other. Located in Erie County in northwestern Pennsylvania and known to locals as 'the peninsula,' Presque Isle provides plenty of places for stunning year-round views of nature and of structures built by humans. Start at the park's Tom Ridge Environmental Center, where visitors can climb stairs or ride an elevator up the 75-foot-tall glass-enclosed observation tower. The top offers views of Lake Erie and is a great spot for watching migrating birds in the spring and autumn. — Erie Times-News staff
Beavertail State Park, Rhode Island
Beavertail State Park is popular with sightseers of every sort, from those who observe from their cars on a loop road through the park to hikers and picnickers to fishermen and others who scramble down the rocky cliffs to the water's edge. One undeniable attraction is the granite lighthouse at the southern end of the park. Built in 1856, it replaced earlier structures dating to 1749, the third lighthouse in the United States, after ones in Boston Harbor and on Nantucket. — Paul Edward Parker, Providence Journal
Lake Willoughby, Vermont
Experience the beauty of the outdoors in Vermont's deepest lake between Mount Pisgah and Mount Hor in northeastern Vermont – 30 minutes from the Canadian border. The 5-mile-long lake is 328 feet deep and was carved out by glaciers. The lake is located in Westmore, Vermont, which is home to less than 400 people according to the 2020 census. — Caitlyn Kelleher, Burlington Free Press
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USA Today
3 days ago
- USA Today
'Don't know how we should behave': Is the US South LGBTQ friendly?
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In certain parts of the South, the 33-year-old certified sex educator said, it feels less risky for her to get out and pump gas while her wife, who is transgender, stays in the car. 'We don't even have to talk about it anymore,' she told USA TODAY. 'It's just assumed.' The couple has also learned which businesses have family or gender-neutral bathrooms conveniently located along the route from their home in Louisville, Kentucky, including in states with restrictive bathroom laws. Even in the Melbourne, Florida, area – where they typically visit three to five times a year and Bryn's family has a beach house – they are cautious about showing public displays of affection. 'We want to enjoy where we are, and if we draw more attention to us, we probably won't enjoy it as much,' she said. As a native Kentuckian, Gregg is accustomed to those kinds of precautions. However, she is among a number of people who have found traveling in the American South more fraught as the federal government targets the LGBTQ+ community. Even within the region, though, LGBTQ+ visitors' experiences can vary widely. Here's what to know when considering a trip to the South. 'I don't know how we should behave' While the South is varied and diverse, the region tends to be less LGBTQ+ friendly than some other parts of the country. Six of the lowest-ranked states on Out Leadership's 2025 State LGBTQ+ Business Climate Index, which gauges the impacts of government policies and attitudes towards the community, were in the Southeast. Gregg said there were previously some areas where the pair felt they had to be more aware during their Florida road trips, but after the 2024 presidential election, it was 'vastly, vastly different.' 'People were more inclined to say things,' she said. 'A lot more stares.' 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The 37-year-old, who is originally from England, said visiting New York comparatively 'feels very, very open, very accepting.' 'It doesn't feel to me like that mentality changes depending on whatever the political sway of the country is at that moment,' he said. 'The South is just not as familiar and feels more uncomfortable. It may be (that) part of that, if I'm being honest, is a bit of ignorance, because I don't know it as well … but also because ... there are stories almost every day of some level of more integrated hate around these parts of the U.S.' Tips for traveling in the South Even so, there are plenty of inclusive spaces to be found. 'The South is incredibly diverse and very nuanced,' said Andy Knowles, a travel advisor with Fora Travel based in North Carolina. He said travelers have to make their own risk assessments before visiting a destination, and recommended doing 'as much research as you feel comfortable doing' on the front end. 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'I will say that the South has its stereotypes,' added Knowles, who was born and raised in California and moved to Asheville about three-and-a-half years ago. 'And I would just say, do not write off an entire region of the country based on some of the headlines that we see.' Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@
Forbes
3 days ago
- Forbes
Stunning New Golf Course At USA Today's Best Golf Resort In America
July 4th is America's birthday, and American golfers are getting a great present this year. For the past several years, Big Cedar Lodge in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks has continued to improve and expand its golf offerings, to the point where for the first time, back in April, USA Today readers voted it the nation's Best Golf Resort for 2025 (as a longtime but not current USA Today contributor I was asked to be one of several panelists on the nominating committee but did not vote in the competition). Just a month later, the crew at Forbes Vetted named Big Cedar the 'Best Golf Resort in the U.S. for Families' and one of the nation's '8 Best Golf Resorts.' But those awards, as impressive as they are, both came when Big Cedar 'only' had five courses. On July 4th weekend it will officially open its sixth and most unique layout, Cliffhangers, which has been 'soft' opened for limited preview play the past few weeks, and I was able to go and see it. Here is your first look at a stunning new golf course at USA Today's best golf resort in America. There are more than 38,000 golf courses on earth, making it extremely hard to do anything in golf course design that has literally never been done before. I have not played every course, but I have been covering golf travel, courses and design in deep detail for over 30 years, and I have played many of the very highest rated ones on every inhabited continent. So, I am pretty sure that the third hole at Cliffhangers is the only one on any course where golfers tee off from inside a cave and hit their tee shot through a waterfall cascading over the mouth of the cave to a green far below. There's a course in Idaho with a movable island green in a lake that changes locations daily, an ocean island hole in Mexico you have to take an amphibious cart to putt out, and a 19th hole in South Africa that requires a helicopter to reach the clifftop tee. Cliffhangers instantly joins this pantheon of crazy, unforgettable, one-of-a-kind golf. Or as Big Cedar Lodge owner Johnny Morris calls it, 'Adventure Golf.' Morris is the founder, owner and CEO of outdoor retail giant Bass Pros Shops (which also owns outdoor retail giant Cabela's) and has been called 'the Walt Disney of retail' for his elaborate, theatrical and sometimes interactive in-store displays, which involve everything from live alligators to fishing boats docked in the water—inside one of the world's largest pyramids. Morris is famous for his vision, for seeing things others do not and then sparing no expense to turn them into reality, and the 4,600-acre Big Cedar Lodge resort is his personal pride and joy. He grew up in this part of the Ozarks, loves it, and want you to love it too, and he has done a tremendous amount of work to make sure that happens. While his other courses have involved the world's most famous designers (more below), Cliffhangers was the work of Morris and his son John Paul, who looked up at the precipitous, rocky, cliffside terrain and thought what no one else would: why not build a golf course there? 'This is golf on the edge—literally,' said Morris. 'We wanted to create something that celebrates the natural wonder of the Ozarks while delivering an unforgettable adventure for every golfer.' John Paul added, 'Cliffhangers reflects everything we love about nature, adventure, and golf. It's wild, fun, and unlike anything in the game of golf today' He is right about that. Golfers traverse steep cart trails and drive through creeks, past waterfalls, and through the signature cave. And Johnny Morris so wants visitors to go home with a hole in one as a memory that he built extra tee boxes on holes one and ten and greens fee include a shot from each so you get 20 bites at the apple. That's because Cliffhangers is a par-3 course, which as traveling golfers know, is all the rage in golf right now. The best resorts, from Pebble Beach to Pinehurst to Bandon Dunes, along with Streamsong, Cabot Citrus Farms, Sand Valley and many others have been rushing to introduce new par-3 courses, but none of those are as memorable as Cliffhangers, which is meant to be super fun for both the most seasoned golfers and those new to the game (though with all the water features it is entirely possible to lose more balls here than on one of the resort's three championship eighteen hole courses—all of which are ranked in the nation's Top 100 You Can Play by Golf Digest). Also, while many of the new short courses popping up across the country are only nine holes (or random ten or twelve), this is 18-20, the full deal. Not your usual golf course cart path. Big Cedar Resort Like most of the current crop of par-3 courses, born from the tradition of pitch and putt layouts, holes are on the shorter side and I got through Cliffhangers hitting northing more than an eight iron. But the visual variety is staggering, with an island green, peninsula holes, huge elevation changes, and exposed rock and water everywhere—it is built into and on top of cliffs, after all. The cave tee box and waterfall combo make three an instant de facto signature hole, but really just about every hole out here could be one. I mean, just look at the pictures. All of this overlooks Payne's Valley, my favorite course at Big Cedar and a drop-dead visual stunner with more lakes, more greens, more waterfalls, and beauty as far as the eye can see. Another person who previewed the course in advance was golf personality Lauren Thompson, host of The Morning Drive on The Golf Channel. She said, 'I've played many great courses around the world, and Cliffhangers is unlike anything I've ever seen. It's breathtakingly beautiful, incredibly challenging, and the best thing to happen to golf in years.' Years. Aerial view of the new Cliffhangers course. Big Cedar Resort The resort is so big that it has an extensive free shuttle system to move guests around, as lodging options include a hotel, lakefront cabins, rental homes, a safari-style glamping resort, and new luxury golf cabins out at the Mountain Top clubhouse by Payne's Valley and Cliffhangers. I rode to dinner in a shuttle with a group of retired bank executives who had been doing an annual golf trip together for 31 years, and had been all over the place, to many regions and golf resorts. They told me they had just played Cliffhangers and one of them confided, 'It was as much fun as any 'real' course I have ever played.' I loved it too, and it is a perfect short 20-holes to get in before tackling one of the bigger courses at Big Cedar, because in addition to getting you in a great mood, it will help dial in your short game, as the fast bentgrass greens are similar in speed to those on the full-sized layouts. Short courses do not need to have grass this good, but Morris does not cut corners, and those playing Cliffhangers even get to stop into the fancy Payne's Valley halfway house during their round, where all the snacks are free, including the signature premium bison hot dogs, from a herd he raises in a nature reserve near Big Cedar. I recommend you try to make a morning tee time at Cliffhangers before a round at Payne's Valley, for a near-perfect day of golf. As good as it is, golfers are not likely to make a trip to Big Cedar just to play the new par-3 layout, but they might be curious how it became the Best Golf Resort in the U.S. So here's the Big Cedar golf overview in a nutshell. The highest rated course in Missouri is Ozarks National, by the legendary design duo of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. The second highest rated course in Missouri is Payne's Valley, the 19-hole effort by Tiger Woods. It is the only public eighteen by Woods in the country, and it is fabulous. I think the magazines always favor Coore and Crenshaw designs, but I firmly believe the Woods course is even better. I played it the day it opened in 2019, I have played it since, and wrote this story here at Forbes, 'Tiger Wood's First Public U.S. Golf Course is Awesome.' It is fun, extremely playable, has some great risk/reward holes so it appeals to all caliber players, and it is visually stunning. It is telling that they sell more tee times at Payne's Valley than on any other course. The third highest rated course in Missouri is Buffalo Ridge, a Tom Fazio design that has bison grazing next to its fairways (not the ones that make the hot dogs). All three eighteens are ranked in the Top 100 in the U.S., a feat only a handful of resorts have ever achieved. On top of this, the facilities, service and conditioning are first rate, and the concept of standout Midwestern hospitality is very much evident. Big Cedar also has caddies, forecaddies and extensive practice facilities, including a putting course inspired by the Himalayas in St. Andrews, Scotland and designed by 8-time Major Champion Tom Watson. Then there are two stunning 'regular' par-3 courses, not shortened versions, but all full-length holes, up to 221-yards. The Gary Player designed Mountain Top is a walking-only 13-hole stunner carved through rock formations and rolling terrain. The Jack Nicklaus Signature Top of the Rock 9-holer is the only par-3 course ever used in competition in a PGA Tour sanctioned event, the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf, which used to be played here and on Buffalo Ridge. These par-3 courses are so good that you could make a trip to Big Cedar just to play them and Cliffhangers, though I would not pass up the 'big' courses. But as one-shotters go, both Mountain Top and Top of the Rock are as good as anything I have seen on earth. Golf Magazine finally added a ranking of short courses to its more famous Top 100 in the U.S. and Top 100 in the World lists, before Cliffhangers. It ranked the 25 Best Par-3 Courses in the World, but unlike the Top 100, courses were not ranked in order, just the best 25. The vast majority are at the world's top ultra-private clubs, like Augusta National, Pine Valley and the Olympic Club. Less than ten of the world's courses on the list are public, and both Mountain Top and Top of the Rock made the cut. That means until Cliffhangers opens July 4th, every one of the five golf courses at Big Cedar has made the most important 'Best' lists in the industry, and that is no coincidence. In addition to the stunning new golf course, for fishing fans, Big Cedar Lodge sits right on 43,000-acre Table Rock Lake, host of a professional bass tournament and renowned as one of the best fishing spots in the country. Being owned alongside Bass Pro Shops, it is no surprise that Big Cedar has two different state-of-the-art marinas equipped with the newest boats and gear, and it is arguably the best freshwater fishing resort in the country as well, though USA Today does not rate those. Yet.
USA Today
3 days ago
- USA Today
Nick Dunlap: Travelers Championship betting odds and preview
Nick Dunlap: Travelers Championship betting odds and preview The Travelers Championship is underway, and Nick Dunlap is in 71st position with a score of +6. Nick Dunlap has played in 27 events in the past year. He won one, and his average finish was 38th, with two top fives. Nick Dunlap odds to win the Travelers Championship PGA odds courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook. Odds updated Thursday at 7:21 PM ET. For a full list of sports betting odds, access USA TODAY Sports Betting Scores Odds Hub. Odds to win: +40000, bet $100 to win $40000 Dunlap's stats and trends Dunlap has not finished within five strokes of the winner or carded a better-than-average score in any of his last five appearances. He has an average score of +7 across his last five events. Dunlap hasn't finished inside the top 20 in his last five tournaments, with an average finish of 58th. He's qualified for the weekend in two of his last five appearances. Dunlap's recent results U.S. Open: 77-74 (+11) - Missed cut 77-74 (+11) - Missed cut RBC Canadian Open: 73-69 (+2) - Missed cut 73-69 (+2) - Missed cut the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday: 74-74-75-73 (+8) - Finished 44th 74-74-75-73 (+8) - Finished 44th PGA Championship: 78-72 (+8) - Missed cut How to watch the Travelers Championship Date: June 19-22, 2025 June 19-22, 2025 Location: Cromwell, CT Cromwell, CT TV Channel: The Golf Channel The Golf Channel Live stream: Watch LIVE with Fubo! ESPN+ is the new home of PGA TOUR LIVE. Sign up now to access 4,300+ hours of live coverage from 35 PGA TOUR tournaments this year.
