50 States of Free Fun: Museums, Gardens, Parks and More

Consider this roundup a bingo card with 50 free spaces. Whether you’re looking to try something new close to home, plan a day trip or fancy placing pins all over the U.S. map, we’ve got options in every state that are absolutely free. Iconic museums? Yes. One-of-a-kind scenic beauties? Also yes. Quirky historical gems you’ll be thinking about for years to come? Those, too. Pack snacks: We’re going everywhere.

(Be sure to double-check with each destination’s website as you plan your own adventures, since schedules can be seasonal or weather-dependent, and programs may be updated.)

With more than two dozen different garden spaces spread across 67.5 acres of land smack in the middle of Alabama’s largest city, Birmingham Botanical Gardens — which open absolutely free of charge every single day of the year — are an oasis of calm and a jewel of Southern biodiversity. Avid gardeners can browse and choose specimens from the Library's Seed Exchange during the week, and an eclectic seasonal calendar of festivals, lectures, workshops and camps offers the occasional complimentary event as well. You can speed your way through the Gardens’ main loop in about an hour if you’re in a hurry, but you can easily spend hours meandering through its iconic conservatory, lush paths and serene water features.

It’s hard to say just how long it’ll take you to drive the spectacular Seward Scenic Highway, a 127-mile artery that connects bustling Anchorage (at its northern end) with the sleepy southern port city of Seward (to the south). The Chugach National Forest along the shores of Turnagain Arm, pictured here, is a brilliant carpet of wildflowers in the summer, and who could resist pulling over for a better look at, say, beluga whales in the Gulf of Alaska? Portions of the route offer side quests like hiking trails and old mining towns, and the scenery is spectacular year-round (though the majority of visitors make the drive between May and September). Locals and guides recommend devoting a full day to appreciating the wildlife and scenery.

Beat the desert heat at the Phoenix Art Museum, which observes Pay-What-You-Wish Wednesdays each week from 3 p.m. until 8 p.m. and offers free general admission to all from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the first Friday of each month (when crowds gather for local food and drink vendors, DJ sets, docent-led art tours and a library pop-up). The largest art museum in the southwest houses a 20,000-piece collection and dynamic traveling exhibits and site-specific installations from institutions and artists all over the world.

Hot Springs National Park in central Arkansas has been a coveted natural wonder for hundreds of years. Its therapeutic waters inspired President Andrew Jackson to sign the first law in history to protect land for recreational purposes, and Hot Springs eventually became an elegant Victorian-style spa city; the park is now free to visit, and you can sample the 4,000-year-old spring water all over town. Bathhouse Row still stands, and two of its eight houses now welcome paying customers looking to unwind; the opulent Fordyce Bathhouse closed in 1962 but has since become a magnificent visitors center that’s free to explore. Three floors of stunning stained glass and elegant architecture in what was once the Row’s most spectacular retreat now tell the story of the region’s old-school spa culture with historic furnishings and exhibits. If that complimentary tour inspires you to splurge on a soak at nearby Buckstaff or Quapaw, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Head to Higuera Street in downtown San Luis Obispo for the Downtown SLO Farmers’ Market, a hundred-vendor block party with free live entertainment that kicks off every Thursday evening. Bring along any provisions you gathered at the market for a day of wildlife appreciation, California-style: Start out at Piedras Blancas Rookery, where boardwalks and viewing platforms offer glimpses of the only easily-accessible and free-to-visit elephant seal colony in the world. If you’re in the area between October and February, head to Pismo Beach’s free-to-visit Monarch Butterfly Grove, where tens of thousands of the intrepid flutterers overwinter. As you’re traveling up and down Pacific Coast Highway, be sure to build in some time to scan the open water beside you; San Luis Obsipo plays host to gray, blue and humpback whales, and sightings from shore are possible all year long.

Free public transportation is always cool, but one could argue that it’s coolest in Telluride, where a 12-minute gondola ride in southwestern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains — the first and only fee-free feature of its kind in the country — connects the picturesque mountain town (at an elevation of 8,750 feet) to Mountain Village (at 9,545 feet). With four stops for loading and unloading, the “G” carries 3.1 million people up and over the 10,500-foot Coonskin Ridge every year; whether they’re skiers, snowboarders, bikers, commuters or just panorama enthusiasts, all of them enjoy views of waterfalls, mesas and — on particularly clear days — the La Sal Mountains all the way over in Utah.

The first college art museum in the United States is free and open to the public Tuesday through Sunday, and its collection has gained 209,638 artworks (and counting). Yale University Art Gallery spans three interconnected buildings over three city blocks and boasts well-known crowd-pleasers like Van Gogh’s “The Night Café,” a silver coffee pot smithed by Paul Revere and Roy Lichtenstein’s “Blam,” but as the curators put it, it also “features art in all media from all regions of the globe and across time.” It’s a bold claim, and fact-checking it is an excellent way to spend many an afternoon in New Haven.

Located in the Archives Building beside Dover’s iconic Legislative Hall (seen here), the welcome center for Delaware’s free-to-all First State Heritage Park features exhibits on the state’s 300 years of history and serves as an information hub for free tours of the Capitol, walking tours of the city center and the free programming scheduled for the first Saturday of each month (an ever-changing array of themed presentations and access to park sites that aren’t usually open to the public). It’s also an excellent place to gather before deep-diving into Delaware history via the park’s constellation of smaller, free-to-visitors museums like the John Dickson Plantation, the New Castle Court House Museum and the Zwaanendael Museum.

Graduate from casual peoplewatching and big-ticket window shopping to full-on aesthetic immersion at the magnificent Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, three free-to-visit floors of eye candy and a sculpture garden located in the heart of the 18-block Miami Design District. When you’re ready to wander outside again, stroll south to Northwest 2nd Avenue and its side streets in Wynwood, a formerly-dilapidated warehouse district that has come alive in the 21st century with hundreds of colorful murals and a thriving arts district to nourish even more. On the second Saturday of the month, Wynwood Art Walk brings the neighborhood to life with free exhibitions and performances.

Immerse yourself in civil rights history with a visit to Atlanta’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Historical Park & Preservation District, where self-guided exploration and activities are free and open to the public every day of the week. Rangers lead tours at Dr. King’s birthplace (where he lived until he was 12) and talks at Ebenezer Baptist Church, which played host to Dr. King’s first sermon when he was 19 and is still an active heart of Atlanta’s spiritual community today; reserve spots for both at the Visitor Center when you arrive.

If you find yourself in Waikiki over a weekend, head to Kuhio Beach and the city’s only authentic, ceremonially-dedicated pa hula (hula mound), located on the beach side of Kalakaua Avenue near the iconic Duke Kahanamoku statue. Halau hula (dance troupes) and other Hawaiian performers have been presenting shows there for three decades, and their free show at 6:30 every Saturday night (weather and other events permitting) is one of the loveliest presentations of song, dance and tradition in the area. Double-check the show schedule here, then arrive early to grab a prime spot on the lawn.

Spread across four and a half acres of land along the Boise River Greenbelt, Boise’s Morrison Knudsen Nature Center — a free-to-all-creatures (human and otherwise) creation of Idaho Fish and Game — beckons the state’s magnificent wilderness into the city. The center’s paths and outdoor viewing areas (including a StreamWalk with underwater viewing windows for getting up close and personal with local fish) are open year-round from dawn to dusk, and the visitor’s center welcomes guests from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. The center’s highlights include an observation beehive that offers viewers an inside view of the little pollinators’ work and prime perches in an auditorium for observing its popular bird feeders; outdoor must-sees, in turn, include a sturgeon pond that also attracts beavers, ducks, heron and deer.

Free to all visitors with timed-entry tickets, Chicago’s magnificent Lincoln Park Conservatory and Gardens transports guests with indoor offerings like a Palm House with towering trees, a lush Fern Room, a dazzling Orchid House punctuated with a koi pond and a Show House with rotating seasonal displays. Its outdoor displays include stunners like the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool (above), a landmarked classic of Prairie School landscape design created nearly a century ago. Fancy communing with fauna rather than flora? Lincoln Park Zoo is also free.

The Hoosier State claims several of the midwest’s most delightful roadside curiosities, and it’s well worth your while to stop by the World’s Largest Ball of Paint (in Alexandria), the ‘Big John Rocking Chair’ (in Franklin) and the 14 components of Grant County’s Garfield Trail (depicting the lasagna-loving cat character created by Indiana’s own Jim Davis). Transition from that pop culture extravaganza to fine art and traveling exhibitions at Indiana University Bloomington’s Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art (seen here), which is open and free to all visitors Tuesdays through Sundays. It's an architectural wonder in its own right, as it was designed in the early ‘80s by the legendary I.M. Pei).

Though outsiders tend to associate Iowa with rolling plains, the eastern portion of the state has more than 1,000 caves, formed as groundwater wore away at sedimentary rock underfoot. Some of the most monumental and accessible formations await visitors at Maquoketa Caves State Park, which charges no admission and also invites guests to explore its six-mile forested trail system, 50-foot “Natural Bridge” above Raccoon Creek and a 17-ton “Balanced Rock.” The most spectacular of the park’s 13 caves might be the 1,100-foot “Dancehall Cave,” which once hosted Native American tribal councils and revelry; all of the park’s caverns are now closed to humans between November and April, since they are, as you might imagine, an excellent hibernation spot for overwintering bats. That said, there's plenty to see elsewhere in the park while they snooze.

Kansas’s first National Natural Landmark began to form when the waters of the Western Interior Seaway — a body of water that extended from Mexico all the way up to Canada — receded and left sedimentary chalk deposits on what would become prairieland. Today some of those fossil-filled formations rise up to 50 feet above the ground and extend 300 feet below its surface, and they have become downright picture-perfect as they have eroded. Voted one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas, Monument Rocks are on private rather than public property — but the owners are more than happy to welcome all comers from dawn to dusk, provided that you follow their guidelines: Take only pictures and leave only footprints.

Bardstown’s lovingly-maintained 19th-century streets and historic buildings have earned it a reputation as one of the most beautiful small towns in the country. Begin a self-guided walking tour with a map from the Welcome Center in the Old Courthouse (above), or get in the mood for visiting one of the 10 distilleries in a 16-mile radius by enjoying free admission to the Oscar Getz Museum of Bourbon History at Spalding Hall. It’s a five-block stroll from the museum to the Old Talbott Tavern, which is the oldest restaurant in the state, the oldest whiskey bar in America and the site of a legendary whiskey bender. It’s said that bullet holes in a guest room upstairs date back to a night when 19th-century outlaw Jesse James had a few too many drinks down in the bar, retired to his quarters to recuperate, and fired his gun at birds painted on the wall; stop by and you can see them for yourself.

Here’s one for the trivia buffs: Louisiana’s free-to-tour state capitol building in Baton Rouge is the tallest in the country, rising 450 feet above the Mississippi River, and is well worth a stop. Then, follow the river for a bit and take a free, self-guided tour of the 15,000-square-foot Old Governor’s Mansion (above), built at the behest of Governor Huey Long to suit his larger-than-life personality and Presidential ambitions. The Old State Capitol, its castle-like sister museum, is also free and home to an eclectic array of activities and rotating exhibits, from karaoke and crafts to presentations on the Louisiana Purchase (including the original document signed by Napoleon Bonaparte).

You’ll find what might be the country’s cutest geodesic dome, in turn, much closer to the ground in Columbia Falls, Maine. Wild-blueberry farmers Marie and Dell Emerson built this adorable paean to their crop in 2001, and it’s a bakery and a museum. The admission-free, nonprofit Wild Blueberry Heritage Center celebrates the fruit’s 10,000-year history with kooky structures like a blueberry pie canopy and a blueberry throne, then dives into details like blueberries’ role in the Civil War (when they were canned and shipped to Union soldiers to provide nutrition and prevent scurvy).

As the largest museum complex in the world, the Smithsonian Institution includes 21 museums and National Zoo, most of which are free to all visitors and in or around Washington, D.C. Its lesser-known, also-free facilities in other places — like the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Maryland — are well worth pilgrimages of their own. SERC is situated on the largest block of contiguous preserved land and the largest site of public access on the Chesapeake Bay’s western shore; its open-on-weekends Woodlawn History Center is the Smithsonian’s oldest building and now houses hundreds of artifacts. Six hiking trails are an excellent way to explore the area any day of the week, and parking is also free.

Boston Public Garden was established downtown as America’s very first public garden in 1837, and its stately Victorian-style grounds have been wildly popular ever since. Like its even more historic neighbor, Boston Common (America’s oldest park, established in 1634), it welcomes all visitors 365 days a year. If you’re wearing sensible shoes and fancy a themed walk around the city, make the garden your starting point for a full, seven-mile tour of the city’s Emerald Necklace, a series of seven interconnected green spaces designed by visionary landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The Emerald Necklace Conservancy offers free, guided walking tours starting at its Shattuck Visitor Center from May through October each year.

Founded more than 120 years ago as the co-creation of ceramicist and painter Mary Chase Perry and her neighbor, kiln developer Horace J. Caulkins, Detroit’s mighty Pewabic Pottery is one of the oldest continuously-operating potteries in the country. Its iridescent architectural tile has bejeweled some of the city’s most spectacular spaces, and it’s an icon of the American Arts and Crafts movement. Its museum is free and open to the public Tuesday through Sunday, and you can take a self-guided tour and see artists at work in its 1907 facilities every Friday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Minnesota’s North Shore Scenic Drive skirts Lake Superior from Canal Park in Duluth all the way to the Canadian border at Grand Portage (where the Heritage Center is open and free year-round). The route is 151 miles long, but as locals say, you can spend two hours or two weeks driving it; you’ll encounter countless spectacular beaches and picnic spots, pass through eight state parks, see three lighthouses and two harbors and even encounter a ghost town. Most visitors approach the drive as a round trip starting in Duluth; it’s busiest in summer, resplendent with seasonal foliage in spring and fall and still magnificent and navigable in winter, though Minnesota’s robust snowfalls make delays likely if you attempt the journey in the coldest months.

With apologies to Graceland and Tennessee, Mississippi is the proper starting point for anyone looking to make a true tour of Elvis’s life and adventures (and it’s less than two hours from Memphis). Make a pilgrimage to Tupelo and explore downtown via the 20 murals enlivening Main Street and its surroundings; keep your eyes peeled at the same time for the Elvis Guitar Trail, themed guitars throughout the area. For the full birth-to-iconic-homecoming-concert experience, guide yourself through Elvis’ Tupelo Driving Tour, which features both predictable stops like the Elvis Presley Birthplace & Museum (where exhibits all over the grounds are viewable for free) and lesser-known destinations like Lee County Library (where Elvis’s first library card is on display, complete with an adorable photo and wobbly signature).

Rock Bridge Memorial State Park — which, like all of Missouri’s state parks, is free to enter — is more than 2,000 acres of wilderness just five miles from bustling Columbia. It's heaven for hikers, bikers, equestrians and even cavers, who can explore a system that includes a rock bridge, sinkholes and an underground stream. If civilization’s more your style, visit Columbia’s North Village Arts District, a vibrant neighborhood with more than 150 working artists who open their studios music-and-performance-filled First Fridays every month, which are free to everyone — and you can take an Art Walk any time you like.

There’s never been a better time to visit Helena’s just-reopened-and-completely-transformed Montana Heritage Center, which is right across the street from the State Capitol Building. After more than a decade and $107 million of renovation and expansion, the admission-free Center now features three galleries and public spaces that showcase its collection of more than 50,000 artworks and artifacts in high style. Guided tours of the Center and of the Capitol are free, and you can find the most updated schedules for both and information on a scavenger hunt for kids led by Lewis and Clark’s dog here.

Alliance, Nebraska’s Carhenge — just off County Road 59 and a few miles from the also-free Knight Museum and Sandhills Center (which traces the history of the region) — is proof that someone else’s family reunion is even weirder than yours. After spending time in England and studying Stonehenge, Jim Reinders came home to Nebraska and was inspired to create a monument to his late father; after pitching the idea to family at his dad’s memorial, he got nearly three dozen of them to gather five years later and, in 1987, build this 39-automobile approximation of the prehistoric original; they dedicated it at the summer solstice, and it’s welcomed visitors between dawn and dusk ever since. (The cars were painted a uniform grey in the ‘90s, but artists from all over the world are now painting them all over again.)

While Sin City has a well-earned reputation for separating visitors from their wealth, it also happens to host the largest source of free entertainment in the world — and we’re not just talking about the people-watching. Head to Fremont Street for its nightly, three-stage-and-basically-every-corner cacophony of DJ sets, bands, dancers, local artists and more. Its ever-changing events get rolling at 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, at 2 p.m. on Fridays and at noon every Saturday and Sunday. Even better, its LED canopy provides shade that makes everything beneath it a good 10 to 20 degrees cooler than other outdoor pedestrian areas.

In the westernmost part of New Hampshire Distant Hill Nature Trail — a five-mile network of trails that crisscross 150 acres of picturesque forest, wetlands and fields — welcomes guests free of charge from dawn to dusk (and provides them with free wagons, snowshoes, sleds and butterfly nets to make the most of their visit). Kids love the StoryWalk Trail (where the town library installs laminated pages of a children’s book along a path at the beginning of each month) and the White Rock Woods play area.

The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is a bit like Times Square for migratory birds and other wildlife, as it’s 12 square miles of natural land in an otherwise-suburban part of New Jersey (and just 26 miles west of actual Times Square). With nearly 12 miles of foot trails, three wildlife-observation blinds and one wildlife overlook, it’s a free and excellent place for photographers, birdwatchers and other nature lovers to check out New Jersey’s wildlife residents. For an even closer look at those species, head to The Raptor Trust, a neighboring nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation facility that cares for thousands of sick and injured birds each year. The Raptor Trust houses unreleasable former patients at its facilities along an interconnected series of trails, where guests are welcome to wander around the aviaries and admire. Self-guided tours offer glimpses of hawks, eagles, falcons and owls.

Native Americans and Spanish settlers carved more than 20,000 designs and symbols into the volcanic rock at Petroglyph National Monument half a millennium ago, and that graphic history now comprises one of the largest petroglyph sites in all of North America. (It’s now about a 15-minute drive west of Albuquerque.) While there’s a small parking fee and no dogs are allowed at Boca Negra (a canyon with three trails that provide access to about 100 petroglyphs), leashed canine companions are allowed at all other trailheads, and they’re all completely free.

Manhattan’s elevated-in-every-sense-of-the-word High Line is much more than the most stylish way to get from the Whitney Museum of American Art (which is always free if you’re 25 or under, and free for everyone on Friday nights and the second Sunday of each month) to Hudson Yards. Created from a New York Central Railroad elevated line that was destined for demolition in the ‘80s, it’s a public garden in the sky, an ever-changing outdoor sculpture garden and art gallery, an architecture buff’s paradise and a dynamic destination for free guided tours and events.

The JC Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University in Raleigh is open and free to all visitors every day of the week, and its lively event calendar often features free special programming like Garden Story Walks and Evening Garden Strolls. Established in 1975 as a “living laboratory” for the university’s Department of Horticultural Science, its 10.5 acres of gardens are now home to more than 6,000 plants and feature ever-changing landscaped areas like a Japanese garden, a rooftop terrace and crevice garden, a formal all-white garden and an award-winning ‘lath house’ for shade-loving plants.

The Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers meet at Fort Union Trading Post in Williston, North Dakota, established in 1828 so the American Fur Company would have a place to trade with Northern Plains Tribes. Despite the “Fort” in its name, the site was a peaceful and wildly successful commercial hub until 1867 (when the U.S. purchased the facility from its private owners and built Fort Buford, an actual military development, three miles to the east). The National Park Service excavated and reconstructed Fort Union in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and it now welcomes visitors free of charge Tuesdays through Saturdays at its Bourgeois House Visitor Center (where you can watch informational videos, view exhibits and begin a self-guided tour of the fort).

General admission is always free at the Cleveland Art Museum, which welcomes guests Tuesday through Sunday at its main location. Transformer Station, a second venue in Hingetown that “presents the work of emerging artists, time-based media, live music, and dynamic social experiences,” is also free and open Thursday through Sunday. Opened to the public in 1916 “for the benefit of all people, forever,” the CMA has more than 45,000 works from all over the world; you’ll feast your eyes on classics from Caravaggio and Rubens as well as more recent masterpieces by Picasso and Dalí.

Open Wednesday through Sunday and free for all, Oklahoma City’s Martin Park Nature Center offers two and a half miles of wooded trails and picturesque picnic spots for outdoor enthusiasts; its Visitor Center features live animals and a nature learning library. While programmers charge a small fee for some of its park-led activities, others — like Botany Walks, Adult Birding Hikes and Solar Sundays — are free for registered guests. (Follow the park on Instagram for the latest pop-up programs.)

Oregon’s spectacular Hoyt Arboretum was founded nearly a century ago as a conservation and education project, and it’s now a “museum of living trees” just outside of Portland that offers visitors more than 12 miles of hiking trails spread across 190 acres of rejuvenating forest. More than 2,300 species of flora from six continents thrive there, and you can surround yourself with them for free from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. Public tours are also free, and the Arboretum’s calendar features no-fee programming like fitness classes and youth and family events.

Visiting the Liberty Bell — that is, the old Pennsylvania State House bell cast in Philadelphia to summon lawmakers and townspeople to what we now call Independence Hall — could be the most iconic “free fun” activity on this list. (Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and signed, is nearly free, but there’s a $1 handling fee to reserve a free ticket.) While you’re visiting the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, step around the corner to the West Wing, another free-to-visitors facility that displays the Syng inkstand (which signatories of both documents used).

Free to visitors all day Sunday and on Thursdays after 5 p.m., the RISD Museum boasts a heavy-hitting, broad-ranging collection that goes toe to toe with what you’d find at institutions in much larger cities. Befitting its association with one of the finest art and design schools in the world, it also offers exhibitions that are timely, curious and daring; the spirit of collaboration and exploration is palpable in its galleries.

A paradise for gardeners and birders alike, Swan Lake Iris Gardens is the only public park in America where you’ll find all eight known swan species. First planted nearly a century ago by a businessman who fancied a Japanese iris garden to accompany his private fishing lake, the gardens were deeded to the City of Sumter in 1949; 120 varieties of the flower bloom across the now-150-acre garden today, and the free park also features Butterfly and Chocolate Gardens.

More than half a million travelers take the off-ramp from I-90 an hour west of Sioux Falls each year to pay their respects at The World’s Only Corn Palace, a free-to-visit folk-art curiosity which sprouted in 1892 as a place to stage a fall festival at the end of the growing season. It’s now in its third iteration as a building and hosts much larger gatherings in the 21st century, but its exterior is still lovingly hand-decorated each year with 12 shades of corn — with a new mural theme each time. If you can’t rub shoulders (ears?) with Cornelius (the Palace’s 6-foot anthropomorphic cob mascot) in person, never fear: You can imagine yourself Mitchell any time you like via its 24/7 Corn Cam.

Straddling the Southern Appalachians between North Carolina and Tennessee, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is consistently the most-visited national park in the whole country; it registers more than 12 million visits per year. It’s got 848 miles of trail, 146 scenic scenic bridges, 70 scenic overlooks, 11 picnic areas … there’s a lot to take in, is our point. There is not a fee to visit, except for the $5 you’ll pay for a parking tag — but it’s worth noting that the park honors Free Entrance Days (when every National Park Service site that charges a fee offers free admission to U.S. citizens and residents) by not requiring tags on those dates.

Remember the Alamo ... is free with reservations! The Church — that is, the iconic San Antonio structure you see here — began as part of a Spanish mission, then served as a tragic battlefield when its outnumbered Texan defenders fell to Mexican forces in 1836. It was reconfigured to serve as a U.S. Army warehouse then became the memorial we know today. The Long Barrack — a limestone structure that’s the oldest building on the Alamo historic site, also the spot where the Texans made their last stand — is likewise free to visit, and you don’t need to make reservations ahead of time.

The red-rock canyons of southern Utah are pretty spectacular all on their own, but the 5,800 acres of Angel Canyon given over to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary are unquestionably the most magical of all. Best Friends houses up to 1,600 animals at a time, and it’s the largest sanctuary of its kind in the country; it welcomes everyone from prospective pet adopters to volunteers, admirers and hikers. Plan a visit by checking out free, bookable tours (which can range from sweeping surveys of the whole sanctuary to specific visits to areas like the Horse Haven, Bunny House or Parrot Garden; if you fancy hitting the trail on your own, download the sanctuary’s app for self-guided exploration.

Once a 4,000-acre conglomeration of 33 Burlington-area farms amassed by a Vanderbilt heiress in the late 19th century, Shelburne Farms is now a dynamic education nonprofit that also happens to be a 1,400-acre diversified farm. Visitors are free to explore the farms’ 10 miles of scenic walking trails all year long, and the Children’s Farmyard is free and open to visitors (and accessible via tractor-drawn shuttle wagon) between May and October.

If following Artemis II’s triumphant trip around the moon and back got your heart racing, plan a visit to the NASA Wallops Visitor Center, an admission-free public portion of a flight facility that has launched more than 16,000 rockets for both the government and commercial clients since 1945. All exhibits, videos and events at the center are free of charge and open for visitors Thursday through Saturday. You’re more than welcome to join the crowds at their Launch Viewing Area, which is one of the only public sites with unobstructed views of Wallops’s launch pads. Upcoming launch dates are released about two months in advance, and you can find the schedule here.

Experience the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ ingenuity at Seattle’s awe-inspiring and wildly popular Ballard Locks, where you can watch vessels take a “water elevator” that rises and drops by 26 feet in a matter of minutes. That isn’t the only weirdly-satisfying (and free-to-enjoy) science on display, mind you: You can also check out an underwater room with prime views of the Fish Ladder, where migrating salmon and steelhead trout fight the current to swim upstream and spawn in fresh water. The grounds also feature a seven-acre botanical garden with free events; all of it, and a visitor center with exhibits and more information, are open every day.

Pro tip: You can pre-game the fish ladder by checking out the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife’s regularly-updated fish count page.

Comprising 70,000 acres of land surrounding the New River (which happens to be one of the oldest rivers on the continent), New River Gorge National Park & Preserve combines sublime natural beauty (like Sandstone Falls, pictured here) and glimpses at rare history (like Nuttallburg, one of the most intact coal-mining complexes in West Virginia, and the 17 stops on the African American Heritage Auto Tour). The park has four visitor centers, and all of them — and all of the park itself — are free to explore.

Wisconsin harvests a whopping 60% of America’s cranberry supply each fall, and if you’ve never donned a giant pair of rubber pants and/or witnessed the unique flooding and harvest methods that bring the tart little fruits to market, it’s time to change that. Lake Nokomis Cranberries offers free tours of their marshes from June through October, and their gift shop is open for free wine tastings all year long. James Lake Farms, in turn, hosts free tours at 2 p.m. every Saturday in October, and their visitors have the opportunity to walk onto the marsh. Free tours through the Manitowish Waters Cranberry Growers run rain or shine at 10 a.m. on Friday mornings from mid-August through early October.