Columbus to Washington drive: 24 ranked stops, break in Monroeville

A Jack Nicklaus course on a state-park lake.

A US Open–qualifier course in the Frederick area.

a cascade in the Catoctins

The park's older, fun resort course.

a monadnock with overlooks an hour from D.C.

A Robert Trent Jones course in a hilltop park.

a graceful bridal-veil fall you can walk behind near Ohiopyle

a wide, powerful Youghiogheny River fall in the heart of town

A 1924 Donald Ross design open to the public.

3,118-foot brick canal tunnel (1836-1850) you can walk with a flashlight — the C&O Canal's great engineering folly. On the Maryland side opposite Paw Paw, WV.

A links-meets-prairie Nicklaus layout (formerly Longaberger) in central Ohio's hill country. Big public-access value with serious pedigree.

September 17, 1862 remains the single bloodiest day in American history -- over 22,000 casualties in about 12 hours around this small whitewashed Dunker meetinghouse. The battle's outcome gave Lincoln the opening to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. A quiet, reflective stop rather than a triumphant one.

a popular Appalachian Trail overlook

rock outcrops above Camp David country

old hemlocks and Maryland’s tallest fall

Bison occupy two enclosed pastures amid more than 1,600 acres of restored prairie and wetland, while the Nature Center holds a 53-foot living stream stocked with Big Darby Creek organisms. The pairing makes the diversion more than a generic metro-park walk.

a boardwalk fall tucked in suburban Columbus

The signature 2.3-mile trail crosses ravines and forest to a deck 100 feet above the Olentangy River. Shorter accessible river paths and a nature center provide alternatives, but the bluff overlook is not drive-up.

A Robert Trent Jones state-park course in the Eastern Panhandle.

the postcard view over Harpers Ferry