Author's posts
Sep 15 2024
El Capitan in Guadalupe Mountains National Park
El Capitan is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Rising abruptly above the Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas, its massive limestone face marks the southern end of the Guadalupe Mountains and has guided travelers through this remote landscape for generations. At 8,085 feet above sea level, El Capitan is the …
Sep 15 2024
Wildlife of Guadalupe Mountains National Park: Bears, Mountain Lions, Birds & More
Wildlife in Guadalupe Mountains National Park is remarkably diverse for a landscape that can appear, at first glance, to be an enormous expanse of dry West Texas desert. Black bears roam high-elevation forests, mountain lions move silently through canyons and desert slopes, mule deer browse near springs, elk inhabit the mountains, and hundreds of bird …
Sep 14 2024
Best Hikes in Great Smoky Mountains National Park: 15 Trails to Explore
Great Smoky Mountains National Park contains one of the most extensive hiking networks in the National Park System, with more than 800 miles of trails crossing forested valleys, rushing streams, waterfalls, grassy balds, historic settlements, and some of the highest mountains in the eastern United States. Choosing where to hike can be difficult because the …
Sep 14 2024
Celestial Splendor: Stargazing at Great Sand Dunes National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park contains one of the most extensive hiking networks in the National Park System, with more than 800 miles of trails crossing forested valleys, rushing streams, waterfalls, grassy balds, historic settlements, and some of the highest mountains in the eastern United States. Choosing where to hike can be difficult because the …
Sep 14 2024
Wildlife of Great Sand Dunes National Park: Elk, Bears, Birds & More
Great Sand Dunes National Park may be famous for enormous mountains of sand, but the dunes are only one part of a remarkably varied ecosystem. Elk graze across the broad San Luis Valley, mule deer wander through wooded foothills, black bears forage along mountain streams, bighorn sheep move across rocky slopes, and mountain lions travel …
Sep 14 2024
The Bristlecone Pines of Great Basin National Park
High on the cold, rocky slopes of Great Basin National Park grow some of the oldest individual trees on Earth. Great Basin bristlecone pines have survived for thousands of years in places where winter storms are fierce, soils are poor, moisture is scarce, and the growing season may last only a few weeks. Instead of …
Sep 14 2024
The Great Basin National Park Glacier
Hidden beneath the towering cliffs of Wheeler Peak is one of the most unexpected natural features in Nevada: the last surviving glacier in the state. Known as the Wheeler Cirque Glacier or Wheeler Peak Glacier, this small remnant of a much colder era survives at roughly 11,500 feet in Great Basin National Park, protected within …
Sep 14 2024
Lehman Caves in Great Basin National Park
Beneath the mountains and sagebrush of eastern Nevada lies a world that feels completely removed from the landscape above. Lehman Caves, one of the signature attractions of Great Basin National Park, contains intricate stalactites, stalagmites, columns, draperies, flowstone, helictites, cave popcorn, and hundreds of unusual formations known as cave shields. The cave system extends for …
Sep 14 2024
The Best Hikes in Grand Canyon National Park
Hiking is the best way to understand just how enormous Grand Canyon National Park really is. From the rim, the canyon can look almost like a vast painted landscape, but descending even a short distance reveals layer after layer of cliffs, ridges, side canyons, desert vegetation, and changing rock formations that cannot be appreciated from …
Sep 14 2024
Grand Canyon National Park’s Phantom Ranch
At the bottom of Grand Canyon National Park, almost a vertical mile beneath the South Rim, a cluster of rustic stone-and-wood buildings sits beneath cottonwood trees beside Bright Angel Creek. This is Phantom Ranch, one of the most unusual lodges in the National Park System and one of the few places in America where simply …
