Author's posts
Sep 14 2024
Grand Canyon North Rim: Best Viewpoints, Hikes & Visitor Guide
The North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park offers a quieter, cooler, and more remote way to experience one of America’s most famous landscapes. Forests of ponderosa pine, aspen, spruce, and fir extend almost to the canyon edge, scenic roads lead to viewpoints thousands of feet above the Colorado River, and far fewer visitors make …
Sep 14 2024
15 Interesting Facts About Gateway Arch National Park
Gateway Arch National Park may be one of the smallest national parks in the United States, but it contains an extraordinary amount of American history within its compact St. Louis riverfront setting. Its centerpiece is instantly recognizable: a gleaming stainless-steel arch rising high above the Mississippi River and downtown skyline. Yet there is far more …
Sep 14 2024
Gateway Arch National Park Animals
Gateway Arch National Park is better known for stainless steel, American history, and the St. Louis skyline than for wildlife. Yet the landscaped grounds surrounding the Gateway Arch support a surprisingly varied community of animals, including squirrels, eastern cottontail rabbits, coyotes, raccoons, Virginia opossums, bats, peregrine falcons, migratory warblers, butterflies, dragonflies, bees, and dozens of …
Sep 13 2024
The Unique Biome of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve protects one of the largest and least-developed landscapes in the United States, a place where the boreal forests of interior Alaska gradually give way to shrub tundra, alpine vegetation, wetlands, wild rivers, and the open Arctic landscapes north of the Brooks Range. Calling Gates of the Arctic …
Sep 12 2024
Shark Valley in Everglades National Park: Tram Tours, Wildlife & Visitor Guide
Shark Valley is one of the easiest places in Everglades National Park to experience the famous “River of Grass” without a boat, strenuous hike, or long drive deep into South Florida. Located along the Tamiami Trail west of Miami, this popular section of the park gives visitors access to a 15-mile paved loop through freshwater …
Sep 11 2024
Wildlife of Dry Tortugas National Park: Sea Turtles, Birds, Sharks & More
Wildlife at Dry Tortugas National Park lives in a world dominated by water. Almost 70 miles west of Key West, seven tiny islands rise from an enormous expanse of shallow tropical sea, coral reef, seagrass, sand, and open ocean. Fort Jefferson may be the park’s most immediately recognizable landmark, but most of the protected landscape—and …
Sep 11 2024
Sand Dunes of Death Valley National Park
Sand dunes are among the most recognizable landscapes in Death Valley National Park, yet they occupy surprisingly little of this enormous desert wilderness. Despite the popular image of Death Valley as an endless sea of sand, less than one percent of the park is covered by sand dunes. Most of the landscape consists instead of …
Sep 11 2024
Discover the Best Hikes in Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park may be famous for extreme heat, salt flats, sand dunes, and some of the lowest elevations in North America, but it is also one of the most varied hiking destinations in the desert Southwest. Trails and cross-country routes lead through narrow marble canyons, golden badlands, volcanic craters, shifting sand dunes, hidden …
Sep 08 2024
Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Towpath Trail
The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail is the thread that ties much of Cuyahoga Valley National Park together. For roughly 20 miles, the nearly level path follows the historic canal route through forests, wetlands, old canal towns, locks, river valleys, and some of the park’s most popular wildlife areas. Visitors can walk, run, bicycle, …
Sep 08 2024
Cuyahoga Valley National Park Ledges Trail
The Ledges Trail is one of the most distinctive hikes in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, replacing the park’s familiar river valleys and canal landscapes with towering sandstone walls, narrow passages, moss-covered boulders, cool ravines, and one of the best sunset overlooks in northeast Ohio. Although the main loop is short enough for a casual afternoon …
