Author's posts
Sep 02 2024
Hot Springs of Yellowstone National Park
The hot springs of Yellowstone National Park are among the most colorful, unusual, and scientifically important natural features in the United States. Brilliant blue pools seem to glow from within, orange and yellow microbial mats spread across steaming ground, mineral terraces grow and change almost before visitors’ eyes, and clouds of vapor rise from water …
Sep 02 2024
Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park: History, Architecture & Visitor Guide
Old Faithful Inn is one of the most extraordinary buildings in the National Park System. Rising beside its namesake geyser in Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin, the enormous log-and-stone hotel combines rustic architecture, early national park tourism, geothermal scenery, and more than a century of history in a single unforgettable place. Built during the winter of …
Sep 02 2024
Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park: Stops, Scenic Views & Driving Guide
Going-to-the-Sun Road is the defining scenic drive of Glacier National Park, crossing nearly 50 miles of northern Montana wilderness between the West Glacier and St. Mary sides of the park. Along the way, the road follows the shore of Lake McDonald, passes through old-growth forest, climbs dramatically along the walls of glacial valleys, crosses the …
Sep 02 2024
Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park
Lake McDonald is the largest lake in Glacier National Park and one of the most recognizable landscapes in Montana. Stretching for approximately 10 miles through a deep glacial valley on the park’s west side, the lake is surrounded by densely forested mountains that rise toward the Continental Divide. Its clear water, colorful shoreline stones, historic …
Aug 03 2024
Glacier Bay National Park
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is one of Alaska’s most spectacular combinations of glaciers, mountains, ocean, rainforest, and wildlife. Located in southeastern Alaska west of Juneau, the park protects more than 3.2 million acres of fjords, tidewater glaciers, snow-covered peaks, coastal forests, rocky shorelines, and remote wilderness. Unlike national parks centered around scenic highways, …
Jul 20 2024
Zion National Park
Zion National Park is one of the defining landscapes of the American Southwest, a place where enormous sandstone cliffs rise above a ribbon of green cottonwoods and the Virgin River winds through a canyon that seems almost impossibly deep. Located in southwestern Utah near the town of Springdale, Zion protects roughly 232 square miles of …
Jul 19 2024
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is one of the most recognizable landscapes in the United States, a place where immense granite cliffs rise above waterfalls, meadows, pine forests, and the winding Merced River. Located in California’s Sierra Nevada, the park protects nearly 1,200 square miles of mountains, valleys, giant sequoia groves, alpine lakes, high-country meadows, and wilderness. …
Jul 18 2024
Wrangell St. Elias National Park
Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve is Alaska wilderness on a scale that can be difficult to comprehend. Spanning more than 13 million acres, it is the largest national park in the United States, protecting an immense landscape of glaciers, active volcanoes, snow-covered mountains, braided rivers, forests, tundra, historic mining communities, and remote backcountry. Located …
Jul 17 2024
Wind Cave National Park
Wind Cave National Park protects two remarkably different landscapes within a single corner of South Dakota’s Black Hills. Above ground, bison, elk, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and other wildlife roam through rolling mixed-grass prairie and ponderosa pine forest. Beneath that landscape lies Wind Cave, a vast three-dimensional maze containing more than 167 miles of surveyed passages …
Jul 16 2024
White Sands National Park
White Sands National Park protects one of the most unusual desert landscapes in the United States: seemingly endless waves of brilliant white gypsum dunes rising from New Mexico’s Tularosa Basin. Surrounded by rugged mountains and deep blue desert sky, the dunes can look more like snowdrifts than sand, particularly when afternoon light softens their curves …
