Author's posts
Apr 09 2025
Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park: Best Hikes, Scenic Views & Visitor Guide
Tuolumne Meadows is one of the most beautiful places in Yosemite National Park and one of the largest high-elevation meadows in the Sierra Nevada. At roughly 8,600 feet above sea level, this broad subalpine landscape is crossed by the winding Tuolumne River and surrounded by granite domes, lodgepole pine forests, alpine lakes, glacially carved peaks, …
Jan 01 2025
Bale Mountains National Park
Bale Mountains National Park protects one of Africa’s most extraordinary mountain landscapes: a vast highland wilderness of Afro-alpine moorland, volcanic peaks, glacial lakes, grasslands, bamboo forest, cloud forest, deep river valleys, and some of the rarest animals on Earth. Located in the Oromia Region of southeastern Ethiopia, the park rises from lush Harenna Forest to …
Jan 01 2025
Simien Mountains National Park
Simien Mountains National Park protects one of Africa’s most dramatic mountain landscapes: an immense highland world of sheer escarpments, knife-edged ridges, deep valleys, isolated volcanic pinnacles, grassy plateaus, waterfalls, Afro-alpine vegetation, and wildlife found almost nowhere else on Earth. Located in the Amhara Region of northern Ethiopia, the park forms part of the Ethiopian Highlands …
Oct 05 2024
The Top 10 National Parks in the World
The world’s greatest national parks protect far more than beautiful scenery. They preserve entire ecosystems, migration routes, ancient forests, glaciers, coral reefs, volcanic landscapes, rare wildlife, archaeological sites, and places with deep cultural importance to the people who have lived there for generations. Ranking them is inevitably subjective. A wildlife enthusiast might choose Serengeti or …
Oct 05 2024
Galapagos National Park
Galápagos National Park protects one of the most remarkable natural environments on Earth. Located roughly 1,000 kilometers west of mainland Ecuador in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Galápagos Islands are famous for giant tortoises, marine iguanas, penguins, flightless cormorants, Darwin’s finches, sea lions, blue-footed boobies, and dozens of other species that evolved in long isolation …
Oct 05 2024
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects one of the largest, most complex, and most biologically important marine ecosystems on Earth. Stretching for more than 2,300 kilometers along the northeastern coast of Australia, the reef system includes thousands of individual coral reefs, hundreds of islands and coral cays, seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, deep-water habitats, sandy seabeds, …
Oct 04 2024
Fiordland National Park
Fiordland National Park protects one of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in New Zealand. Located in the far southwest of the South Island, the park contains immense glacier-carved fiords, rainforest-covered mountains, alpine lakes, powerful waterfalls, remote valleys, rugged coastlines, and some of the country’s most important wildlife habitat. Covering more than 1.2 million hectares, …
Oct 03 2024
Kruger National Park
Kruger National Park is one of Africa’s greatest wildlife destinations and one of the most famous protected areas in the world. Stretching across northeastern South Africa along the borders with Mozambique and Zimbabwe, the park protects roughly 2 million hectares of savanna, woodland, river systems, granite hills, mopane veld, grassland, and seasonal wetlands. Kruger is …
Oct 02 2024
Plitvice Lakes National Park
Plitvice Lakes National Park protects one of Europe’s most distinctive freshwater landscapes: a chain of turquoise, emerald, and deep-blue lakes connected by waterfalls, cascades, streams, and constantly growing natural barriers of tufa, also called travertine. Dense beech and fir forests surround the water, while wooden boardwalks lead visitors directly across portions of the lake system. …
Oct 01 2024
Torres del Paine National Park
Torres del Paine National Park protects one of the most dramatic mountain landscapes in South America. Located in southern Chilean Patagonia, the park combines jagged granite towers, turquoise lakes, immense glaciers, windswept grasslands, Magellanic forest, fast-flowing rivers, waterfalls, and broad valleys beneath some of the most unpredictable weather on the continent. The park is named …
