Oct 05 2024
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
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 01 2024
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 …
Oct 01 2024
Zion National Park is one of the great hiking destinations of the American Southwest. Towering sandstone cliffs rise thousands of feet above the Virgin River, narrow canyons disappear between walls of red rock, and trails climb from the desert floor to viewpoints overlooking some of the most dramatic scenery in Utah. The best hikes in …
Oct 01 2024
Bridalveil Fall is one of the signature waterfalls of Yosemite National Park and one of the first major landmarks many travelers see as they enter Yosemite Valley. Dropping 620 feet from a hanging valley high above the valley floor, the waterfall appears almost suspended against a wall of pale granite. Unlike many seasonal Yosemite waterfalls, …
Oct 01 2024
Wind Cave National Park may be best known for the vast cave system hidden beneath the Black Hills of South Dakota, but some of the park’s greatest attractions live above ground. Rolling mixed-grass prairie, ponderosa pine forest, rocky hills, and prairie dog towns support an impressive collection of wildlife that includes American bison, elk, pronghorn, …
Oct 01 2024
White Sands National Park may look almost empty at first glance. Miles of brilliant white gypsum dunes stretch across New Mexico’s Tularosa Basin, with few trees, little standing water, and summer temperatures that can make the landscape seem far too harsh for abundant wildlife. Yet White Sands supports a surprisingly diverse animal community. More than …
Oct 01 2024
Voyageurs National Park is a landscape of water, islands, forests, wetlands, and rocky shorelines along the Minnesota–Canada border. Its interconnected lakes and boreal forests provide habitat for an impressive range of northern wildlife, including gray wolves, moose, black bears, beavers, river otters, white-tailed deer, bald eagles, common loons, and dozens of fish species. Wildlife watching …
Sep 30 2024
Voyageurs National Park is best known for its enormous lakes, rocky islands, quiet bays, and water-based adventures, but hiking reveals an entirely different side of this northern Minnesota wilderness. Trails lead through boreal forest, past beaver ponds and wetlands, across ancient granite ridges, and into remote sections of the Kabetogama Peninsula where wolves, moose, black …
Sep 30 2024
Theodore Roosevelt National Park is one of the best wildlife-watching destinations on the northern Great Plains. Across the rugged Badlands of western North Dakota, American bison graze beside prairie dog towns, mule deer disappear into juniper draws, coyotes hunt across open grassland, and golden eagles circle high above eroded buttes. The park’s wildlife diversity comes …
