Sep 04 2024
Wildlife in the National Park of American Samoa is unlike anything found in the continental United States. There are no native deer wandering through the rainforest, no squirrels darting among the trees, and no bears or other large terrestrial mammals. Instead, giant fruit bats soar over tropical forest ridges, colorful native birds feed among banyans …
Sep 02 2024
Precipice Trail is one of the most thrilling hikes in Acadia National Park, climbing more than 1,000 feet up the steep eastern face of Champlain Mountain with the help of iron rungs, ladders, handrails, stone steps, narrow ledges, and exposed granite slabs. It is less a conventional hiking trail than a carefully engineered climbing route …
Sep 02 2024
Jordan Pond is one of the most recognizable landscapes in Acadia National Park, a clear glacial lake framed by evergreen forest and steep granite mountains in the heart of Mount Desert Island. At its northern end rise two rounded peaks known as the Bubbles, creating the classic view that has appeared in countless photographs, paintings, …
Sep 02 2024
The Beehive Trail is one of the most exciting short hikes in Acadia National Park, climbing the steep south face of a 520-foot granite peak with the help of iron rungs, metal bars, stone staircases, handholds, and narrow cliffside ledges. The complete loop is only about 1.4 miles, but this is not an ordinary mile-and-a-half …
Sep 02 2024
Thunder Hole is one of the most famous stops along the rocky coastline of Acadia National Park, where Atlantic waves surge into a narrow granite inlet and sometimes produce a deep, booming sound powerful enough to resemble distant thunder. When the tide, waves, and wind align, seawater rushes into the constricted opening, traps and forces …
Sep 02 2024
Cadillac Mountain rises 1,530 feet above Mount Desert Island, making it the highest point in Acadia National Park and the highest point along the eastern seaboard of the United States. From its exposed granite summit, visitors can look across Frenchman Bay, the Porcupine Islands, Bar Harbor, neighboring mountains, forested valleys, and the broad waters of …
Sep 02 2024
Yellowstone National Park contains the greatest concentration of geysers on Earth, along with thousands of hot springs, fumaroles, mudpots, steaming vents, and other hydrothermal features. Beneath its forests, rivers, lakes, and wildlife-rich valleys lies an immense volcanic system that continues to heat groundwater and shape the landscape in ways that visitors can see, hear, smell, …
Sep 02 2024
Beneath Yellowstone National Park lies one of the world’s most famous volcanic systems: the Yellowstone Caldera, an enormous collapse basin formed during a colossal eruption approximately 631,000 years ago. Measuring roughly 30 by 45 miles across, the caldera is so large that visitors can drive through it for hours without realizing they are traveling across …
Sep 02 2024
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 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 …
