Jul 08 2024
Pinnacles National Park protects one of California’s strangest and most dramatic landscapes, where jagged volcanic spires rise from chaparral-covered hills, enormous boulders form dark talus caves, and California condors circle on warm air currents above the High Peaks. Located in the Gabilan Mountains of central California, the park covers roughly 26,000 acres between the Salinas …
Jul 07 2024
Olympic National Park is one of the most varied landscapes in the entire U.S. National Park System. Within a single protected area, visitors can walk beneath ancient temperate rain forest, stand beside glacier-fed rivers, climb into snow-covered mountains, explore alpine meadows, wander along wild Pacific beaches, and watch Roosevelt elk move through misty valleys. Located …
Jul 06 2024
North Cascades National Park protects one of the wildest and most spectacular mountain landscapes in the contiguous United States. Jagged peaks rise above deep forested valleys, glaciers cling to steep cirques, waterfalls pour from hanging basins, and brilliant turquoise lakes collect water flowing from the high country. Located in northern Washington near the Canadian border, …
Jul 05 2024
New River Gorge National Park and Preserve protects one of the most dramatic river landscapes in the Appalachian Mountains, where the New River cuts deeply through the forested plateau of southern West Virginia. Sandstone cliffs rise above rushing whitewater, waterfalls spill through wooded ravines, abandoned coal towns hide beneath recovering forest, and the enormous New …
Jul 04 2024
Mount Rainier National Park protects one of the most recognizable landscapes in the Pacific Northwest, centered on a glacier-covered active volcano that rises dramatically above the forests, valleys, and cities of western Washington. At 14,410 feet, Mount Rainier is the highest mountain in the Cascade Range and towers so far above the surrounding terrain that …
Jul 03 2024
Mesa Verde National Park protects one of the most extraordinary cultural landscapes in the United States. Across more than 52,000 acres of mesas, canyons, forests, and sandstone alcoves in southwestern Colorado, thousands of archaeological sites preserve evidence of people who lived, farmed, built communities, raised families, created art, and maintained far-reaching cultural connections here for …
Jul 02 2024
Mammoth Cave National Park protects a landscape that exists on two completely different levels. Above ground, forested hills surround the Green and Nolin rivers, hiking trails cross sinkhole country, deer and wild turkeys move through hardwood woodland, and historic churches and cemeteries preserve traces of communities that once filled the countryside. Beneath that landscape lies …
Jul 01 2024
Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of the most geologically fascinating landscapes in the American national park system. Located at the southern end of California’s Cascade Range, the park contains steaming fumaroles, bubbling mud pots, boiling springs, colorful hydrothermal basins, volcanic domes, cinder cones, lava flows, clear mountain lakes, wildflower meadows, and forests shaped by …
Jun 30 2024
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve protects one of the most varied wilderness landscapes in Alaska, where active volcanoes rise above glaciers, turquoise lakes fill enormous mountain valleys, brown bears gather along the Cook Inlet coast, and millions of salmon connect the Pacific Ocean with some of the cleanest freshwater habitat in North America. Spread …
Jun 29 2024
Kobuk Valley National Park protects one of the most unusual landscapes in the American national park system: a vast Arctic valley where golden sand dunes rise more than 100 feet above tundra and boreal forest, the Kobuk River winds between distant mountain ranges, and migrating caribou follow routes that people have depended upon for thousands …
