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 …
Jun 28 2024
Kenai Fjords National Park protects a spectacular meeting place of mountains, glaciers, and the North Pacific Ocean on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. Here, the enormous Harding Icefield spills between rugged peaks, glaciers descend toward deep fjords, whales and sea otters feed in cold coastal waters, and narrow valleys reveal what happens when thousands of years of …
Jun 27 2024
Katmai National Park and Preserve protects one of the wildest landscapes in Alaska, a place where enormous brown bears gather beside salmon-filled rivers, active volcanoes rise above glacier-carved valleys, and the remains of the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century stretch across an ash-filled wilderness known as the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Located …
Jun 26 2024
Joshua Tree National Park protects nearly 800,000 acres of desert mountains, broad valleys, sculpted granite boulders, palm oases, historic ranches, abandoned mines, cactus gardens, and forests of the strangely beautiful plant that gives the park its name. Located in southern California east of Los Angeles, the park sits where two major North American deserts meet, …
Jun 25 2024
Isle Royale National Park protects a remote archipelago in the cold waters of Lake Superior, far from highways, cities, and the conventional sightseeing routes that define many American national parks. There are no roads connecting the island’s destinations, no private cars, and no quick roadside overlooks. Reaching Isle Royale requires crossing Lake Superior by ferry, …
Jun 24 2024
Indiana Dunes National Park protects one of the most biologically diverse landscapes in the National Park System along just 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline in northwestern Indiana. At first glance, the park may seem centered almost entirely on sandy beaches and towering dunes, but its relatively small footprint contains an astonishing collection of habitats: …
