Extending across 7382 square miles (19119 square kilometres), Denali National Park offers the best in Alaskan natural attractions and outdoor adventure. Surrounding Denali, North America’s highest peak, the park is riddled with snow-clad mountains, Taiga and Tundra forests, reflective lakes and grasslands. It is home to animal species like grizzly bear, arctic warbler, dall sheep, waxwing, lynx and wolverine. These lakes and their shores harbor a mélange of fascinating marine creatures like wood frogs, Arctic graylings and trout's, among others. Miles of trails meander through the snowy mountains and dense forests, unraveling nature's extreme and intense silhouettes. Winter sports are extremely popular here, including cross-country skiing and dog-sledding, and so are an array of adventurous activities like cycling trips, backpacking, photographic tours, fishing and hunting. One magnificent landscape gives way to another at this park which is a stirring canvas of unabashed wilderness.
The Congaree National Park is nature's stunning canvas replete with emerald expanses, babbling rivulets, and captivating animal life. Known to be one of the largest hardwood forests in the United States, the national park spans over 26,546 acres (10,742 hectares). It's a rich terrain, quenched by the confluence of rivers Congaree and Wateree, shaded with towering Point Loblolly Pines and lush American Elms. The verdant landscape is teeming with deer, dogs, armadillos, and otters while turtles, bowfins, and catfish revel in the waters making the place a delight for wildlife enthusiasts. The Cedar Creek which cuts through the park is a popular destination for canoeing and the winding trails beckon hikers all year around.
Lar de um labirinto aparentemente interminável de pântanos subtropicais, o Parque Nacional Everglades abriga um ecossistema peculiar dentro de sua enorme extensão. Trechos do exuberante pântano do parque apresentam uma rede de manguezais e áreas de reprodução. É habitat para uma variedade de aves e vida selvagem diversa. Suas profundezas tropicais escuras estão envoltas em rios e pântanos densos que abrigam o famoso jacaré americano, o peixe-boi das Índias Ocidentais, centenas de espécies de aves e a esquiva pantera-da-florida. As redes de madeira tropical formam abrigos ideais para os répteis, enquanto as pradarias úmidas com sua água salobra sustentam o crescimento de plantas suculentas como a erva-de-vidro. Enquanto as preocupações modernas, como o aquecimento global e o aumento do nível do mar, parecem ameaças consideráveis ao frágil ecossistema do parque, o Everglades continua a ser uma fonte constante de beleza e maravilha para todos que o visitam.
This national park is the only at-sea national park in the United States of America and is home to the historic Fort Jefferson. The park is located about 70 miles (112.65 kilometers) west of Key West and is accessible only by boat or chartered seaplane. The park and fort lure divers, snorkelers and nature lovers from all over the country who flock here to get a closer look at the highly-endangered staghorn coral, angelfish, rare birds and the loggerhead turtles that gave the island its name. Built in 1846, the five-sided fort covers more than 11 of the island's 16 acres (6.47 hectares). The fortress was never finished but when construction stopped, records showed that 16 million bricks had been used to build this monolith of a building. The park is also an integral component of the UNESCO-certified Everglades & Dry Tortugas Biosphere Reserve.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park provides a world of natural wonders to explore just 20 kilometers (13 miles) away from the urban environs of Cleveland. The park's pristine wilderness is centered around the meandering Cuyahoga River. The river bisects the entire reserve in a clean sweep that spans nearly 33,000 acres (13354.62 hectares). This diverse topography shelters a wide range of native wildlife such as red foxes, Canadian geese, Great Blue herons, coyotes and white-tailed deer. Geological features include a system of cascading waterfalls, labyrinthine caves and hiking trails of varying difficulty levels. The Boston Store Visitor Center, the Towpath Trail, and the Ohio & Erie Canal are three of the park's most-frequented attractions.
Deep in the Shenandoah River valley, wild landscapes forged by the Blue Ridge mountains rise and fall in dramatic intervals, even as the crisp mountain air comes alive with dulcet birdsong. This is the untamed beauty of the Shenandoah National Park, a state treasure lanced by backcountry hiking trails, breathtaking driving paths, and a vibrant wildlife. The park centers around the soaring beauty of Hawksbill Mountain, which is its highest peak at 4,050 feet (1234.44 meters). Around the mountaintops, a captivating scenery unfolds as per nature's myriad whims, ranging from a billion-year-old rocky terrain, to waterfalls of various shapes, sizes, and cascades. Under a canopy of oak and chestnut trees thrives an incredible wildlife consisting of animals like the black bear and the white-tailed deer. Those who hike through the park's enchanting trails are guaranteed a sight of the undulating mountains in the distance as they stand encircled by a mystical shade of blue.
The ethereal beauty of the Yellowstone National Park unfolds one panorama at a time - sometimes in visions of raw, rugged alpine features, at other times, in softer landscapes clouded with billowing smoke that emanates from hot springs and geysers. Whatever the sight, there is little that will not mesmerize anyone who traverses the bounds of this park. Deemed to be the first national park in the world, the depths of Yellowstone were home to early Native Americans for a staggering 11,000 years, before mountain men and trappers ambled up its sheer cliffs and conducted organized explorations. It stretches from the state of Wyoming and spills over the boundaries of both Montana and Idaho, a geographic testament to its profound sprawl. The Old Faithful, a cone geyser, is one of the park's main attractions, while the Yellowstone Lake stretches over a supervolcanic caldera. Speckled with gushing waterfalls, geothermal spots, majestically arched cliffs that cast arresting silhouettes, and an array of nature's vivid colors, the park is an unspoiled terrestrial spectacle.
The dry, barren landscape of the Chihuahuan desert disappears into a subterranean cavern that is home to some of the most magnificent geological formations. Carved by now-evaporated waters of an inland sea several millennia ago, the Guadalupe Mountain holds as many as 119 clandestine caves. Craggy formations, each fascinating in its distinct form, stay suspended from the cave's roofs, the karst-like remnants of limestone that was dissolved by sulfuric acid over great many years. A geological repository of sorts, the Carlsbad Caverns Park is home to a plethora of patterns, from The Big Room, a 4000 feet (1,220 meter) long chamber, to the Bat Cave, a guano-laced corridor that houses a majority of the caverns' bat population. The Lechuguilla Cave is perhaps the most fascinating, fabled for intricately contoured stalactites that cling to the roof, in what is deemed to be the second-deepest limestone cave in the United States.
Burrowed deep in the sweeping Salinas Valley, this national park is characterized by a rather enchanting set of rock formations called the Pinnacles which were created as a result of ancient volcanic activity. Spread over 26,606 acres (10,767 hectares), the park attracts rock climbers as well as avid nature enthusiasts, thanks to its rocky and craggy landscape. Uninhibited drapes of wilderness adorn this park which boasts some of the best, most dramatic vistas that central California has to offer. A safe haven for creatures such as California condors, prairie falcons and Townsend's big-eared bats, the park, along with being a geological and archaeological site, is also endowed with a wealth of many natural wonders. The park is traversed by winding trails, while its mysterious rock formations glint in hues of fine golden under the candor of the Californian sun. Interesting places to explore at the park apart from the Pinnacles are the Balconies and Bear Gulch rock caves.
Swathes of badlands, intriguing rock formations, and winding historic trails characterize Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which is spread over 110 square miles (285 square kilometers). Consisting of three major sections called the North Unit, the South Unit, and the Elkhorn Ranch Unit, this park is where Theodore Roosevelt ventured into, hunting for bison in the September of 1883. This national park was established on November 10, 1978, paying homage to the president, whose experiences of hunting and ranching within the area led him to purchase large tracts of farmland nearby. Today, the park is a camping and hiking wonderland. Harboring a plethora of mammals like bison, deer, prairie dogs, sheep and more, this national park is an archetypal representation of the wild, wild West.
Situated in the naturally blessed state of Maine, the Acadia National Park is a teeming mosaic of beauty and biodiversity. A jewel embedded on the Atlantic coast, this national park bears a landscape dominated by jagged headlands, lakes and verdant woodlands among other features. The park is lovingly fringed by a tapestry of peaks, including the Cadillac Mountain. An array of trails weave through the diversified terrains of this park which cradle a wealth of wildlife including beavers, coyotes, minks, raccoons, chipmunks, and porcupines. In addition, the park also shelters ponds and swathes of pristine pine forests. The mountain summits of this park offer panoramic views of its entrancing topography. The park also shelters an assemblage of plant life including algae and fungi. Acadia National Park is especially ethereal-looking come dusk when the sun pleasantly lunges into the horizon.
An International Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site, the Olympic National Park is essentially a synchronized succession of distinctive terrains. The park is a scenic escape defined by undulating alpine meadows and a stunning Pacific coastline. Its eastern fringe is an arid expanse that gently translates into a verdant rainforest towards the west. This park's diverse topography encompasses the snow-clad Mount Olympus, the emerald expanses of the Hoh Rainforest, and the Hurricane Ridge which is an unparalleled vantage point to soak in the celebrated park's scenic allure. Its environs are home to inhabitants ranging from the Hammond's flycatcher and Canadian lynx to snowshoe hares and Wilson's warblers.