Park Life In The USA
In the age of hyperconnectivity, few places allow us to truly disconnect and find serenity like the United States' National Parks. Some of the last remaining bastions of wilderness in an increasingly urban world. A visit to these expansive spaces and often wild frontiers provides the perfect opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle of the modern world and rediscover the beauty of nature.
Grand Canyon National Park »
About 4.5 million annual visitors venture to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon National Park. The numbers continue to impress: visitors come to peer into a 1.6-kilometre-deep abyss, where the Colorado River rushes through rocks that date back 1.8 billion years. A day-long hike down the Bright Angel or... more »
Lassen Volcanic National Park »
This northern California mountain hasn’t rumbled since 1921, five years after it gained National Park status, but it has centuries of tumultuous activity to thank for its signature features: fuming vents, hot springs and the red-tinged painted dunes dotted with snow algae, pine trees and other soaring conifers. Geologists have... more »
Rocky Mountain National Park »
It's no surprise that songs have praised the beauty of this untarnished sanctuary, which celebrates its centennial anniversary in 2015. Covering 265,873 acres of Colorado, the Rocky Mountain National Park demonstrates some of the greatest ecological diversity contained within a single national park. More than 60 peaks break the three-kilometre... more »
Glacier National Park »
Montana boasts no shortage of stunning vistas, but those contained within this 1,013,572-acre haven might be the most impressive. The dramatic scenery in Glacier National Park fluctuates between lush evergreen forests, alpine meadows, broad valleys and craggy mountaintops etched by the dense ice formations for which the park is named... more »
Mesa Verde National Park »
Archaeologists prize the pithouses and cliffside dwellings carved into the sandstone and shale rocks of Colorado’s Montezuma County . Built by the ancestral Puebloans between 550 and 1300 CE, the homes ranged from simple one-room abodes to complex multi-story villages. These well-shielded residences inspired President Theodore Roosevelt to declare the... more »
Wind Cave National Park »
One of the world’s longest caverns lies beneath the 28,295-acres of Wind Cave National Park. Though its dry atmosphere prevents stalagmites and stalactites from forming, the labyrinth system is peppered with boxwork, a web-like calcite structure that resemble honeycombs. The park was established in 1903 by President Roosevelt and is... more »
Crater Lake National Park »
Crater Lake has inspired people for thousands of years. Located within the collapsed caldera of the now dormant Mount Mazama volcano, nowhere else on earth can you find such a deep blue lake. It's the deepest in the USA and third deepest in the world at 592 metres – flanked... more »
Mount Rainier National Park »
Located in Washington’s Cascade Range about two to three hours drive from Seattle , Mount Rainier National Park's eponymous peak rises almost 4.4 kilometres above sea level and is considered an active volcano, though its last eruption occurred 120 years ago. The 235,625 acres cover a multitude of ecosystems, from... more »
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park »
The enormous namesake trees at Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park attract the most visitors, but other aspects of the terrain demand equal admiration. Within the prominent ranges of the Sierra Nevada mountains , explorers can take in 3,200 lakes and ponds and over 4,100 kilometres of rivers and streams... more »
Yellowstone National Park »
Since prehistoric times, herds of bison have roamed freely across America’s first national park , which spans the continental divide and stretches across parts of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana in the heart of the Rockie Mountains. The vast 2,221,766-acre refuge of Yellowstone National Park is also home to some of... more »
Yosemite National Park »
Nearly 95 per cent of this 747,956-acre recreation area comprises of pristine wilderness – land completely undeveloped and unspoiled by humans. Much of the rugged topography at Yosemite National Park results from the slow, steady movement of glaciers over the course of several millennia. Awe-inspiring vantage points allow visitors to... more »