Glacier National Park, Montana, was established in 1910, has been called the “Crown of the Continent.” It is home to some of the last remaining glaciers along the continental divide in the lower 48 states and a spectacular arrangement of glacier-carved peaks, turquoise lakes and diverse wildlife. Glacier is paired with Waterton Lakes National Park, […]
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Category: National Parks
Saguaro
Saguaro National Park, Arizona, founded in 1994, protects a piece of the Sonoran Desert, the only place in the world where the Saguaro (pronounced Suh-WAR-oh) cactus grows naturally. The Park is divided in two, east and west, flanking the city of Tucson. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating Scenery Uniqueness Wildlife Diversity […]
Shenandoah
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, protects a long, narrow strip of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Unlike most parks, Shenandoah’s land was mostly settled, and a significant portion of it was deforested before the state of Virginia began to piece the park together. The park was established in December 1935, and since then, most of the forest […]
Rocky Mountain
Declared a National Park in 1915, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, is home to hundreds of peaks more than 10,000 feet tall including the 14,255 ft Longs Peak, one of Colorado’s tallest. More than that, the boundaries of Rocky Mountain NP encompass an entire set of mountain ecosystems and the wildlife which make them unique. […]
Pinnacles
Pinnacles National Park, California, is located just east of US 101 about 70 miles southeast of San Jose, CA. It is home to large formations of ancient volcanic spires in a very out-of-place setting among the rolling golden hills of central California. While it’s one of the oldest National Park lands, having been declared a […]
Yosemite
Yosemite, California, is the king of all National Parks. Although it was declared a National Park October 1st, 1890, after Yellowstone and Sequoia, Yosemite is the Park that started it all. It was here, amidst the spectacular beauty of “the valley” that John Muir convinced the US government to set aside some of its most […]
Redwood
Redwood National Park, California, was actually a latecomer to this area. Founded October 2nd, 1968, it joined three California State Parks in protecting some key groves of redwood trees, the tallest in the world, that grow only along a narrow strip of the California and Oregon coasts. Today, the area is jointly managed by the […]
Crater Lake
Crater Lake, Oregon, was the fifth National Park, established May 22nd, 1902 after 17 years of lobbying by a man named William Steel. The lake was formed thousands of years ago after the eruption and collapse of Mount Mazama in the Cascade Range. The lake is the deepest in the US (about 1,940 feet) and […]
Big Bend
Big Bend National Park, Texas, protects the diverse ecology of the area inside the “Big Bend” in the Rio Grande, the border between the US and Mexico.Big Bend, while technically situated in a desert area, is home to more than 400 species of birds and contains several different climate zones ranging from the Chihuahuan desert […]
Mesa Verde
Established in 1906, Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado is one of the oldest national parks around and is still the only national park founded to protect something man-made. In this case, it’s several of the largest and best preserved ancient Puebloan cliff dwellings in the US. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP […]
Petrified Forest
Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, is home to the largest collection of colorful petrified wood in the US. Like many parks, Petrified Forest was formerly a National Monument. It achieved National Park status in 1962. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating Scenery Uniqueness Wildlife Diversity ILNP Park Review In a Word. “Colorful” […]
Guadalupe Mountains
Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas, was founded in 1972 to preserve the surprisingly diverse wilderness of the southern Guadalupe Mountains, a range created from an enormous fossilized reef rising up from the Chihuahuan Desert. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating Scenery Uniqueness Wildlife Diversity ILNP Park Review In a Word. “Unexpected” “He […]