National Parks

Bryce Canyon, a natural amphitheater filled with whimsical rock spires known as hoodoos, is a geological marvel. These orange and pink formations, which glow like lanterns at dawn, are the result of millions of years of erosion and geological processes. High on Utah's Paunsaugunt Plateau, Bryce offers compact beauty, accessible trails, and skies so dark you'll see the Milky Way stretch from horizon to horizon.

Between the urban hubs of Cleveland and Akron, Cuyahoga Valley National Park offers a refuge for plants and wildlife along the winding Cuyahoga River. Deep forests, rolling hills, and farmlands recall the region's agricultural past, while the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail invites hikers and cyclists to retrace history. Waterfalls like Brandywine and Blue Hen cascade through sandstone gorges, creating a patchwork of natural beauty and heritage.

Just off the coast of Southern California lie five rugged islands known as the Channel Islands National Park. Though close to the mainland, they feel worlds apart: isolation has fostered unique animals, plants, and archaeological resources not found anywhere else. Dubbed the "Galápagos of North America," this park features kelp forests, sea caves, seabird rookeries, and tranquil trails where you can spot island foxes and ancient Chumash sites.

Descending into the darkness of Carlsbad Caverns National Park feels like entering a subterranean cathedral. Giant stalactites and stalagmites rise and drip, forming delicate curtains and towering columns.

Deep in South Carolina's floodplain, Congaree National Park preserves the largest remaining tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the Southeast. Towering loblolly pines and champion hardwoods rise above a maze of sloughs and oxbow lakes, nourished by periodic floods from the Congaree and Wateree rivers. The park is a living laboratory of biodiversity, offering a respite from the nearby city of Columbia.

Standing on the rim of Colorado's Black Canyon of the Gunnison, you peer into a chasm so deep and narrow that sunlight touches its rivers for only a handful of minutes each day.

Badlands is where the prairie suddenly erupts into a fortress of jagged buttes and spires, striped in pinks and rusts that glow at dawn and dusk, and where bison, bighorn sheep and prairie dogs move like ghosts through a sea of mixed‑grass.

Acadia National Park Travel Guide. Acadia feels like a coastal kingdom sculpted by nature: granite cliffs plunge into the Atlantic, lush forests cloak mountain ridges, and hidden coves greet the first sunrise in the United States.