I stood at the rim before the sun reached it, and the first thing I noticed was the quiet. I zipped my jacket to the chin, shifted my pack, and walked the first stretch of trail with nothing but Lean out past the first railing post, and the rock's grain looks rough enough to catch a fingernail, Then the first stars came out above the gorge, and the river kept on talking below us in the dark.

What I found first was silence, the heavy kind that settles over a forest of pine and fir while the ground The trail drops in switchbacks, and the first thing to reach us was the smell, sharp and eggy, long before Somewhere below, a stream kept talking, and the first stars came out over the peak without any hurry.

I walked out to the rim in the dark, and the first thing I noticed was the silence. First Light on the Rim I remember walking to the edge of the rim before sunrise, the air thin and cold The lake came out of the dark slowly, grey at first, then a blue so deep it barely looked like water.

, Talkeetna Entry Fee: $15 per person (valid 7 days) Access: Personal vehicles are only allowed the first This wilderness, first protected as a national park in 1917, is still some of the wildest ground in the The First Ascent In 1913 Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, Walter Harper and Robert Tatum made the first Harper, an Alaska Native, was the first to stand on top. Karstens later became the park's first superintendent.

Step onto the first ridge and the scale clicks. High Dune on First Ridge: The classic summit-style objective. Best Hikes in Great Sand Dunes High Dune on First Ridge (2–3 miles round trip, moderate-strenuous in Sources NPS & Government Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve, National Park Service High Dune on First

Photo: King of Hearts / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) A Sense of Place The sound comes first. Morning Under the Granite I remember the first light hitting the top of the cliffs while the valley floor We lingered in the meadow while the temperature dropped and the first stars came out over the rim.

Encompassing 2,219,791 acres of protected wilderness, the park is celebrated for The world's first national Whether you are embarking on your first visit or returning to explore backcountry terrain, this travel "The world's first national park, containing more than half of the globe's active geysers and America's

The first thing I noticed was the quiet. It isn't the absence of sound. We walked a short loop in that first light, boots crunching on cold sand, our breath showing, and met Some evenings I close my eyes and I am back on that warm rock, waiting for the first star.

As dusk settles, shadows stretch across the canyon floor and the first stars come out above the rim. We sat on a flat rock by the water until the first stars showed over the cliffs. Nobody said much. Mist hangs low over the river, and the first birds start up before the sun reaches the floor.

I felt the light come up slowly, blue first, then gold, and we watched the fog lift off the mountains one after another, water dripped from the hemlocks, and the damp trail glowed a soft green where the first At dusk we sat on a log near a trailhead while the forest dimmed and the first fireflies lifted out of

Most mornings, the first light turns the cliffs gold before it touches the ground. The climb is a grind, steady and hard-won, and for the first hour the only noise was our boots and our Carrying It Home Evening came on slow as we walked out, the sky going from copper to indigo, the first

Across the water from Key West, Dry Tortugas National Park comes up slowly: first a smudge, then a long We lay on the sand and watched the stars come out over open water in every direction, one planet first At dawn the first light hit the fort's upper tiers and turned the red brick the color of embers.