Palmerlee - Discover USAs Best National Parks

USAs Best National Parks

The moment you roll up to a national park entry kiosk, you feel it. Youre entering someplace special. Maybe its the mountain air or the smell of the trees. Most likely, its because youre about to see something big. Something indescribable. A canyon so deep you can see two billion years of geological history in its walls. Trees so massive you could fit buildings inside them. Rock formations so strange they can only be called hoodoos.

Americas national parks hold some of earths most spectacular scenery. A collection of superlatives, they encompass the highest and lowest points in North America. One park is home to the greatest concentration of geothermic features on the planet. Another encompasses the worlds densest collection of natural stone arches. In yet another, the continents highest waterfall plummets over a cliff amid the greatest expanses of exposed granite on earth.

Indeed, the national parks are our greatest treasure. They protect 85,000 miles of the countrys most beautiful rivers and streams, and over 43,000 miles of our wildest shoreline. They are home to 27,000 historic structures and nearly 70,000 archeological sites. They also protect 400 endangered species plants and animals that might very well be gone if not for the parks.

We can thank some early visionaries for their existence. The John Muirs, Theodore Roosevelts, Stephen Mathers and Horace Albrights. The conservationists and naturalists who fought to protect these swaths of land for the enjoyment of all. But the preservation of the parks today are the efforts of so many more. Since the creation of the first national park, over 2.4 million people have together logged more than 97 million work hours, without pay, to make these places better.

No wonder our skin tingles upon entry to a national park. Behind those entry kiosks lie landscapes that are vastly beautiful, histories that are inspirational, an idea that was, as novelist Wallace Stegner famously put it, Americas best.

Old homestead, Grand Teton
PHOTOGRAPHER: JUDY BELLAH /LONELY PLANET IMAGES

USAs Best National Parks Top Experiences

Yosemite Valley, Yosemite

In Yosemite Valley ( ), the national park systems crown jewel, massive granite rock formations tower thousands of feet over the Merced River. Wild creeks plummet from the cliff tops, creating a spectacle of waterfalls unlike anywhere on earth. And presiding over it all stand the iconic and mighty sentinels of rock, including El Capitan, Half Dome, the Royal Arches, the Three Brothers and Cathedral Rocks. No matter what people tell you about the summer crowds, the sights of Yosemite Valley are so astonishing that almost nothing can detract from the experience.

JOHN MOCK / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier

Going-to-the-Sun Rd ( ) offers steely-nerved motorists the drive of their life. Chiseled out of the mountainside and punctuated by some of the sheerest and most vertiginous drop-offs in the US, this 50-mile, vista-laden strip of asphalt offers drivers access to some of the most astounding sights in the Rockies.

ELFI KLUCK / GETTY

Yosemites most stunning waterfalls plummet over granite cliffs. ( )

Icebergs float in azure waters beneath a massive glacial cirque. ( )

Grueling trail with epic canyon views. ( )

Views are endless from atop this 14,259ft peak. ( )

Narrow slot canyon with a river for a trail. ( )

Sunset, Grand Canyon

When Bob Dylan wrote of God and Woody Guthrie, he said I may be right or wrong/Youll find them both/In the Grand Canyon/At sundown. Of all the places to watch the sunset in the world, few can measure up to the Grand Canyon. Lipan Point ( ), where you can watch the sunset in style.