National Parks











National Parks and Monuments
After many years of travelling, it became obvious that I had visited a great many National Parks and Monuments both in Canada and the United States. Some Parks I've visited more than once. Growing up with Banff National Park only 65 miles west of Calgary, I didn't really appreciate the concept of National Parks. Banff was just there - a place for us to go swim and ski - and as we got older - party!! It wasn't until I started doing road trips that I truly came to appreciate the National Parks.

I've been within 30 minutes of a half dozen National Parks (and countless Monuments) and didn't take the time to visit. I don't think I'll be adding visiting every National Park in the Country to my "bucket list", but the next time I'm close to a one, I am definitely not going to pass it by. I'll certainly pay closer attention to what is along my route. I do, however, think it's about time I recorded the National Parks and Monuments I have visited or driven through before old age settles in and I forget everywhere I've been!



Canadian National Parks



Canada currently has 36 National Parks and 8 National Park Reserves managed by Parks Canada. Canada’s first National Park, located in Banff, was established in 1885 followed by Glacier National Park and Yoho National Park in 1886. Tourism and commercialization dominated early park development, followed closely by resource extraction. The newest National Park is Naats'ihch'oh National Park Reserve, Northwest Territories, established August 22, 2012. Parks Canada



United States National Parks



The United States currently has 59 National Parks operated by the National Park Service. The first national park, Yellowstone, was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, followed by Mackinac National Park in 1875 (decommissioned in 1895), and then Sequoia National Park and Yosemite National Park in 1890. The newest National Park is Pinnacles National Park, California, established January 10, 2013. National Park Service



United States National Monuments



In addition, well over 100 National Monuments across the United States have been established under the Antiquities Act of 1906. A National Monument is a protected area that is similar to a National Park except that the President can declare the area to be a National Monument without the approval of Congress. The First National Monument, established September 24, 1906, was Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Although most National Monuments are managed by the National Park Service, they can be managed by other federal agencies including US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Arches National Park, Utah

Arches National Park, established on November 12, 1971, is located in Grand County, Utah 5 miles north of Moab, Utah. Google Map

Arches National Park preserves over 2000 natural sandstone arches, including the world-famous Delicate Arch. Forty-three arches have collapsed due to erosion since 1970.

Wolfe Ranch Petroglyphs


This wall of petroglyphs carved sometime between A.D. 1650 and 1850, is located in Arches National Park, near Wolfe Cabin just off the Delicate Arch trailhead. The stylized horse and rider surrounded by bighorn sheep and dog-like animals is typical of Ute Indian art work.

Park Avenue

Millions of years of erosion have led to the creation of the arches. The arid ground has life-sustaining soil crust and potholes, natural water-collecting basins. Other geologic formations are stone columns, spires, fins, and towers.



Wolfe Cabin

John Wesley Wolfe settled in the location in 1898 with his oldest son Fred. A nagging leg injury from the Civil War prompted Wolfe to move west from Ohio, looking for a drier climate.

Wolfe Cabin


He chose this tract of more than 100 acres along Salt Wash for its water and grassland - enough for a few cattle. The Wolfes built a one-room cabin, a corral, and a small dam across Salt Wash.




Wall Arch

Wall Arch, a large natural sandstone arch in Arches National Park collapsed sometime between the evening of August 4 and morning of August 5, 2008. Before its collapse, it was the 12th largest arch in the park.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Badlands National Park, established on January 25, 1939, is located in Jackson, Oglala Lakota, and Pennington counties about 30 miles south-east of Wall, South Dakota. Google Map

Badlands National Park protects sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. Wildlife includes bison, bighorn sheep, black-footed ferrets, and swift foxes.

Badlands National Park

For 11,000 years, Native Americans have used this area for their hunting grounds. Long before the Lakota were the little-studied paleo-Indians, followed by the Arikara people. Their descendants live today in North Dakota as a part of the Three Affiliated Tribes.


Archaeological records combined with oral traditions indicate that these people camped in secluded valleys where fresh water and game were available year round.

Wounded Knee Massacre

The Wounded Knee Massacre, on December 29, 1890, was the last major clash between Plains Indians and the United States Military. By the time it was over, at least 150 men, women, and children of the Lakota had been killed and 51 wounded. Wounded Knee is not within the boundaries of Badlands National Park but it is an important part of the Park's history and the area it preserves. Wounded Knee is located approximately 45 miles south of the Park on Pine Ridge Reservation.

A great change came to the area toward the end of the 19th century as homesteaders moved into South Dakota. The United States government stripped Native Americans of much of their territory and forced them to live on reservations triggering a series of conflicts, wars, standoffs and massacres leaving thousands of people dead.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Banff National Park, Alberta

Banff National Park, established on November 25, 1885, is located in Alberta's rocky mountains 65 Miles west of Calgary on the Trans Canada Highway. Google Map

Two Jack Lake & Mount Rundle


Banff National Park was the second National Park in North America. Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming was the first. The towns of Banff and Lake Louise are the two main commercial centres in the Park.


West of Banff National Park, the Trans Canada Highway winds its way through Yoho National Park, Glacier National Park and Mount Revelstoke National Park on its path to the Pacific Coast. Unfortunately, for these three Parks, most visitors are only "passing through".

World Heritage Site

The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks - consisting of Banff, Yoho, Kootenay and Jasper National Parks and Hamber, Mount Assiniboine and Mount Robson Provincial Parks, were declared a World Heritage Site in 1984.

Internment and Work Camps

During World War I, immigrants from Ukraine, Austria-Hungary and Germany were sent to Banff to work in internment camps. The main camp was at Castle Mountain, and was moved to Cave and Basin during winter. Much early infrastructure and road construction was done by men of various Slavic origins although Ukrainians constituted a majority of those held in Banff. Internees performed heavy labor, building roads (like the Bow Valley Parkway to Lake Louise), clearing land, building bridges, and quarrying stone for Banff's development.

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Bears Ears National Monument, Utah

Bears Ears National Monument, established December 28, 2016, is located in San Juan County in southeastern Utah along hwys 95 and 261 . Google Map

The monument's original size was 1,351,849 acres and included the Valley of the Gods, the western part of the Manti-La Sal National Forest's Monticello unit, as well as the Dark Canyon Wilderness.

Bears Ears Buttes from Hwy 261


Canyonlands National Park borders Indian Creek Canyon, while the original monument also bordered the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and surrounded Natural Bridges National Monument.





The area within the monument is largely undeveloped and contains a wide array of historic, cultural and natural resources. The monument is co-managed by the Bureau of Land Management and United States Forest Service, along with a coalition of five local Native American tribes; the Navajo Nation, Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Pueblo of Zuni, all of which have ancestral ties to the region.

Monument Reduction

On December 4, 2017, President Donald Trump ordered an 85 percent reduction (about 1.3 million acres) in the size of the monument to 201,876 acres. Trump also reduced the size of Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by nearly 47 percent on the same day. Legal scholars have argued that the reduction is not authorized by law. Several federal lawsuits have been filed challenging Trump's action. Anything that President Obama did, Trump felt compelled to destroy!

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Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

Bryce Canyon National Park, established September 15, 1928, is located in southwestern Utah about 90 miles east of Cedar City, Utah. Google Map

Bryce Canyon is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rocks.

Natural Bridge

A Natural Bridge

The Bryce Canyon area was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1850s and was named after Ebenezer Bryce, who homesteaded in the area in 1874.





The Park receives relatively few visitors largely due to its remote location. Rim Road, the scenic drive that is still used today, was completed in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

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California Coastal National Monument, California

The California Coastal National Monument, created by President Clinton on January 11, 2000, is located along the entire coastline of California. Google Map

Sea Arch near Point Arena

The creation of the monument ensures the protection of all islets, reefs and rock outcroppings along the coast of California within 12 nautical miles of shore along the entire 840 mile long coastline. The Monument is managed by the BLM.


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Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona

Canyon de Chelly National Monument, established on April 1, 1931, is located on the Navajo Nation in Apache County about 1 mile from Chinle, Arizona. Google Map

It preserves ruins of the early indigenous tribes that lived in the area. None of the land is federally owned. The Monument is cooperatively managed by the Navajo Nation and National Park Service.

White House Ruins

White House Ruins

White House Ruins stands out as the sun reflects off the white plastered walls. These ruins were built by the Anasazi people, Navajo for "the ancient ones."


This is the only place where non-Navajos may hike unescorted into the Canyon. The National Park Service has improved an old Anasazi trail from the Canyon's edge to its bottom.

Canyon de Chelly has been occupied by Hopi Indians from circa 1300 to the early 1700s and then the Navajo moved into the canyon from places in northern New Mexico.

The Long Walk of the Navajo

Canyon de Chelly was invaded by forces led by future New Mexico governor Lt. Antonio Narbona in 1805, during which time 115 Navajos were slain and 33 taken captive. In 1863, Col. Kit Carson sent troops through the canyon, killing 23 Navajo, seizing 200 sheep, and destroying hogans, as well as peach orchards and other crops. The resulting demoralization led to the surrender of the Navajos and their removal to Bosque Redondo, New Mexico known as "the Long Walk".

Edward Sheriff Curtis

Edward Sheriff Curtis (February 19, 1868 – October 19, 1952 was an American photographer and ethnologist whose work focused on the American West and Native American people. Sometimes referred to as the "Shadow Catcher", Curtis traveled the United States to document and record the dwindling ways of life of various native tribes through photographs and audio recordings.

Canyon de Chelly, 1904, by Edward S. Curtis



Curtis's depiction of Navajos crossing the desert on horseback, their graceful silhouettes at the base of Arizona's Canyon de Chelly, betrays a romantic view of the past.




National Register of Historic Places:

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Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Canyonlands National Park, established September 12, 1964, is located in southeastern Utah about 30 miles southwest of Moab. Google Map

Green River Overlook


The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into countless canyons, mesas and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their respective tributaries.




The park is divided into four districts:
  • the Island in the Sky, a broad and level mesa between the Colorado and Green rivers with many overlooks.
  • the Needles, located east of the Colorado River and is named after the red and white banded rock pinnacles which dominate it.
  • the Maze, located west of the Colorado and Green rivers and is one of the most remote and inaccessible areas of the United States.
  • the Rivers - Green and Colorado - carved two large canyons into the Colorado Plateau.
Newspaper Rock

The first carvings at the Newspaper Rock site were made around 2,000 years ago. The petroglyphs were carved by Native Americans during both the prehistoric and historic periods. The drawings on the rock include pictures of deer, buffalo, and pronghorn antelope, riders on horses.

Newspaper Rock

While precisely dating the rock carvings has been difficult, surface minerals reveal their relative ages. The pictures at Newspaper Rock were inscribed into the dark coating on the rock, called desert varnish.



Desert varnish is a blackish manganese-iron deposit that gradually forms on exposed sandstone cliff faces owing to the action of rainfall and bacteria. The ancient artists carefully pecked the coated rock surfaces with sharpened tools to remove the desert varnish and expose the lighter rock beneath. The older figures are themselves becoming darker in color as new varnish slowly develops.

Holy Ghost Panel


The Great Gallery

The Great Gallery is a product of a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers predating the Fremont and Ancestral Puebloans. Full Great Gallery Panel



The panel itself measures about 200 feet long and 15 feet high. It contains about 20 life-sized anthropomorphic images, the largest of which measures over 7 feet tall.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Capitol Reef National Park, established December 18, 1971, is located in south-central Utah about 10 miles east of Torrey, Utah. Google Map

It is 100 miles long but fairly narrow. The area was named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone that look somewhat like the United States Capitol building. Google Map

Capitol Gorge


The park is filled with canyons, cliffs, towers, domes, and arches. The Fremont River has cut canyons through parts of the Waterpocket Fold, but most of the park is arid desert country.



The first paved road was constructed through the area in 1962. Today, State Route 24 cuts through the park traveling east and west between Canyonlands National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, but few other paved roads invade the rugged landscape.

Capitol Reef encompasses the Waterpocket Fold, a warp in the earth's crust that is 65 million years old. In this fold, newer and older layers of earth folded over each other in an S-shape.

The Castle

This warp, probably caused by the same colliding continental plates that created the Rocky Mountains, has weathered and eroded over millennia to expose layers of rock and fossils.



The park is filled with brilliantly colored sandstone cliffs, gleaming white domes, and contrasting layers of stone and earth. The fold forms a north-to-south barrier that even today has barely been breached by roads.

Early settlers referred to parallel, impassable ridges as "reefs", from which the park gets the second half of its name.

Gifford Ranch

Fruita

Mormons settled the Fremont River valley in the 1880s and established Junction (later renamed Fruita). Fruita prospered.


In addition to farming, lime was extracted from local limestone and uranium was extracted early in the 20th century. In 1904 the first claim to a uranium mine in the area was staked. The resulting Oyler Mine in Grand Wash produced uranium ore.

Fruita School


By 1920 the work was hard but the life in Fruita was good. No more than ten families at one time were sustained by the fertile flood plain of the Fremont River and the land changed ownership over the years.




The area remained isolated. The community was later abandoned and some buildings were restored by the National Park Service.

Fruita Petroglyphs


Fruita Petroglyphs

The Petroglyphs pullout is about a mile east of the Visitors Center on Hwy 24.




These Petroglyphs are from the Frémont people who lived throughout Utah and adjacent areas of Idaho, Colorado and Nevada from 700 to 1300 AD. The culture was named for the Fremont River and its valley in which many of the first Fremont sites were discovered.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Castillo De San Marcos National Monument, Florida

Castillo De San Marcos National Monument, established October 15th, 1924, is located in St. Augustine, Florida. Google Map

The Fort, built in 1672, served for 205 years under four different flags. The Monument is managed by the National Park Service.

Castillo de San Marcos

Possession of the Fort has changed six times, the Spanish Empire, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Confederate States of America and the United States of America (Spain and the United States having possession two times each).



Castillo De San Marcos was involved in sieges with the British while under Spanish command, the American Revolution under Britain, the Civil War under the Confederacy, and the Seminole Wars and the Spanish-American War under the United States.

The Monument site consists of 20.5 acres and includes a reconstructed section of the walled defense line surrounding the city of St. Augustine incorporating the original city gate. It is the oldest masonry and only extant 17th century fort in North America. It is an excellent example of the "bastion system" of fortification.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

Crater Lake National Park is located in Klamath County, Oregon, about 69 miles north of Klamath Falls on State Hwy 62. Google Map

Crater Lake has inspired people for thousands of years. No place else on earth combines a deep, pure lake, so blue in color; sheer surrounding cliffs, almost two thousand feet high; two picturesque islands; and a violent volcanic past. It is a place of immeasurable beauty, and an outstanding outdoor laboratory and classroom.

Crater Lake



The lake partly fills a nearly 2,148-foot caldera that was formed around 7,700 (± 150) years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. At 1,943 feet the lake is the deepest in the United States.




The lake is 5 miles by 6 miles across, with a caldera rim ranging in elevation from 7,000 to 8,000 feet.

The caldera was created in a massive volcanic eruption. Since that time, all eruptions on Mazama have been confined to the caldera. Eventually, the caldera cooled, allowing rain and snow to accumulate and form a lake. There are no streams or rivers flowing in to our out of the lake.

Purity from Violence

National Park Service pretty well describes the lake but how do you describe the feeling you get viewing it? I think of one word - pure. Crater Lake today was a photographers paradise and I saw several photographers with some pretty sophisticated equipment. Today there were no clouds in the sky and no wind.

Wizard Island

Wizard Island

Wizard Island is a volcanic cinder cone at the west end of Crater Lake. The top of the island is about 755 feet above the average surface of the lake. The cone is capped by a volcanic crater about 500 feet wide and 100 feet deep.

Fossilized Steam



Fossilized Steam

Out of the Ashes. A specific series of events allowed nature to sculpt the rocky spires in this river valley. Over thousands of years, erosion has carved away the softer ash and pumice, exposing these mysterious formations.


National Register of Historic Places:

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Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho

Craters of the Moon National Monument, established on May 2, 1924 by President Coolidge, is about 24 miles southwest of Arco, Idaho. Google Map

The Monument represents one of the best-preserved flood basalt areas in the continental United States. The area is managed cooperatively by the National Park Service and the BLM. Craters of the Moon National Monument

Craters of the Moon National Monument, spanning 618 miles, encompasses three major lava fields. All three lava fields lie along the Great Rift of Idaho, with some of the best examples of open rift cracks in the world, including the deepest known on Earth at 800 feet. There are excellent examples of almost every variety of basaltic lava as well as tree molds (cavities left by lava-incinerated trees), lava tubes (a type of cave), and many other volcanic features.

Spatter Cone

Spatter Cone

A spatter cone is a low, steep-sided hill or mound that consists of welded lava fragments, called spatter, which has formed around a lava fountain issuing from a central vent.




The spatter are not fully solid, like taffy, as they land and they bind to the underlying spatter as both often slowly ooze down the side of the cone.

Devils Orchard

Devil's Orchard

Devils Orchard is a group of lava-transported cinder cone fragments (also called monoliths or cinder crags) that stand in cinders. They were once part of the North Crater cinder cone but broke off during an eruption of lava.



Scoria Fields

Scoria Fields at Craters of the Moon refer to the vast, bumpy landscapes of reddish-black volcanic rock (scoria or cinders) piled around cinder cones.
Scoria Field




They are formed by explosive eruptions where gas-charged lava cooled rapidly into bubbly fragments, creating the "weird" moon-like terrain.





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Death Valley National Park, California

Death Valley National Park is located in Inyo County, California about 9 miles southwest of Beatty, Nevada. Google Map

Death Valley National Park, established October 31, 1994, is the hottest, lowest, and driest place in the United States. Temperatures in the Valley can reach 130°F in the summer, to below freezing in the winter. Death Valley holds the world record for highest temperature ever recorded - 134°F on July 10, 1913 at Furnace Creek.
The National Climatic Center reports that Death Valley's temperature reaches 90°F approximately 327 days a year while freezing temperatures occur approximately 11 days each year. The lowest temperature on record is 15°F. Annual precipitation is about 2 inches.

Located on the border of California and Nevada, Death Valley is the principal feature of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve. Millions of years ago, there was an inland sea where Death Valley is today, but as the area turned to desert, the water evaporated, leaving behind the salt. From Dante's View at 5,500 feet above sea level one can see the central part of Death Valley, Badwater Basin, which is the lowest dry point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.

Racetrack Playa

Racetrack Playa, is a scenic dry lake located in the northern part of the Panamint Mountains. Scattered across the extraordinarily flat surface of Racetrack Playa, far from the edges of the surrounding mountains, are large chunks of dolomite, some up to 705 lbs.

Sailing Stone


The "sailing stones" are a geological phenomenon. Behind many of the stones you'll see grooved trails. Some are short, some long, some straight, some curvy.






The tracks have been observed and studied since the early 1900s, however, no living person has ever witnessed these amazing rocks in motion, making them the target of scientific speculation and investigation as well as old-fashioned tall tales of the desert.

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes at Sunset

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

These dunes, located in central Death Valley near Stovepipe Wells, are the best known and easiest to visit in the Park. Although the highest dune rises only about 100 feet, the dunes actually cover a vast area.


These dunes have been used to film sand dune scenes for several movies. In 1977 Death Valley was as a filming location for Star Wars, providing the setting for the fictional planet Tatooine.

The largest dune is called Star Dune and is relatively stable and stationary. The depth of the sand at its crest is 130-140 feet but this is small compared to other dunes in the Park that have sand depths of up to 600-700 feet deep.

Monument in Burnt Wagons, CA

Death Valley '49ers

The Death Valley '49ers, more than 100 emigrants from the Middle West seeking a shortcut to gold fields of central California, entered Death Valley in December 1849.



All suffered from thirst and starvation. Seeking an escape from the region, two contingents went southwest from here, while the others proceeded northwest. It is these emigrants who are said to have given Death Valley its uninviting name.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming

Devil's tower, established September 24, 1906, is in Crook County, Wyoming about 13 miles from Helett. Google Map

Devils Tower is a laccolithic butte in the Bear Lodge Ranger District of the Black Hills. It rises 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet from summit to base.

Devils Tower National Monument was the first United States national monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt. The monument's boundary encloses an area of 1,347 acres.

Devils Tower



The name "Devil's Tower" originated in 1875 during an expedition led by Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, when his interpreter reportedly misinterpreted a native name to mean "Bad God's Tower".




Native American Cultural Beliefs - The Legends

Kiowa and Lakota
A group of girls went out to play and were spotted by several giant bears, who began to chase them. In an effort to escape the bears, the girls climbed atop a rock, fell to their knees, and prayed to the Great Spirit to save them. Hearing their prayers, the Great Spirit made the rock rise from the ground towards the heavens so that the bears could not reach the girls. The bears, in an effort to climb the rock, left deep claw marks in the sides, which had become too steep to climb. Those are the marks which appear today on the sides of Devils Tower. When the girls reached the sky, they were turned into the stars of the Pleiades.

Sioux
Two Sioux boys wandered far from their village when Mato the bear, a huge creature that had claws the size of tipi poles, spotted them, and wanted to eat them for breakfast. He was almost upon them when the boys prayed to Wakan Tanka the Creator to help them. They rose up on a huge rock, while Mato tried to get up from every side, leaving huge scratch marks as he did. Finally, he sauntered off, disappointed and discouraged. The bear came to rest east of the Black Hills at what is now Bear Butte. Wanblee, the eagle, helped the boys off the rock and back to their village.

Cheyenne
The giant bear pursues the girls and kills most of them. Two sisters escape back to their home with the bear still tracking them. They tell two boys that the bear can only be killed with an arrow shot through the underside of its foot. The boys have the sisters lead the bear to Devils Tower and trick it into thinking they have climbed the rock. The boys attempt to shoot the bear through the foot while it repeatedly attempts to climb up and slides back down leaving more claw marks each time. The bear was finally scared off when an arrow came very close to its left foot. This last arrow continued to go up and never came down.

Wooden Leg
Wooden Leg, a Northern Cheyenne, recounted another legend told to him by an old man while they were traveling together past Devils Tower around 1866–1868. An Indigenous man decided to sleep at the base of Bear Lodge next to a buffalo head. In the morning, he discovered that both he and the buffalo head had been transported to the top of the rock by the Great Medicine, with no way to descend. He spent another day and night on the rock without food or water. After praying all day and then going to sleep, he awoke to find that the Great Medicine had brought him back down to the ground, but had left the buffalo head at the top near the edge. Wooden Leg asserted that the buffalo head was clearly visible through the old man's spyglass. At that time, the tower had never been climbed, and a buffalo head at the top was otherwise inexplicable.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Four Corner Monument

Four Corners Monument, established, is where the states Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet, approximately 40 miles southwest of Cortez, Colorado. Google Map

The Four Corners Monument marks the quadripoint where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. It is the only point in the United States shared by four states, leading to the area being named the Four Corners region. The monument also marks the boundary between two semi-autonomous Native American governments, the Navajo Nation, which maintains the monument as a tourist attraction, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Reservation.

Four Corners Disc


The monument consists of a granite disk embedded with a smaller bronze disk around the point, surrounded by state seals and flags representing both the states and tribal nations of the area.



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Giant Sequoia National Monument, California

The Giant Sequoia National Monument, established by President Clinton on April 15, 2000, is located in the southern Sierra Nevada in eastern central California. The monument is in two sections. The northern section surrounds General Grant Grove and other parts of Kings Canyon National Park. The southern section, which includes Long Meadow Grove, is directly south of Sequoia National Park.

Boole Tree


The Giant Sequoia National Monument is administered by the US Forest Service and includes 38 of the 39 Giant Sequoia groves that are located in the Sequoia National Forest.

The Giant Sequoia National Monument includes one of the ten largest sequoias, the Boole Tree, which is 268 feet high with a base circumference of 113 feet. The Tree is in the Converse Basin Grove.






The General Noble Tree

The General Noble Tree was a monumental giant sequoia situated in the Converse Basin Grove, within the boundaries of the Giant Sequoia National Monument. It was believed to be the biggest tree in the world before it was felled in 1892 to become an exhibition tree at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was the largest tree ever felled.

Chicago Stump (General Noble Tree)


Today, the Chicago Stump, the remnants of the former General Noble Tree, stands as a 20-foot-high symbol in the Converse Basin Grove, testifying to the extensive and devastating logging of the late 19th century.





During the 2015 Rough Fire in the Converse Basin area, firefighters protected the Chicago Stump with fire-resistant shelters.

The Generals' Highway

The Generals' Highway is a 32 mile highway connecting State Route 180 and State Route 198 that connects State Route 180 and State Route 198 through Sequoia National Park, Sequoia National Forest, Giant Sequoia National Monument, and Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierra Nevada of California.

The Generals' Highway

It is named after the most famous giant sequoia trees, The General Sherman and The General Grant. The highway is notoriously steep, narrow, and winding, especially its southern section. This section also consists of numerous switchbacks, and has a speed limit of 10 mph.



National Register of Historic Places:

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Glacier National Park, British Columbia

Glacier National Park, established in 1886 is about 50 miles east of Revelstoke, B.C. Google Map

The park's history is closely tied to two primary Canadian transportation routes, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), completed in 1885, and the Trans-Canada Highway, completed in 1963.

Eagle Peak & Mount Sir Donald

The Rogers Pass, on the Trans Canada Highway, can receive up to 56 feet of snow over the course of a winter. Snow sheds at the pass protect the highway from avalanches. The Park's 131 glaciers are some of the most studied glaciers in North America.


The glaciers of the park have been dramatically reduced in size in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Modern measurements using satellite imagery began in the 1980s. Regular inventories of the park’s glaciers have been performed since. The most recent inventory noted a reduction of 19.4 square kilometres of glacial surface area from 2000 to 2011.

Snowsheds

There are five snowsheds located within Glacier National Park and another three on provincial land to the west. The snowsheds are designed to protect traffic from massive avalanches.

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Glacier National Park, Montana

Glacier National Park, established on May 11, 1910, is located about 30 miles northwest of Kalispell, Montana. Google Map

The Park is adjacent to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. The two parks are known as the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, and were designated as the world's first International Peace Park in 1932. The Parks were designated as World Heritage sites in 1995.

Between 1850 and 1979, 73% of the glacial ice had melted away. Of the estimated 150 glaciers which existed in the park in the mid-19th century, only 25 active glaciers remained by 2010. Scientists studying the glaciers in the park have estimated that all the glaciers may disappear by 2030 if the current climate patterns persist.

The Water

The park contains a dozen large lakes and 700 smaller ones. Lake McDonald on the western side of the park is the largest. Some of the lakes, like Avalanche Lake and Cracker Lake, are colored an opaque turquoise by suspended glacial silt, which also causes a number of streams to run milky white.


Two hundred waterfalls are scattered throughout the park. The largest falls include McDonald Falls and Swiftcurrent Falls. One of the tallest waterfalls is Bird Woman Falls, which drops 492 feet from a hanging valley beneath the north slope of Mount Oberlin.


Glacier National Park is dominated by mountains which were carved into their present shapes by the huge glaciers of the last ice age. There are six mountains in the park over 10,000 feet in elevation, with Mount Cleveland, at 10,466, feet being the tallest. The Park spans the Continental Divide. Appropriately named, Triple Divide Peak sends waters towards the Pacific Ocean, Hudson Bay, and Gulf of Mexico watersheds.

Plants and Animals

Virtually all the plants and animals which existed at the time European explorers first entered the region are present in the park today. Wildflowers such as monkeyflower, glacier lily, fireweed, balsamroot and Indian paintbrush are also common.

Beargrass



Beargrass, a tall flowering plant, is commonly found near moisture sources, and is relatively widespread during July and August.






Glacier National Park is teeming with diverse wildlife, most famously iconic large mammals like Grizzly Bears, Mountain Goats, Bighorn Sheep, and Moose, alongside predators like Wolves, Lynx, and Cougars. Other common sights include Black Bears, Elk, Mule Deer, Wolverines, and birds like Bald Eagles, with countless insects, amphibians, and fish also calling the park home.

Going-to-the-Sun Road


Going-to-the-Sun Road

After the Park was well established and visitors began to rely more on automobiles, work began on the 53 mile long Going-to-the-Sun Road.





The road, completed in 1932, officially received its name, “Going-to-the-Sun Road” during the 1933 dedication at Logan Pass.

The Going-to-the-Sun Road is one of the most difficult roads in North America to snowplow in the spring. It takes about ten weeks, even with equipment that can move 4000 tons of snow in an hour. The snowplow crew can clear as little as 500 feet of the road per day. On the east side of the continental divide, there are few guardrails due to heavy snows and the resultant late winter avalanches that have repeatedly destroyed every protective barrier ever constructed.

Big Drift


Big Drift

The Road bisects the Park and passes over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass. Up to 80 feet of snow can lie on top of Logan Pass.



Just east of the pass, the deepest snowfield has long been referred to as Big Drift. The road is generally open from early June to mid October, with its latest-ever opening on July 13, 2011.

Red Jammer


Red Jammers

A fleet of restored 1930s White Motor Company coaches, called Red Jammers, offer tours on all the main roads in the park.





The drivers of the buses are called "Jammers", due to the gear-jamming that formerly occurred during the vehicles' operation. The tour buses were rebuilt in 2001 by Ford Motor Company. The bodies were removed from their original chassis and built on modern Ford E-Series van chassis. They were also converted to run on propane to lessen their environmental impact. Later, new hybrid engines were adopted. As of 2017, 33 of original 35 are still in operation.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is in the Alaska panhandle west of Juneau. Google Map

Glacier Bay National Park


President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the area around Glacier Bay a national monument under the Antiquities Act on February 25, 1925.




The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act enlarged the national monument on December 2, 1980 and in the process created Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in order to protect a portion of the Alsek River and related fish and wildlife habitats.

The Park is named for its abundant tidewater and terrestrial glaciers, numbering 1,045 in total.

There are seven tidewater glaciers in the park: Margerie Glacier, Grand Pacific Glacier, McBride Glacier, Lamplugh Glacier, Johns Hopkins Glacier, Gilman Glacier, and LaPerouse Glacier. High tide-water glaciers also include Riggs Glacier, Reid Glacier, Lituya Glacier, and North Crillon Glacier. Four of these glaciers actively calve icebergs into the bay.

Margerie Glacier


Margerie Glacier

Margerie Glacier is a 21 mile long tidewater glacier within the boundaries of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.




The glacier begins on the southern slopes of Mount Root, elevation 12,860 feet on the Alaska–Canada border. Margerie Glacier is one of the most active and frequently-visited glaciers in Glacier Bay. While most of the tidewater glaciers in the park have been receding over the last several decades, Margerie Glacier has become stable, neither growing nor receding.

Glacier Bay became part of a binational UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, was inscribed as a Biosphere Reserve in 1986 and in 1994 undertook an obligation to work with Hoonah and Yakutat Tlingit Native American organizations in the management of the protected area. In total the park and preserve cover 5,130 square miles.

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Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Grand Canyon National Park, established February 26, 1919, is approximately 55 miles north of Williams, Arizona. Google Map

It was named a World Heritage Site in 1979. The Park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

Grand Canyon

The primary public areas of the park are the North and South Rims of the Grand Canyon itself. The rest of the park is extremely rugged and remote accessible mainly by pack trail and backcountry roads.


The canyon itself was created by the incision of the Colorado River and its tributaries after the Colorado Plateau was uplifted, causing the Colorado River system to develop along its present path.

Lees Ferry and Navajo Bridge

Navajo Bridge is the twin steel spandrel arch bridges that cross the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon National Park. The newer of the two spans carries vehicular traffic on U.S. Route 89A over Marble Canyon between Bitter Springs and Jacob Lake, allowing travel into a remote Arizona Strip region north of the Colorado River including the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.

Navajo Bridge


Prior to completion of the first Navajo Bridge, one of the only Colorado River crossings between Arizona and Utah was located about 5 miles upstream from the bridge site, at the mouth of Glen Canyon where Lees Ferry service had operated since 1873.



The ferry site had been chosen as the only relatively easy access to the river for both northbound and southbound travelers. By the 1920s, automobile traffic began using the ferry, though it was not considered a safe and reliable crossing due to adverse weather and flooding regularly preventing its operation.

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Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Utah

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, established on September 18, 1996, is located in southern Utah between the towns of Page, Arizona and Torrey, Utah. Google Map

Grand Staircase-Escalante National


Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument protects about 1,880,461 acres of land and is managed by the BLM as part of the National Landscape Conservation System.




The Grand Staircase is an immense sequence of sedimentary rock layers that stretches south from Bryce Canyon National Park and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, through Zion National Park, and into Grand Canyon National Park.

The Burr Trail

The Burr Trail Scenic Backway is a 68-mile backcountry gravel road route extending from the town of Boulder, Utah, through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, into Capitol Reef National Park, and then to the community of Bullfrog in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

The Burr Trail

The Burr Trail is named after John Atlantic Burr, a homesteader and rancher who was born in 1846 aboard the SS Brooklyn somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Burr and his family lived in Salt Lake City before moving south to establish the town of Burrville, Utah, in 1876.



John Burr soon developed a trail, known as the Burr Trail, to move cattle back and forth between winter and summer ranges and to market.

Political Agendas, Reduction, Restoration, and Lawsuits

President Bill Clinton designated the area as a National Monument using his authority under the Antiquities Act, at the height of the 1996 presidential election campaign. The Monument was riddled with controversy from the moment of creation.
  • Local officials and Congressman Bill Orton objected to the designation of the Monument, Lawsuits were dismissed by federal courts.
  • On December 4, 2017, President Donald Trump ordered an 47 percent reduction in the size of the monument.
  • Lawsuits were filed to block any reduction. The cases were still pending at the 2020 election.
  • On October 8, 2021, President Joe Biden restored the original boundaries.
  • More lawsuits were filed to overturn the reaffirmed original boundaries. The lawsuits were dismissed.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Grand Teton National Park, established February 26, 1929, is about 13 miles north of Jackson, Wyoming and about 10 miles south of Yellowstone National Park. Google Map

The 310,000 acre Park includes the major peaks of the 40 mile long Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole.

Nez Perce, Grand Teton, & Mount Owen

Grand Teton National Park is named for Grand Teton, the tallest mountain in the Teton Range. The naming of the mountains is attributed to early 19th century French speaking trappers—les trois tétons (the three teats) was later anglicized and shortened to Tetons.


At 13,775 feet, Grand Teton abruptly rises more than 7,000 feet above Jackson Hole, almost 850 feet higher than Mount Owen, the second-highest summit in the range.

Jackson Hole

Jackson Hole is a valley between the Teton mountain range, near the border with Idaho. The term "hole" was used by early trappers, or mountain men, as a term for a large mountain valley. These low-lying valleys, surrounded by mountains and containing rivers and streams, are good habitat for beavers and other fur-bearing animals. Jackson Hole is 55 miles long by 6-13 miles wide.

The John Moulton Barn and Teton Range

Mormon Row

Mormon Row is a historic district in Teton County that consists of a line of homestead complexes along the Jackson-Moran Road near the southeast corner of Grand Teton National Park, in the Jackson Hole valley.



The rural historic landscape's period of significance includes the construction of the farms from 1908 to the 1950s. Six building clusters and a separate ruin illustrate Mormon settlement in the area and comprise such features as drainage systems, barns, fields and corrals.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Great Basin National Park, established October 27, 1986, is located about 68 miles east of Ely, Nevada near the Utah border. Google Map

The Park derives its name from the Great Basin, the dry and mountainous region between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Mountains. Topographically, this area is known as the Basin and Range Province.

Bristlecone Pine

Bristlecone Pines

The Great Basin Bristlecone is Nevada's State Tree. The pines are thought to reach an age far greater than that of any other single living organism known. The maximum recorded age is 4,844 years.

In this stressful, windswept environment, where ice particles driven by winter winds carve and polish the wood of the trees, these pines cling to life for thousands of years.


Lehman Caves

Lehman Caves, discovered by Absalom Lehman in 1885, is a beautiful marble cave ornately decorated with stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, flowstone, popcorn, and over 300 rare shield formations.

Parachutes - Lehman Caves

The cave is located at the base of 13,063 foot Wheeler Peak. Lehman Caves was originally protected as a National Monument on January 24, 1922 and combined with the National Park in 1986.


National Register of Historic Places:

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, established on June 15, 1934, is adjacent to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Google Map

The Park straddles the border between Tennessee and North Carolina. It was named as a World Heritage Site in 1983. It is part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a division of the Appalachian Mountain chain.

Oconaluftee Overlook


Oconaluftee

Before the arrival of European settlers, the region was part of the homeland of the Cherokees. Frontiers people began settling the land in the 18th and early 19th century.




In 1830 President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, beginning the process that eventually resulted in the forced removal of all Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River to what is now Oklahoma. Many of the Cherokee hid in the area that is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Davis House Mountain Farm Museum

Mountain Farm Museum

In a field behind the Oconaluftee Visitors Center and along the Oconaluftee River, the Park Service has recreated a late 19th century mountain farm.



Authentic log structures were moved from their original locations throughout the National Park. One of the buildings, the John E. Davis farmhouse, originally stood in the Indian Creek/Thomas Divide area north of Bryson City.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, Hawai'i

Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, established August 1st, 1916, is on the island of Hawai'i about 30 miles south of Hilo. Google Map

It encompasses two active volcanoes: Kīlauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, and Mauna Loa, the world's most massive subaerial volcano. Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park was name a World Heritage Site in 1987.

Mauna Loa

Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawai'i. It is the largest subaerial volcano in both mass and volume, and has historically been considered the largest volcano on Earth. Mauna Loa Volcano is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, and it is on the Decade Volcano list - a list of 16 volcanoes in the World with the greatest likelihood of causing great loss of life and property if eruptive activity resumes.

From 1985 to 2022, the volcano had its longest period of quiet in recorded history. Mauna Loa's most recent eruption began on November 27, 2022, and ended on December 13, 2022. It was the first eruption since 1984.

Puu_Oo_1983

Kīlauea

Kīlauea was traditionally considered the sacred home of the volcano goddess Pelé, and Hawai'ians visited the crater to offer gifts to the goddess.




In 1790, visitors were caught in an unusually violent eruption. Many were killed and others left footprints in the lava that can still be seen today. Kīlauea may be the only volcano in the world with a drive-in caldera.

Kīlauea has been oozing smooth pahoehoe lava since 1983. Following weeks of increased pressure, the crater floor of the cone of Puʻu ʻŌʻō collapsed on April 30, 2018. On May 11, 2018, the park was closed to the public in the Kīlauea volcano summit area, including the visitor center and park headquarters, due to explosions and toxic ash clouds from Halemaʻumaʻu crater, as well as earthquakes and road damage. Portions of the park reopened to the public on September 22, 2018.

The Jaggar Museum and buildings of Hawaiian Volcano Observatory were too damaged by the 2018 events to be used further and were torn down in 2024. Eruptive activity ceased until a December 20, 2020 eruption at the Halemaʻumaʻu crater. Since then, the crater has been intermittently eruptive with lava fountains and flows, though the activity has not been on the scale of the 2018 event

National Register of Historic Places:

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Jasper National Park, Alberta

Jasper National Park, established on September 14, 1907, is located about 180 miles west of Edmonton, Alberta. Google Map

Jasper National Park Visitor Centre

The town of Jasper contains the majority of the services in the park including the Visitor Information Centre, which is one of the oldest buildings in the park and the former administrative centre and superintendent residence.


World Heritage Site

The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks - consisting of Banff, Yoho, Kootenay and Jasper National Parks and Hamber, Mount Assiniboine and Mount Robson Provincial Parks, were declared a World Heritage Site in 1984.

The name Jasper comes from Jasper Hawes who worked for the North West Company in the early 1800s. He would lend his name to the fur trade post known as Jasper House, and later the town and the entire National Park. The town of Jasper is the main commercial centre in the Park.

Columbia Icefield

The Columbia Icefield is astride the Continental Divide. It is 325 to 1,200 feet deep and receives up to 275 inches of snowfall per year. The Athabasca River, North Saskatchewan River, and tributary headwaters of the Columbia River originate in the Columbia Icefield. The Icefield feeds eight major glaciers, including: Athabasca, Castleguard, Columbia, Dome, Stutfield, and Saskatchewan.

Snow Dome

Snow Dome is a mountain located on the Continental Divide in the Columbia Icefield, where the boundary of Banff National Park and Jasper National Park meets the border of Alberta and British Columbia.

Snow Dome - Columbia Icefields

Snow Dome's elevation is 11,339 feet. Water from Snow Dome's summit flows into three streams that drain into the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, and Hudson Bay.




World War Internment and Work Camps

During World War I, immigrants from Ukraine, Austria-Hungary and Germany were sent to Jasper to work in internment camps. The interned men were primarily employed in the construction of a road from the town of Jasper, along the Maligne River first to Medicine Lake, and later on to Maligne Lake.

Spirit Island, Maligne Lake


Internment camps were established again during World War II, when three hundred Japanese Canadians were forcibly sent to three road camps in Jasper.




Additionally, 160 conscientious objectors, many of them Mennonites from the Prairie provinces, were interned at Jasper and put to work upgrading the Maligne Lake and Medicine Lake roads, as well as building a road from Geikie to the British Columbia.

2024 Jasper Wildfire

On July 22, 2024 a devastating wildfire complex struck Jasper National Park. Ignited by lightning, fires started north and south of the resort town of Jasper and fueled by dry conditions and strong winds quickly grew out of control forcing a mass evacuation of 25,000 residents, workers, and visitors.

The fire caused major structure loss and ecological impact. It burned over 32,000 hectares, destroyed 358 of Jasper's 1,113 structures and remains the worst fire in the park in over a century.

On September 7, 2024 Parks Canada announced that the wildfire was under control with the fire estimated to be 80,860 acres in size. It was declared extinguished on April 1, 2025.

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Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota

Jewel Cave National Monument, established February 7, 1908, is located in Custer County approximately 13 miles west of Custer, South Dakota. Google Map

Jewel Cave is currently the third longest cave in the world, with just over 220 miles of mapped passageways. It is managed by the National Park Service.

Hydromagnesite Balloon


Hydromagnesite Balloon

Frank and Albert Michaud, two local prospectors, discovered the cave in 1900. The cavern was lined with calcite crystals, which led them to name it "Jewel Cave." Jewel Cave contains all the common types of calcite formation. It also contains a very rare formation called a hydromagnesite balloon created when gas of an unknown source inflates a pasty substance formed by the precipitation of the magnesium carbonate hydroxide mineral.



Jasper Fire

The Jasper wildfire between August 24 and September 25, 2000, in the Black Hills of South Dakota burned a total of 83,508 acres across the southern hills. It is the largest wildfire in both state and Black Hills history. The fire burned over 90% of the total land area of Jewel Cave National Monument. As of 2024, efforts to replenish the natural vegetation inside the burn scar are still ongoing.

Jewel Cave Ranger Station



The Jewel Cave Ranger Station, a historic log cabin, was foamed multiple times to keep it from burning. It survived the fire.






The cause of the fire was later determined to be arson. Janice Stevenson of Newcastle, Wyoming, was arrested and accused of setting the fire by way of dropping a lit match and failing to put it out. In 2001, Stevenson pled guilty to second-degree arson and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Joshua Tree National Park, California

Joshua Tree National Park is in Riverside and San Bernardina Counties 4 miles south of Twenty Nine Palms, California. Google Map

The Park was named a National Monument in 1936 and was declared a National Park on October 31st, 1994 when the U.S. Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act.

The park covers a land area of 1.2 million square miles and includes parts of two deserts, each with an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation: the higher Mojave Desert and lower Colorado Desert. There is no real boundary line between the two deserts, just a gradual change in elevation, with representative plants of each desert beginning to dominate.

Joshua Tree

The Mojave Desert

The Joshua Tree is a plant species belonging to the genus Yucca. It is tree-like in appearance. This tree is native to the arid Southwestern United States (specifically California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada), and northwestern Mexico.


It is confined mostly to the Mojave Desert between 1,300 and 5,900 feet elevations. It thrives in the open grasslands of Queen Valley and Lost Horse Valley in Joshua Tree National Park. The Mojave Desert is high and cooler and marked by the presence of yucca trees - especially the Joshua Tree.

The Colorado Desert

Most of the Colorado Desert lies at a relatively low elevation, below 1,000 feet. 
The Colorado Desert is dominated by flats of creosol bush and interrupted by scatterings of ocotillos, ironwood, palo verde, chuparosa, and smoke trees.

Ocotillo




The Ocotillo is a plant indigenous to the Mojave, Sonoran, Chihuahuan and Colorado deserts in the Southwestern United States. Ocotillos look desiccated on the outside, but they are semi-succulent. It is more closely related to the tea plant and blueberries than to cactuses. It regenerates leaves after rainfall.






The only palm native to California, the California Fan Palm, occurs naturally in five oases in the park, rare areas where water occurs naturally year round and all forms of wildlife abound.

Barker Dam


Barker Dam

Barker Dam with water-storage reservoir is located in Joshua Tree National Park. The dam was constructed by early cattlemen, including C. O. Barker, in 1900.



The dam was raised in 1949 by rancher William F. Keys. It is situated between Queen Valley and the Wonderland of Rocks near the Wall Street Mill.

National Register of Historic Places:
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Kings Canyon National Park, California

Kings Canyon National Park, established March 4, 1940 is in the southern Sierra Nevada, about 40 miles east of Fresno, California. Google Map

Originally established in 1890 as General Grant National Park, the park was greatly expanded and renamed on March 4, 1940. The Park is north of and contiguous with Sequoia National Park. The two are administered by the National Park Service jointly.

General Grant Tree


The General Grant Tree

The General Grant tree is 1,650 years old, measures 32.8 feet in circumference, and is the largest giant sequoia in the General Grant Grove section of Kings Canyon National Park.




It is the second largest giant sequoia tree in the world after the General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park. The tree was named after General Ulysses S. Grant and President Coolidge proclaimed it the "Nations Christmas Tree" in 1926.

The Generals' Highway

The Generals' Highway is a 32 mile highway connecting State Route 180 and State Route 198 that connects State Route 180 and State Route 198 through Sequoia National Park, Sequoia National Forest, Giant Sequoia National Monument, and Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierra Nevada of California.

The Generals' Highway

It is named after the most famous giant sequoia trees, The General Sherman and The General Grant. The highway is notoriously steep, narrow, and winding, especially its southern section. This section also consists of numerous switchbacks, and has a speed limit of 10 mph.



National Register of Historic Places:
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Kootenay National Park, British Columbia

Kootenay National Park, established in 1920, is located in southeastern British Columbia, adjacent to the Town of Radium. Google Map

World Heritage Sire

The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks - consisting of Banff, Yoho, Kootenay and Jasper National Parks and Hamber, Mount Assiniboine and Mount Robson Provincial Parks, were declared a World Heritage Site in 1984.

Sinclair Pass - Radium Hot Springs


Kootenay National Park was created as part of an agreement between the Province of British Columbia and the Canadian Federal Government to build a highway. A strip of land 5 miles wide on each side of the newly constructed Banff-Windermere Highway was set aside as a National Park.


Because of the relatively small width of the Park many of the Park's attractions are situated near the road and are easily accessible.

The Park's main attractions include Radium Hot Springs, Olive Lake, Marble Canyon, Sinclair Canyon and the Paint Pots. The hot springs pool temperature ranges from 95°F to 117 °F.

Paint Pots

Paint Pots

The Paint Pots are a group of iron-rich cold mineral springs which bubble up through several small pools and stain the earth a dark red-orange colour.



The Paint Pots were a major source of the ochre paint pigment for a number of First Nations groups prior to the 20th century.

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Lassen Volcanic National Park, California

Lassen Volcanic National Park is in Shasta, Lassen, Plumas, and Tehama Counties, 18 miles east of Shingletown. Google Map

Lassen Volcano


Lassen Volcanic National Park started as two separate national monuments designated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 and declared a National Park on August 9, 1916.





The dominant feature of Volcanic National Park is Lassen Peak, the largest plug dome volcano in the world and the southern-most volcano in the Cascade Range.

Eruption - 1915 - 1921

Starting on May 19th, 1915 and lasting until 1921, a series of eruptions occurred on Lassen Peak. These events created a new crater, and released lava and a great deal of ash. Fortunately, because of warnings, no one was killed, but several houses along area creeks were destroyed.

There are four shield volcanoes in the park - Mount Harkness, Red Mountain, Prospect Peak, and Raker Peak. All of these volcanoes are topped by a cinder cone volcano.

Reading Fire


Reading Fire

A series of thunder storms produced a number of lightning strikes which ignited the Reading Fire on July 23, 2012 approximately one mile northeast of Paradise Meadows.



After burning 28,079 acres the Reading Fire reached 100% containment on August 22, 2012. No structures were lost during this fire.

Hot Rocks

Hot Rocks

Following the 1915 eruptions, local residents discovered several massive hot rocks resting in the valley miles from the volcano.






Careening down the mountainside, hot lava rocks touched off a snow avalanche. The avalanche carried this 300-ton rock five miles from Lassen Peak to this location, where it settled, sizzled, and cooled.

Bumpass Hell

Near Little Hot Springs Valley is Bumpass Hell, a hydrothermally altered geothermal area that spans 16 acres and has hot springs, fumaroles, and boiling mudpots. As part of Mount Tehama's main vent, Bumpass Hell is the result of fissures that tap the volcanic heat, thought to be a cooling mass of andesite, perhaps three miles below the surface.

Bumpass Hell



The area is named after Kendall Vanhook Bumpass, a cowboy and early settler who worked in the Lassen Peak area in the 1860s.






In 1865 the editor of the Red Bluff Independent newspaper took a trip with Bumpass to see the locale. During this trip Bumpass broke through a thin crust above a scalding hot mudpot. His leg was badly scalded and eventually had to be amputated. The area was named in his honor.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Montana

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, established January 29, 1879, is located about 63 miles southeast of Billings, Montana. Google Map

It preserves the site of the June 25 and 26, 1876, Battle of the Little Bighorn, near Crow Agency, Montana. The Monument is managed by National Park Service.

The Monument serves as a memorial to those who fought in the battle: George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry and a combined Lakota-Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho force. The first memorial on the site was assembled by Captain George K. Sanderson and the 11th Infantry.

Custer's Last Stand


They buried soldiers' bodies where they were found and removed animal bones. Markers honoring the Indians who fought at Little Big Horn, including Crazy Horse, have been added to those of the United States troops.




On Memorial Day, 1999, the first of five red granite markers denoting where warriors fell during the battle were placed on the battlefield for Cheyenne warriors Lame White Man and Noisy Walking.

Custer National Cemetery

Custer National Cemetery

Custer National Cemetery, on the battlefield, is part of the national monument. Established in 1886, it was officially closed to further non-reservation interments in 1978.




Within it there are approximately 4,900 interments, with about 100 reserved spaces for veterans or their spouses, who have burial plots. Cremains are still accepted for scattering in the cemetery, however these do not have markers.

The battle, near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory, was the most prominent action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. It was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho, led by several major war leaders, including Crazy Horse and Chief Gall, inspired by the visions of Sitting Bull.

Custer's Last Stand

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, which occurred on June 25 and 26, 1876, and commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army.

The United States Seventh Cavalry, including the Custer Battalion, a force of 700 men led by George Armstrong Custer, suffered a severe defeat. Five of the Seventh Cavalry's companies were annihilated; Custer was killed, as were two of his brothers, a nephew, and a brother-in-law. The total United States casualty count was 268 dead and 55 injured. Although statistics vary, it was reported by Sioux Chief Red Horse in 1877 that the Native American suffered 136 dead and 160 wounded during the battle.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Mojave Trails National Monument, California

The Mojave Trails National Monument is a vast area of protected desert land in California between Interstates 15 and 40 spanning 1.6 million acres between Barstow and Needles, California. Google Map

Mojave Trails National Monument is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and features rugged mountain ranges, ancient lava flows, spectacular sand dunes, and the longest undeveloped stretch of historic Route 66.

The park was created to preserve a wide variety of geological and cultural features including several titular trails - the Old Spanish Trail, the World War II-era Desert Training Center and Route 66. It partially surrounds the Mojave National Preserve.

Amboy Crater

The most visited area in Mojave Trails National Monument is Amboy Crater, a dormant cinder cone volcano.

Amboy Crater

Amboy Crater, formed of ash and cinders, is 250 feet high and 1500 feet in diameter. The crater is one of the youngest volcanic fields in the United States. Six distinct periods of eruptions created the resulting nested group of volcanic cinder cones encompassing 24 square miles.



Volcanic activity started an estimated 6000 years ago with the last period of eruptions occurring as recently as 500 years ago. Amboy Crater's recent origin and its near-perfect shape led to its designation as a National Natural Landmark in 1975. Climb to the rim of the crater to see an outstanding view of the associated lava field and surrounding desert area.

Cadiz Dunes

Cadiz Dunes

One of the most remote areas in the monument consists of the nearly pristine Cadiz Dunes, which are orange-pink in color and almost entirely unvegetated. This dune field formed from the sand of dry lake beds.


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Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

Mount Rainier National Park, was established March 2, 1899 by President William McKinley. It is located about 55 miles southeast of Seattle, Washington. Google Map

Decade Volcano List

Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, and it is on the Decade Volcano list - a list of 16 volcanoes in the World with the greatest likelihood of causing great loss of life and property if eruptive activity resumes. Although Mount Rainier is considered an active volcano, as of 2010 there was no evidence of an imminent eruption. Because of its large amount of glacial ice, an eruption could be devastating for all areas surrounding the volcano.

Mount Rainier



Mount Rainier is located in the Cascade Range and is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire that includes over 160 active volcanoes.





With 26 major glaciers and 36 sq miles of permanent snowfields, Mount Rainier is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. The summit is topped by two volcanic craters, each more than 1,000 feet in diameter.

National Register of Historic Places:

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Mount Revelstoke National Park, British Columbia

Mount Revelstoke National Park, established in 1914, is located in the Selkirk Mountains adjacent to the City of Revelstoke. Google Map

Revelstoke, B.C.


The Park contains part of the world's only temperate inland rain forest. It also protects a small herd of the threatened mountain caribou.





World Heritage Site

The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks - consisting of Banff, Yoho, Kootenay and Jasper National Parks and Hamber, Mount Assiniboine and Mount Robson Provincial Parks, were declared a World Heritage Site in 1984.

Internment and Work Camps

During World War I, immigrants from Ukraine, Austria-Hungary and Germany were sent to Mount Revelstoke to work in internment camps. An internment camp was constructed on the slopes of Mount Revelstoke in 1915. Over 200 interned men worked on the road to the summit, but began to refuse work once cold weather hampered them in the fall. The camp was abandoned and the men moved to other camps in the region.

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Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Washington

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, established August 27, 1982, is located about 96 miles south of Seattle, Washington. Google Map

The Monument was created to preserve the volcano and allow for its aftermath to be scientifically studied. The Monument is managed by the US Forest Service.

Mount St. Helens Volcano

Mount St. Helens Volcano

Mount St. Helens is located in the Cascade Range and is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire that includes over 160 active volcanoes.




Mount St. Helens is most notorious for its catastrophic eruption on May 18, 1980, the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. Fifty-seven people were killed. 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, and 185 miles of highway were destroyed. An earthquake caused an eruption that reduced the elevation of the mountain's summit by 1300 feet, replacing it with a 1 mile wide horseshoe-shaped crater.

Significant activity continued on Mount St. Helens from 1980 to 2008. On January 16, 2008, steam began seeping from a fracture on top of the lava dome. Scientists suspended activities but the risk of a major eruption was deemed low. By the end of January, the eruption paused. No more lava was being extruded from the lava dome. On July 10, 2008, it was determined that the eruption had ended.

Future Hazards

Future eruptions of Mount St. Helens will likely be even larger than the 1980 eruption. A large lahar flow is likely on branches of the Toutle River, possibly causing destruction in inhabited areas along the I-5 corridor.

The volcano is considered "very high threat" by the United States Geological Survey and is closely monitored by the Cascades Volcano Observatory.

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Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah

Natural Bridges National Monument, established April 16, 1908, is located about 45 miles west of Blanding, Utah. Google Map

It features the second largest natural bridge in the world, carved from the white Permian sandstone of the Cedar Mesa Formation. The Monument is managed by National Park Service.

Owachomo Natural Bridge

Owachomo Natural Bridge

The three bridges in the Park have Hopi names - Kachina, Owachomo, and Sipapu. A natural bridge is formed through erosion. A stream undercuts the walls of rock creating a bridge.




The stream then flowing underneath the bridge, continues to enlarge the bridge's opening. Eventually, the bridge collapses under its own weight. There is evidence of at least two collapsed natural bridges within the Monument.

Horsecollar Ruin


Horsecollar Ruin

Horsecollar Ruin is an Ancestral Puebloan ruin visible from an overlook a short hike from Bridge View Drive.





The site was abandoned more than 700 years ago but is in a remarkable state of preservation, including an undisturbed rectangular kiva with the original roof and interior, and two granaries with unusual oval shaped doors whose shape resembles horse collars.

Owachomo Night Sky


Dark Sky Park

In 2007, the International Dark-Sky Association named Natural Bridges the first International Dark-Sky Park.





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Navajo National Monument, Arizona

Navajo National Monument, established March 20, 1909, is located high on the Shonto Plateau in the Navajo and Coconino Counties about 10 miles from Shonto. Google Map

It protects three of the most intact cliff dwellings of the ancient Kayenta Anasazi, circa 1250 - 1300. The Monument is managed by National Park Service.

Inscription House

Inscription House consists of about 74 living quarters and granaries and only one kiva. The site was occupied around 1274 A.D. Inscription House is closed indefinitely because of urgent stabilization needs and the desire of the local people for privacy.

Kiet Siel


Kiet Siel

Kiet Siel meaning "Broken House" in Navajo, is a well preserved cliff dwelling of the ancient Anasazi people. The site was first occupied around 1250 A.D. At its peak, Kiet Siel had more than 150 rooms and 6 kivas.



Betatakin

Betatakin means "House Built on a Ledge" in Navajo. It is smaller than nearby Kiet Siel, with about 120 rooms and only one kiva. Betatakin was built between 1267 A.D. and 1286 A.D. in an enormous alcove measuring 452 feet high and 370 feet across.

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Newberry National Volcanic Monument, Oregon

Newberry National Volcanic Monument is in Deschutes County about 30 miles south of Bend, Oregon. Google Map

Newberry National Volcanic Monument was designated on November 5, 1990, to protect the area around the Newberry Volcano. The monument was created within the boundaries of the Deschutes National Forest, which is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, and includes 54,822 acres of lakes, lava flows, and geologic features. It is the largest volcano in the Cascades Volcanic Arc.

Newberry Volcano is a massive, active shield volcano known for its vast lava fields, cinder cones, and summit caldera containing Paulina and East Lakes. Though it last erupted around 1,300 years ago, its hot springs and young lava flows show it's still active.

Newberry Caldera - Paulina Lake, East Lake & Big Obsidian Flow

Newberry National Volcanic Monument consists of four primary visitor destinations:
  • Lava Butte
    Lava Butte is a cinder cone part of a system of small cinder cones on the northwest flank of Newberry Volcano. The cinder cone is capped by a crater which extends about 60 feet deep beneath its south rim, and 160 feet deep from the summit on its north side.

  • Lava River Cave
    The 5,211 foot Lava River Cave began as a river of lava flowing in an open channel. Eventually, a lava crust solidified over the top of the flowing lava. This formed a roof over the river, enclosing it in a lava tunnel or tube. When the eruption from the vent stopped, the lava drained out of the tube leaving a lava tube cave behind.

  • Lava Cast Forest
    The Lava Cast Forest is a geological formation where ancient trees were engulfed by hot, flowing lava. The chilling lava created a protective covering, or mold. The trees then burnt completely out leaving a hollow interior. The molds can be vertical or horizontal, with some horizontal casts being up to 50 to 60 feet long.

  • Newberry Caldera
    Newberry Caldera is the largest developed area within the national monument. The caldera was formed when a magma chamber collapsed. Over time the caldera filled up with water that created two lakes, Paulina Lake and East Lake.

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North Cascades National Park, Washington

North Cascades National Park, established October 2, 1968, is located in Whatcom, Skagit, and Chelan Counties with the north portion sitting right on the US-Canada Border. It is about 45 miles east of Sedro-Woolley, Washington. Google Map

The portion of the Park that connects with the Canadian border was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on February 10, 1989.

The park features rugged mountain peaks and protects portions of the North Cascades Range. The North Cascades are predominantly non-volcanic, but include the stratovolcanoes Mount Baker, Glacier Peak and Coquihalla Mountain, which are part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire that includes over 160 active volcanoes.

Mount Triumph




The Cascade Range extends from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California.





The formidable mountains in North Cascades National Park are reflected by ominous names like Mount Despair, Mount Triumph, Mount Challenger, Mount Fury, Poltergeist Pinnacle, Mount Terror, Ghost Peak and Phantom Peak.

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Olympic National Park, Washington

Olympic National Park, established June 29, 1938 by President Roosevelt, is located on the Olympic Peninsula, about 20 south of Port Angeles, Washington. Google Map



In recognition of its spectacular coastline, scenic lakes, majestic mountains and glaciers, and a magnificent virgin temperate rainforest, the Park was designated a World Heritage Site in 1981.




Olympic National Park has Four Distinct Regions:

Glaciated Mountains
Within the center of Olympic National Park rise the Olympic Mountains whose sides and ridgelines are topped with massive, ancient glaciers. The number of glaciers within the national park declined from 266 in 1982 to 184 by 2009 due to the effects of climate change.

Pacific Coastline
The coastal portion of the park is a rugged, sandy beach, dotted with sea stacks, along with a strip of adjacent forest. It is 60 miles long. The beach has unbroken stretches of wilderness ranging from 10 to 20 miles.

Ruby Beach



While some beaches are primarily sand, others are covered with heavy rock and very large boulders.







Temperate Rainforest
The western side of the park is mantled by a temperate rain forest, including the Hoh Rain Forest and Quinault Rain Forest, which receive annual precipitation of about 150 inches, making this perhaps the wettest area in the continental United States.

Forests of the East Side
Valleys on the eastern side of the park have notable old-growth forest, but the climate is notably drier. Sitka Spruce is absent, trees on average are somewhat smaller, and undergrowth is generally less dense and different in character. Immediately northeast of the park is a rainshadow area where annual precipitation averages about 17 inches.

Mount Olympus

Olympus Mountains

Within the center of Olympic National Park rise the Olympic Mountains whose sides and ridgelines are topped with massive, ancient glaciers.




The western half of the range is dominated by the peak of Mount Olympus, which rises to 7,965 feet above sea level.

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Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, established April 13, 1937 by President Roosevelt, shares a border with Mexico and is located in Pima County, Arizona about 25 miles south of Ajo. Google Map

The Park is managed by the National Park Service. In 1976 the monument was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.

Organ Pipe Cactus


The park is the only place in the United States where the Organ Pipe Cactus grows wild. Along with Organ Pipe, many other types of cacti, as well as desert flora grow here.






Land for the Monument was donated by the Arizona state legislature to the federal government during Prohibition knowing that the north-south road would be improved and make contraband alcohol easier to import from Mexico.

On August 9, 2002, Ranger Kris Eggle was shot and killed by a suspected Mexican drug smuggler during a United States Border Patrol operation. The visitor center has been named in his honor.

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Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

Petrified Forest National Park, established on December 9, 1962, is about 26 miles east of Holbrook, Arizona. Google Map

Named for its large deposits of petrified wood, the park covers about 146 square miles, encompassing semi-desert shrub as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands.

Petrified Forest National Park was named an UNESCO World Heritage Site on January 30, 1976. The park, with its spectacles of colorful rocks, is one of the premier places in the world for the study of the ecosystem of the Late Triassic Epoch. It contains the largest deposits of petrified wood in the world, as well as important fossils of plants and animals, including early dinosaurs.

Petrified Wood


The Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, fallen trees that lived about 225 million years ago. The sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name.



The Painted Desert extends roughly from Tuba City southeast to past Holbrook and the Petrified Forest National Park. The desert is about 120 miles long by about 60 miles wide.

The Teepees

The Teepees

Rock strata exposed in the Tepees area of the park belong to the Blue Mesa Member of the Chinle Formation.



The colorful bands of mudstone and sandstone were laid down during the Triassic, when the area was part of a huge tropical flood plain.

Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs

Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs

The Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs Archeological District contains in excess of 650 petroglyphs, covering a group of rockfaces within a small area.



The petroglyphs were created by ancestral Puebloan people living, farming, and hunting along the Puerco River between 650 and 2,000 years ago.

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Redwood National and State Parks, California

The Redwood National and State Parks, established January 1, 1968, are located in Del Norte and Humboldt Counties along the coast of northern California. Google Map

The Parks protect 45% of the remaining old-growth redwoods. Redwood National and State Parks were declared a World Heritage Site on September 5th, 1980 as #134.

Comprised of Redwood National Park and Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks, the combined Parks contain 133,000 acres. Administered jointly by the National Park Service and the California Department of Parks and Recreation for the purpose of cooperative forest management and stabilization of forests and watersheds, the Redwood National and State Parks form one of the most significant protected areas of the Northern California coastal forests.

Redwood Grove


In 1850, old-growth redwoods covered more than 2,000,000 acres of the California coast. The northern coast attracted many lumbermen and the giant trees were harvested for booming development in San Francisco and other places on the West Coast.



After many decades of unrestricted clear-cut logging, serious efforts toward conservation began.

By the 1920s the work of the Save-the-Redwoods League, founded in 1918 to preserve remaining old-growth redwoods, resulted in the establishment of Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks. By the time Redwood National Park was created in 1968 nearly 90% of the old-growth redwoods had been logged. In less that 70 years, 1800 years of growth was destroyed.

Redwoods Rising

Redwoods Rising, founded in April 2018, is a joint venture of the Save the Redwoods League, California State Parks, and the National Park Service that works together to restore logged Coastal Redwood forests, and help remain old growth forests in Redwood National and State Parks. Redwoods Rising also works with local Native American tribes.

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Saguaro National Park, Arizona

Saguaro National Park, established October 14, 1994, is divided into two sections - the first approximately 20 miles east of Tucson and the second approximately 15 miles west. The total area is 91,442 acres. Google Map East Side. Google Map West Side.

The Park conserves fine tracts of the Sonoran Desert, including the Tucson Mountains in the west and the Rincon Mountains in the east. Besides Saguaro, many other kinds of cactus, including barrel, cholla, and prickly pear, are abundant in the park.

Saguaro National Park


Saguaro Cactus

Saguaros, which flourish in both districts of the park, grow at an exceptionally slow rate. The first arm of a saguaro typically appears when the cactus is between 50 and 70 years old.



It may be closer to 100 years in places where precipitation is very low. Saguaros may live as long as 200 years and are considered mature at about age 125.

A mature saguaro may grow up to 60 feet tall and weigh up to 4,800 pounds when fully hydrated. The total number of saguaros in the park is estimated at 1.8 million, and 24 other species of cactus are abundant. The most common of these are the fishhook barrel, staghorn cholla, pinkflower hedgehog, Engelman's prickly pear, teddybear cholla, and jumping cholla.

Hohokam Petroglyphs

Hohokam Petroglyphs

The earliest known residents of the land in and around what later became Saguaro National Park were the Hohokam, who lived there in villages between AD 200 and 1450.




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Sequoia National Park, California

Sequoia National Park, established September 25, 1890, is in the southern Sierra Nevada, about 35 miles east of Visalia, California. Google Map

The Park contains the highest point in the contiguous 48 States, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet. Sequoia National Park is south of and contiguous with Kings Canyon National Park. The two are administered by the National Park Service jointly.

General Sherman Tree

The General Sherman Tree

The General Sherman tree is about 2,500 years old and measures 275 feet tall and 32.7 feet in diameter.




It is located in the Giant Forest section of Sequoia National Park. The tree was named after General William Tecumseh Sherman. By volume, it is the largest known living single stem tree on Earth.

The Giant Forest

The Giant Forest, famed for its giant sequoia trees, is within Sequoia National Park. The Giant Forest is the most accessible of all giant sequoia groves. Five of the ten most massive trees on the planet are located within the Giant Forest. The giant sequoia tree is the most massive species of tree on earth, and one of just five tree species documented to grow to 300 feet in height (the others are Coast Redwood, Eucalyptus Regnans, Douglas Fir, and Sitka Spruce). It is also among the longest lived of all trees on the planet.

Ash Mountain Entrance Sign

Ash Mountain Entrance Sign

The Ash Mountain Entrance Sign at Sequoia National Park was constructed in 1935 by Civilian Conservation Corps craftsmen. Featuring a carved Native American face, the sign was made from blocks of sequoia wood fallen sequoia wood from the Giant Forest.


Resident park landscape architect Harold G. Fowler sketched the profile in blue chalk on the wood using an Indian Head nickel as a guide. CCC worker George W. Muno carved the wood over several months and the sign was assembled and erected over the winter of 1935–36. It was moved in 1964 to make room for a new park entrance station.

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Sonoran Desert National Monument, Arizona

Sonoran Desert National Monument is south of Goodyear and Buckeye and east of Gila Bend, Arizona. Google Map

Created by Presidential proclamation on January 17, 2001, the 496,400 acres monument is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as part of the National Landscape Conservation System. The BLM already managed the lands, however under monument status, the level of protection and preservation of resources is enhanced.

Sonoran Desert National Monument protects but a small portion of the Sonoran Desert, which is 120,000 square miles, and extends well into California and the country of Mexico. The North Maricopa Mountains, South Maricopa Mountains and the Table Top Wildernesses protect the richest regions of desert habitat from development.

The Sonoran Desert National Monument sits in the most biologically diverse North American desert. The most striking aspect of the plant community in the monument is the extensive saguaro cactus forest.

Saguaro Cactus

The saguaro cactus is found exclusively in the Sonoran Desert. These majestic plants are known for their towering height, distinctive arms, and incredibly long lifespan, often exceeding 150 years.

Saguaro Cactus


They typically grow from sea level to about 4,500 feet in elevation, as they are sensitive to prolonged frost. Saguaros have a tall, columnar, ribbed green trunk and can grow up to 40-60 feet tall. They develop their signature arms, or branches, as they mature, which typically begins when they are 50 to 75 years old.

The saguaro provides food and shelter for many desert animals. Gila woodpeckers and gilded flickers excavate nesting cavities in the cactus's flesh.



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Tonto National Monument, Arizona

Tonto National Monument, created October 21, 1907, is located in the Tonto National Forest about 30 miles north of Globe, Arizona. Google Map

The District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. The Monument is managed by National Park Service.

Lower Cliff Dwellings

Situated within rugged terrain in the north eastern part of the Sonoran Desert, are well preserved cliff dwellings that were occupied during the 13th, 14th, and early 15th centuries by the Salado culture.




The cliff dwellings were constructed of mud and rocks within natural recesses in siltstone hills surrounding Tonto Basin.

The National Monument is surrounded by the Tonto National Forest, which includes low plains, desert scrubland, and alpine pine forests. The Upper Sonoran ecosystem is known for saguaro cacti, cholla, prickly pear, barrel cactus, yucca, creosote bush, ocotillo and mesquite trees.

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Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Utah

Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, established on November 9th, 2000 by President Bill Clinton, is located about 72 miles west of Page, Arizona, immediately south of the Utah State line. Google Map

It protects the Paria Plateau, Vermilion Cliffs, Coyote Buttes, and Paria Canyon. The monument is administered by the BLM.

Vermilion Cliffs


The Vermilion Cliffs are steep eroded escarpments consisting primarily of sandstone, siltstone, limestone, and shale which rise as much as 3,000 feet above their bases.



These sedimentary rocks have been deeply eroded for millions of years, exposing hundreds of layers of richly colored rock strata.

Below the Vermilion cliffs runs the historic "Honeymoon Trail", a wagon route for Mormons who journeyed to have their marriages sealed in the temple at St. George, Utah, and then to return. The route, through remote country, was otherwise seldom used.

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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Yellowstone National Park, established on March 1, 1872, is located about 57 miles north of Jackson, Wyoming. Google Map

Yellowstone was the first national park in the US, and is also widely understood to be the first national park in the world. The Park also extends into Montana and Idaho. Yellowstone was the first National Park in the world. It was declared a World Heritage Site No 28 on September 8, 1978.

Civilian Conservation Corps

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal relief agency for young men, played a major role between 1933 and 1942 in developing Yellowstone facilities.
CCC projects included reforestation, campground development of many of the park's trails and campgrounds, trail construction, fire hazard reduction, and fire-fighting work.

Roosevelt Arch



The CCC built the majority of the early visitor centers, campgrounds, and the current system of park roads.





Supervolcano

Yellowstone is actually a massive caldera of a supervolcano. The Yellowstone Caldera is the largest volcanic system in North America. It has been termed a "supervolcano" because the caldera was formed by exceptionally large explosive eruptions. The magma chamber that lies under Yellowstone is estimated to be a single connected chamber, about 37 miles long, 18 miles wide, and 3 to 7 miles deep. The current caldera was created by a cataclysmic eruption that occurred 640,000 years ago. This eruption was more than 1,000 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone





Canyons and Rivers

Three deep canyons are located in the park, cut through the volcanic tuff of the Yellowstone Plateau by rivers over the last 640,000 years.






The Lewis River flows through Lewis Canyon in the south, and the Yellowstone River, in its journey north, has carved two colorful canyons, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone.

The Continental Divide runs diagonally through the southwestern part of the Park. The origins of the Yellowstone and Snake Rivers are near each other but on opposite sides of the divide. As a result, the Snake River flows to the Pacific Ocean and the Yellowstone flows to the Atlantic Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico.

Earthquakes

Yellowstone experiences thousands of small earthquakes every year, virtually all of which are undetectable to people. A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck in 1959. Twenty-eight people were killed, and property damage was extensive. The earthquake caused some geysers in the northwestern section of the park to erupt. A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck inside the park on June 30, 1975, but damage was minimal.

Seismic activity in Yellowstone National Park continues and is reported hourly by the Earthquake Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey. Swarms of earthquakes are common. For three months in 1985, 3,000 minor earthquakes were detected. In December 2008 and again in January 2010, over 250 earthquakes were detected. A recent swarm of 130 earthquakes struck between September 10th and September 15th, 2013. On March 30, 2014, a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck near the middle of Yellowstone near the Norris Basin. Reports indicated no damage. This was the largest earthquake to hit the park since February 22, 1980.

Old Faithful


Geysers and the Hydrothermal System

The most famous geyser in the Park is Old Faithful Geyser, located in Upper Geyser Basin.



A study that was completed in 2011 found that at least 1283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone. Of these, an average of 465 are active in a given year. Yellowstone contains at least 10,000 geothermal features altogether.

American Bison

Fauna

Yellowstone is widely considered to be the finest megafauna wildlife habitat in the lower 48 states. There are almost 60 species of mammals in the park.





Animals include the Rocky Mountain wolf, coyote, the Canadian lynx, cougars, and black and grizzly bears. Other large mammals include the bison (often referred to as buffalo), elk, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goat, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep.

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Yoho National Park, British Columbia

Yoho National Park, established in 1886, is bordered bordered by Kootenay National Park to the south and Banff National Park to the east in and begins at the Alberta/B.C. border about 60 miles west of Banff. Google Map

World Heritage Site

The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks - consisting of Banff, Yoho, Kootenay and Jasper National Parks and Hamber, Mount Assiniboine and Mount Robson Provincial Parks, were declared a World Heritage Site in 1984.

Internment Camps

During World War I, immigrants from Ukraine, Austria-Hungary and Germany were sent to Canadian National Parks, including Yoho National Park to work in internment/work camps. The Otter Internment Camp was located in the Kicking Horse River Valley, not far from the community of Field, British Columbia. From October 1915 to April 1916, this camp held 200 internees who endured the freezing cold, snow storms, and isolation through the winter months while they did back-breaking labour for Yoho National Park.

Chancellor Peak Kicking Horse River

Chancellor Peak

Chancellor Peak is a 10,715 foot mountain summit. Its nearest higher peak is Mount Vaux, 2.5 miles to the north-northwest. Both are part of the Ottertail Range.



Chancellor Peak is a landmark in the Kicking Horse River valley and can be seen from the Trans-Canada Highway midway between Golden and Field.

Emerald Lake & Lodge


Emerald Lake
Emerald Lake is a freshwater lake in Yoho National Park. it is enclosed by mountains of the President Range. Other peaks are Mount Burgess and Wapta Mountain.





The Emerald Basin traps rain and snow storms, causing frequent rain in summer and heavy snowfalls in winter. This influx of moisture produces a unique selection of flora. Trees found here are the western red cedar, western yew, western hemlock and western white pine.

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Yosemite National Park, California

Yosemite National Park, established October 1, 1890, is in Tuolumne, Mariposa, Mono and Madera Counties in the Sierra Nevada Mountains about 50 miles east of Sonora, California. Google Map

Yosemite Valley

The Park protects three Giant Sequoia Groves, five of the world's highest waterfalls, and a combination of high mountains and deep valleys. Yosemite National Park was declared a World Heritage Site in 1984.



Yosemite Grant

Concerned by the effects of commercial interests, prominent citizens including Galen Clark and Senator John Conness advocated for protection of the area. A Park Bill was prepared with the assistance of the General Land Office in the Interior Department. The Bill, creating the Yosemite Grant, passed both houses of the 38th United States Congress, and was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on June 30, 1864. The precedent setting legislation (which may have seemed trivial at the time, especially as it was enacted during the height of the Civil War) was the first instance of park land being set aside specifically for preservation and public use. The concept led to the creation of National Parks later in the 19th Century.

Bachelor and Three Graces Trees,

Giant Sequoia Groves

The park has three groves of ancient Giant Sequoia - The Mariposa Grove, The Tuolumne Grove, and The Merced Grove. Ozone Pollution is causing tissue damage to the massive Giant Sequoia trees in the Park.



This makes them more vulnerable to insect infestation and disease. In addition, since the cones of these trees require fire-touched soil to germinate, historic fire suppression has reduced these trees' ability to reproduce. The current policy of setting prescribed fires is expected to help the germination issue.

Wawona Tunnel

The Wawona Tunnel and Tunnel View were completed in 1933. Wawona Tunnel was bored through solid granite bedrock, and carries Wawona Road through a granite mountain on the south side of the Merced River. When it opened in 1933, the Wawona Tunnel was the longest automobile tunnel in the world, and remains the longest highway tunnel in California at 4,233 feet long.

Wawona Tunnel Tree


The Mariposa Grove

The Mariposa Grove, at the southern entrance to the Park, has several hundred mature trees.





Famous trees found in the Mariposa Grove include The Fallen Monarch, The Bachelor and Three Graces, The Grizzly Giant, The California Tunnel tree, The Faithful Couple, The Clothespin tree and The Galen Clark tree.

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Zion National Park, Utah

Zion National Park, established November 19, 1919, is located about 1 mile east of Springdale, Utah. Google Map

It protects mountains, canyons, buttes, mesas, monoliths, rivers, slot canyons, and natural arches. The Zion-Mount Carmel Highway was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in July 07, 1987.

Great White Throne



Located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions, the Park's unique geography and variety of life zones allow for unusual plant and animal diversity.





Notable geographical features of the park include Virgin River Narrows, Emerald Pools, Hidden Canyon, Angels Landing, The Great White Throne, Checkerboard Mesa, The Three Patriarchs and Kolob Arch.

Zion-Mount Carmel Highway

The east side of the Park is served by Zion-Mount Carmel Highway (a portion of State Hwy 9 Utah) which passes through a 1.1 mile long tunnel and ends at Mount Carmel Junction. Work on the highway started in 1927 and was completed in 1930. The tunnel has six large windows cut through the massive sandstone cliff.

Checkerboard Mesa

Checkerboard Mesa is on the east side of the Park. The horizontal cross-bedding in the sandstone arises from the way the sediments were laid down - a set of beds was partially eroded, then filled by the next, overlying set.

Checkerboard Mesa


The vertical grooves come from cracking related to the slowly changing pressures on the rock as it was buried and exhumed.






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