Happy Labor Day! Thanks to all of the hard workers, especially our Interior employees, who make our country great. Enjoy a nap. We hope you sleep as well as this bear cub at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Photo by Charlie Choc (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).
Discover a colorful wilderness at Petrified Forest National Park. Located near the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau in Arizona’s Painted Desert, this awe-inspiring park was one of the first sites in the national park system to be designated a wilderness area for its untamed, natural beauty. Pictured here, Petrified Forest National Wilderness Area’s north unit allows hikers to roam the red and orange part of the Painted Desert. Photo by National Park Service.
The night sky over Joshua Tree National Park is a glittering dome of sparkling stars, bright planets and streaking meteors – but most people no longer get to see it where they live. In urban and suburban settings, artificial lighting and atmospheric pollutants wash out the light of the stars. Boasting some of the darkest nights in Southern California, Joshua Tree offers many visitors the chance to admire the Milky Way for the first time in their lives and was recently designated an International Dark Sky Park. Photo by Brad Sutton, National Park Service.
If you’re looking for an adventure, Black Canyon of the Gunnison is the place for you! This Colorado park is home to some of the steepest cliffs, oldest rock and craggiest spires in North America. You can hike along the rim or in the inner canyon, take a scenic drive along winding roads with hairpin turns and cast a line in the Gunnison River for outstanding trout fishing. And for those who aren’t faint of heart (and have extensive experience), you can brave the park’s class V rapids in a kayak or scale its vertical walls. Photo by the National Park Service.
The spectacular meeting of land and sea is the dominant feature of King Range National Conservation Area in California. Mountains seem to thrust straight out of the surf and recreation opportunities here are as diverse as the landscape. The 68,000 acres of Douglas fir covered peaks extend along 35 miles of coastline and attract hikers, hunters, campers and mushroom collectors, while the coast beckons to surfers, anglers, beachcombers and divers. Photo by Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management (@mypubliclands).
It’s strange to imagine, but the roots of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida go all the way to the moon. In 1962, NASA acquired 140,000 acres of land, water and marshes adjacent to Cape Canaveral to establish the John F. Kennedy Space Center. Despite the massive undertaking of sending a man to the moon, not all the land was needed, so the wildlife refuge was established on the unused portions. Today, you can see manatees, tropical birds, turtles, otters, bobcats and yes, the occasional rocket launch. Photo by Jose Torres (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).
City of Rocks National Reserve is an extraordinary encirclement of granite rising out of the gently rolling sagebrush country in south-central Idaho. This backcountry byway attracts rock climbers, campers, hikers, hunters and those with the spirit of adventure. There’s inspirational scenery, exceptional opportunities for geologic study and remnants of the Old West awaiting your discovery. Photo by National Park Service.
There’s more to Badlands National Park than gorgeous scenery. You can see bison and bighorn sheep roaming the grasslands near colorful, jagged rock formations. Rich fossil beds reveal the remains of ancient mammals like saber-toothed cats and rhinos. 244,000 acres of South Dakota badlands will make this one of your favorite national parks. Photo by Shawn Stackhouse (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).
Happy National Dog Day! Out on the trail or curled up on the bed, we love our four-legged friends. At Denali National Park in Alaska, sled dogs are important members of the team. Here’s Tephra, a 9-year-old Alaskan husky working her last season before she retires this month. Photo of Tephra posing with fireweed by Miles Leguineche, National Park Service.
Photo of two bison at Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley by Aidan Busch (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).
Photo of Beehive eruption and a rainbow by Jacob W. Frank, National Park Service.
For the last century, the National Park Service has protected America’s Best Idea, ensuring current and future generations can experience the country’s natural, cultural and historic treasures. Established 44 years before the National Park Service, Yellowstone was the world’s first national park and sparked a worldwide movement to protect special places.
Sig Nordal 