Happy birthday, Yosemite National Park! On October 1, 1890, Yosemite became a national park, and 126 years later, it’s still wowing visitors with its waterfalls, towering granite monoliths, deep valleys and ancient giant sequoias. While Yosemite might be our 3rd national park, it was first protected in 1864 with the Yosemite Land Grant – sparking the idea of national parks. Photo courtesy of Tiffany Nguyen.

Star-studded skies and wispy clouds appear over the ancient Tuzigoot pueblo, situated on a desert hilltop at Tuzigoot National Monument in Arizona. The Sinagua people – farmers and artists with trade connections that spanned hundreds of miles – built a thriving desert community here. Today, you can visit this thousand-year-old pueblo, gaze at dark night skies and contemplate the stories of those who came before. Photo courtesy of Nick Berezenko.

Fall at Denali National Park in Alaska means gorgeous autumn colors and hungry brown bears. To get ready their long winter sleep, bears spend the summer and fall packing on the pounds – gorging themselves on salmon, berries and grass. Sleeping snugly in their dens, breathing only once a minute and dropping their heart rate to 8-10 beats a minute, bears will live on their fat stores during the dark, cold winter. Photo by Jacob W. Frank, National Park Service.

Scenic panoramas of the Rogue Valley and surrounding mountains await you at the Table Rocks Area of Critical Environmental Concern in Oregon. This 3,172-acre area is cooperatively managed by the Bureau of Land Management and The Nature Conservancy to provide educational opportunities and protect special biologic, geologic, and scenic values. Steep hiking trails lead to the top of Upper and Lower Table Rocks, while a half-mile accessible trail at Lower Table Rock provides visitors with a less strenuous option. Photo by Bob Wick, @mypubliclands.

Endless views stretching to the sea await adventurers in Maine’s Acadia National Park, which has more than 150 miles of trails to explore. To guide hikers and protect fragile plants and soils, trail builder Waldron Bates created small, artfully arranged rock piles, or cairns. Bates cairns have shown hikers the way for more than a century – by walking at Acadia, you’re following in the footsteps of history. Photo courtesy of James Kaiser.

Endless views stretching to the sea await adventurers in Maine’s Acadia National Park, which has more than 150 miles of trails to explore. To guide hikers and protect fragile plants and soils, trail builder Waldron Bates created small, artfully arranged rock piles, or cairns. Bates cairns have shown hikers the way for more than a century – by walking at Acadia, you’re following in the footsteps of history. Photo courtesy of James Kaiser.

As if Fantasy Canyon isn’t already a great name, this remote wonderland in Utah has also been called “The Devil’s Playground” and “Hades Pit.” Off the beaten path of more famous Southwestern sites, Fantasy Canyon is protected by the Bureau of Land Management and boasts some of the most amazing erosional features you will ever see. Sunrise photo courtesy of Brock Slinger.