The Wilderness Act – enacted on this day in 1964 – defines a wilderness as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” In the following 52 years, over 109 million acres of pristine forests, mountains, deserts and wetlands have been protected, giving all Americans the opportunity to escape into nature. Photo of the Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area in Oregon by Jeff Clark, @mypubliclands

Walk in the footsteps of fur traders and the Grand Portage Ojibwe at Grand Portage National Monument, located on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota next to the Canadian border. The 8.5-mile Grand Portage Trail winds through history and beautiful scenery like forests and meadows. After hiking through a downpour, photographer Travis Novitsky says, “The gorgeous sunset over the beaver meadow made it all worthwhile!” Photo courtesy of Travis Novitsky.

Why doesn’t sunrise make a sound? A vision so beautiful seems to deserve a musical overture. But maybe, overwhelming your sense of sight is enough for dawn at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Photo by N. Lewis, National Park Service.

There’s something to see in every season at Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in Wyoming. Summer brings over 113 bird species to the refuge, where they breed and raise their young. After wildlife viewing during the day, stick around for stellar nighttime scenes like this pic of a stormy summer sky. A 30-second exposure captured the light of the stars and moon, along with lightning coloring the clouds from a passing storm. Photo by Tom Koerner, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

At Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in Alaska, wild rivers meander through glacier-carved valleys, caribou migrate along age-old trails and endless summer light fades into aurora-lit night skies of winter. It remains virtually unchanged except by the forces of nature. With no roads or trails, getting here is a challenge, but the reward is a lifetime of amazing memories. Photo by Carl Johnson, National Park Service.

Virgin Islands National Park’s hills, valleys and beaches are breathtaking. Beyond its tropical beauty, 7,000 acres on the island of St. John help tell the complex history of civilizations – both free and enslaved – who utilized the land and the sea for more than a thousand years. Photo of Trunk Bay by Kaitlin Kovacs, U.S. Geological Survey.

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York is one of the most significant bird sanctuaries in the Northeast. Over 300 species have been spotted in the last 25 years on the refuge’s 9,000 acres of woods, fields, marshes and open bay. Perhaps the most amazing thing about this tranquil place is its location – within the limits of New York City, less than 12 miles from Manhattan. Photo by Micael Fano (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).