Among the incredible moments you can experience on public lands, one of the most overwhelming has to be walking among the tall trees at Redwood National and State Parks in California. Growing taller than a 35-story building, redwoods can live to be 2,000 years old. Only California’s North Coast provides the soil and climate necessary for these immense trees to flourish. They are truly a marvel of nature. Photo by Stuart Gordon (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).

Here’s a vivid sunset from Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. Taken from Jewell Hollow Overlook, this area was selected for its valley views, natural outlooks and interesting rock formations. The sunsets aren’t too bad either. Photo courtesy of Joseph Gruber.

What better place to relax than Easy Chair Crater in Nevada? Located along Lunar Crater National Back Country Byway, Easy Chair Crater doesn’t have anything to do with the moon. It’s origins lie deep within the Earth. Formed by a cinder cone volcano, it is littered with evidence of its violent past – cooled lava bombs and volcanic crystals. Photo by Chip Caroon, Bureau of Land Management (@mypubliclands).

With Labor Day behind us, beach season is drawing to a close. If you’re looking for one more sunset stroll on the sand, check out Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts. With over 44,000 acres of beaches, wetlands, forests and grasslands, there’s a lot to explore. Photo by
Marisa Geraghty (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).

Winter might be around the corner at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, but we’re sharing one more summer scene from this epic Alaska park. This is a premier park for wilderness-oriented activities – from hiking, backpacking and fishing to hunting, river trips, kayaking and biking. Whatever you choose to do, it’s sure to be an adventure! Photo by National Park Service.

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).