Visiting Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska is an epic experience. Seeing a humpback whale breach in the wild is one of the most exhilarating moments possible for nature lovers. These massive mammals swim 3,000 miles from their winter waters near Hawaii and Mexico to spend the summer feeding in the rich ocean waters off the Alaska coast. All the added blubber doesn’t seem to hurt their leaping ability. Photo by Dragana Connaughton (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).

A true oasis in the desert of southwest New Mexico, Gila Lower Box Canyon Wilderness Study Area is a lush thicket of cottonwood, willows and wildflowers. The area provides excellent birding with one of the highest bird diversities in the state. Spring and summer visitors also enjoy river recreation including tubing and fishing. Photo by Mike Howard, Bureau of Land Management.

The sloping dunes and curving shadows at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado make this special park a photographer’s dream. Ranger Patrick Myers has been capturing amazing scenes here for years. With golden sunrises, epic blue skies and every color sunsets, taking pictures never gets old. Photo by Patrick Myers, National Park Service.

Be prepared for sunrise splendor at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. It’s a thrill watching the sun paint the sky from the park’s Pinnacle Overlook. Here you have views of Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. On clear days, you can even see the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina – a sight that’s 100 miles away! Photo by Volunteer Harold Jerrell, National Park Service.

No, this isn’t another planet. It’s Skyline Rim, near Factory Butte in eastern Utah. Massive wrinkles in the rugged landscape give this place an otherworldly appearance, especially in the fading light of dusk. Photo courtesy of Brock Slinger.

Happy Arbor Day from Case Mountain – home of some of the largest trees on earth! Located about 7.5 miles southeast of the town of Three Rivers, California, Case Mountain was established to protect the giant sequoias. Comparable in size to a 26-story building, sequoias not only loom over their mixed conifer forest neighbors, but they also outlive them – reaching over 3,000 years. Check out more remarkable trees: https://on.doi.gov/trees

Photo by Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management.

The Painted Wall of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado is a stunning sight. At this location, the canyon is over 2,200 feet tall, almost twice the height of the Empire State Building. The stripes on the wall are like pages in a book. The rock layers of Black Canyon tell a story of past environments, ancient animals and dynamic processes of change. Photo by
Ryan McGinley (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).

Located in the gorgeous Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge serves as an important resting, feeding and nesting ground for migratory birds along the Atlantic Flyway. With almost 10,000 acres to explore, visitors can enjoy bird watching, fishing, boating, hiking and photography while learning about wildlife and the environment. Photo by Doug Racine, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Say hello to the second tallest mountain in America: Mount St. Elias in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve in Alaska. Standing over 18,000 feet tall, it towers over Icy Bay, which gets its name from the glaciers that run down Mount St. Elias’s slopes. It’s just one of the many amazing natural sights in America’s largest national park. Photo by Bryan Petrtyl, National Park Service.

Here’s something you don’t see everyday. Three Canada geese flying through a rainbow at Morris Wetland Management District in Minnesota. Made up of 245 small parcels of wetlands and grasslands scattered throughout an eight-county area, the Morris District restores and protects enough wetland and grassland habitat to meet the needs of prairie wildlife and breeding waterfowl, as well as providing places for public recreation. Photo by Alex Galt, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.