National Geographic Atlas of the National Parks by Jonathan Waterman

The United States’ 60th national park doesn’t resemble other parks. territory) comprises 10 volcanic islands (five inhabited), five distinct rain forest communities, and two coral atolls (one inhabited). Located roughly 2,600 miles southwest of Hawaii, American Samoa is home to the National Park of American Samoa. Click through for travel reference pages that will help you plan your next epic excursion to a national treasure. Here are a few of our favorite wild places. This world of wonders includes countless superlatives, from the world’s largest gypsum dune field to the highest peak in North America. You can learn more about these sanctuaries in the National Geographic Atlas of the National Parks, which takes readers on an epic journey through the extraordinary and unique features that distinguish these wilderness areas.

Priceless national treasures, parks were created for these creatures, the land and its waters, and a rekindling of the human spirit.

Bats wing their way back into Mammoth Cave, the bison herds stir at Yellowstone, and the Colima warbler trills its first song at Big Bend. As the Milky Way burns across the dark skies of Death Valley and the northern lights finish shimmering above Denali, the first sunbeams hit the continent at Acadia. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Īs a result, visitors reap the rewards. Since 1916, the mission-to preserve these treasured sites for the education, enjoyment, and inspiration of this and future generations-has not changed. Today the National Park Service performs environmental advocacy in a time of climate change acts as a guardian of diverse recreational, cultural, and historical resources and serves as an ambassador to park preservation around the world-inspiring other countries to follow suit. In 2020, visitors logged 1,054,952,540 recreation visitor hours. These federal properties-from battlefields to national seashores-are chosen for the protection of their natural, historic, and cultural values and are specially designated by an act of Congress (or in some cases, an executive order), and maintained for public use. Elias National Park and Preserve.) The system encompasses over 85 million acres includes 85,000 miles of rivers and streams 7,035 square miles of reservoirs, lakes, or ocean more than 43,000 miles of shoreline 21,000 buildings 27,000 historic structures over 18,000 miles of trails and nearly 9,000 miles of roads.

National Park units vary in size, from a small house in Pennsylvania ( Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial) to a park in Alaska that’s larger than Switzerland ( Wrangell–St.

While that number is impressive, many other figures relating to the 424 units-including 63 national parks-the Park Service administers are more astonishing. The National Park Service is 106 years old.

National Geographic Atlas of the National Parks by Jonathan Waterman