Although often underrated and overlooked, birds are actually the most visible animals around. In national parks, too, they’re the easiest animals to spot. This is why I recommend making bird watching in national parks a priority. It’s not only about bears, moose and whales. Birds are fascinating to watch as well.
One of my favorite ever camping experiences was in the Painted Desert in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. It was neither a particularly difficult hike nor was it extremely remote, yet the amazing solitude and absolutely beautiful landscape took things to the next level.
Although there are some truly incredible waterfalls in many places in America, it’s once again the national parks that steal the show. From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Sierra Nevada, from the Pacific Northwest to the Grand Canyon, you’ll find epic waterfalls in national parks all over the country.
One of the most overwhelming places I’ve ever visited, the Grand Canyon totally lives up to its status. It’s a magnificent place, of such magnitude I can’t imagine that someone would not be impressed by it. The sheer size of this thing boggles the mind, impossible to picture if you haven’t actually seen it in real life.
One of the less-known national parks in the USA, Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park allows you to stand where ancient forests fell and hike where dinosaurs once roamed. It’s one of the best places in the country—if not the world—to see fossils from the Late Triassic.
The very symbols of the American Wild West, huge numbers of saguaros dot the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona. These tall, branching cacti dominate and characterize the region. Near the ever-expanding urban sprawl of Tucson, this unique landscape, and its flora and fauna, is protected in Saguaro National Park.
The definition of a thru-hike is the end-to-end completion of a long-distance hike in one hiking season. For most people, it will be impossible to thru-hike any of the three major long-distance hikes in the US. What is possible, however, —with some willpower, planning and cooperative employers—is hiking these nine awesome thru-hikes under 1,000 miles.
Nothing can prepare you for your first view of the Grand Canyon. No matter how many pictures you’ve seen or documentaries you’ve watched, the immense scale of this place needs to be seen in 3D, not on paper or a screen.
Nowhere else in the world will you find landscapes quite like those that characterize southern Utah, northern Arizona and southwestern Colorado. Here, in the middle of the Colorado Plateau—and incidentally also at the top of the plateau—scattered woods alternate with high desert scenery.
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