My trips to Europe have been mostly to see its greatest cities and landmarks. But when friends from other countries come to visit me, I tell them to head to the hills.
Of course, virtually all foreigners want to cross the two biggies off their list: New York and San Francisco. But I believe that our country’s biggest assets are its national park treasures. In fact, since the first park was established in 1872 with Yellowstone (the first national declared park in the world), America has set aside more than 60 additional national parks in 32 states and two territories.
They are astonishing in their scope, offering everything from islands and coral reefs to canyons, caverns, craters, geographic formations, sand dunes, deserts, mountains, volcanoes, mangroves, everglades and even trees, from the Giant Sequoia and redwood to the Joshua.
I’m lucky to visited some of them–Arches, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Canyonlands, Grand Canyon, Great Sand Dunes, Great Smoky Mountains, Mesa Verde, Olympic, Rocky Mountain, Virgin Islands, Yellowstone and Yosemite, among others, all managed by the National Park Service.
But what strikes me is how little I’ve seen. Throw in all the other must-sees, like national historic landmarks, monuments and World Heritage Sites, and there’s no way around it. I need another lifetime.
Blogs I’ve written about national park treasures include Mesa Verde Vertigo and Rocky Mountain High.
