A third of the world's glaciers in culturally and naturally significant World Heritage sites will almost completely disappear by 2050, a United Nations climate report warns. Without further reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, half of World Heritage glaciers could almost completely vanish after another 50 years. 

But if humanity limits the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, two-thirds of World Heritage glaciers could survive, the report said. That 1.5 C increase matches a goal of the Paris Agreement, which countries agreed to in 2015 at the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

"The changes are rapid and really alarming," Daniel Farinotti, a co-author of the new report and a professor of glaciology at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, told Live Science. "If we want to do something about it, we need to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases, and we need to do that now."

Glaciers projected to disappear by 2050 include those in Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks, and many of the imperiled glaciers provide local communities and ecosystems with vital water resources, according to the report, published this month by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage sites are legally protected locations with "cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity," and UNESCO administers their protections, according to the organization's website.

Related: Study of nearly every glacier on Earth shows ice loss is speeding up

The projected loss of one-third of World Heritage glaciers will happen regardless of future climate mitigation efforts — the damage is already baked in, Tales Carvalho Resende, co-author of the report and a UNESCO project officer, told Live Science. "Even if we drastically reduce carbon emissions today, these glaciers have an inertia, so they will keep retreating," he said. The so-called "business as usual scenario," with no further reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, sees 50% of World Heritage glaciers lost by 2100.

Recent data show the world falling short of its Paris Agreement goals, The New York Times reported. However, UNESCO hopes its report helps spur a recommitment to those efforts. "We believe this can be a strong message to decision-makers, given that these places are iconic for humanity," Carvalho Resende said.

In addition to stressing the urgent need for reduced emissions, UNESCO recommended several adaptive steps. These include improving the monitoring of glaciers; developing early warning systems for floods and other disasters associated with glacial retreat; and working with Indigenous peoples, whose knowledge on managing resources is "embedded in culture, traditional practices and belief systems."

Vital water resources and cultural icons

Losses predicted by 2050 include "the last remaining glaciers in Africa (on Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori-Virunga mountains), as well as other iconic sites in Europe and North America," such as Italy's Dolomites and U.S. national parks, according to the report. The "business-as-usual" scenario would imperil larger glaciers, such as those at Machu Picchu in Peru and Olympic National Park in Washington state. 

UNESCO's publication draws from two decades of satellite data on ice loss, as well as models estimating ice thickness, Farinotti said. The nearly 19,000 glaciers at 50 World Heritage sites represent almost 10% of the planet's glacier area, and their retreat has accelerated since 2000. Overall, World Heritage glaciers lost nearly 1,300 billion tons (1,200 billion metric tons) of ice from 2000 to 2020, or an average yearly "amount equivalent to the total annual volume of water consumed in France and Spain together," the report said.

Losing these ice giants will come with enormous costs. They provide habitats for biodiversity, reflective surfaces that help limit warming, and fresh water for drinking and agriculture to half of humanity. Though in the short term, higher global temperatures may increase water flow from melting glaciers, "once a maximum meltwater contribution (peak water) is reached, annual runoff is then reduced as the glacier shrinks" so that it can no longer produce much meltwater, the report said.

This could prove devastating in populous areas, particularly in countries such as India and China, which lie downstream of the Himalayas, Farinotti said. "They get water directly from those mountains," he said. And during "drought, in some areas, either you get water from the glaciers, or you don't get water at all."

A foot found floating in a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park has been linked to a July 31 death. 

On Aug. 16, a park employee found the foot, still encased in a shoe, in Abyss Pool, one of the deepest hot springs in Yellowstone. In a statement today (Aug. 19), authorities said that the foot is linked to an incident involving a single individual on the morning of July 31 and that they do not suspect foul play. They did not elaborate on why they do not suspect foul play, nor did they identify the person who died. An investigation is ongoing.

Yellowstone is dotted with geothermal springs, many of which are hot enough to scald a person. Mineral crusts around the springs can appear solid but crack under the weight of someone stepping on them. In 2016, a 23-year-old Oregon man died after slipping into a scalding pool at the Norris Geyser Basin while attempting to take a dip in a closed location. The pool was over 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius) and highly acidic, according to USA Today. Park officials saw the man's body floating in the hot spring the day he died but were unable to immediately retrieve it. When they returned the next day, they could not find the remains.

"Evidence suggests that the extreme heat and the acidity of the water quickly dissolved his body in the hot spring," according to a park report released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by KULR-TV in Billings, Montana. 

The pool where the Oregon man died is an acid-sulfate hot spring. These hot springs, which are found most commonly in the northeastern part of the park, are heated by acidic steam so strong that it can eat away rocks and minerals around the springs, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Mud Volcano and Artists Paint Pots, two popular tourist sites in the park, are both acid-sulfate features. 

Many of Yellowstone's pools, however, are alkaline, or basic. The pH scale runs from zero to 14, with zero being the most acidic, 7 being neutral, and 14 being the most basic. Abyss Pool is one of the park's alkaline pools, with a pH of 8.65, according to a paper published in the book "Mechanisms and Phylogeny of Mineralization in Biological Systems: Biomineralization '90" (Springer Science & Business Media, 2012). A pH of 8.6 is more basic than most seawater, but less basic than baking soda. Pools like Abyss Pool get their alkalinity from fluids that carry chloride from deep below the surface. 

Abyss Pool is situated in the West Thumb Geyser Basin near Yellowstone Lake. It's up to 53 feet (16 meters) deep and is about 140 F (60 C), according to the National Park Service. 

It is not clear whether the person in the spring became incapacitated by the heat of the water or died in some other way. It is not surprising, however, that it was a foot inside a shoe that revealed the occurrence of a death. Bodies left in water over time naturally decompose, and it's common for feet to detach as the soft tissues of the feet and ankles deteriorate. Most modern shoes are buoyant, so they'll float once set free. This phenomenon was deemed responsible for the discovery of 21 human feet that have washed ashore since 2007 in the Pacific Northwest. 

Originally published on Live Science.

Three people have been gored by bison in a single month at Yellowstone National Park, with the two most recent attacks coming just two days apart. Park officials warned visitors to be respectful of the enormous beasts' personal space, as approaching too close can provoke bison to charge. 

The most recent incident occurred on Wednesday (June 29), when a 71-year-old woman from Pennsylvania was gored by a bull bison near Storm Point at Yellowstone Lake. She received non-life threatening injuries and was taken to hospital, according to a National Park Service (NPS) statement. Just two days earlier, on June 27, another bull charged at a 34-year-old man from Colorado who was walking with his family on a boardwalk near the Giant Geyser at Old Faithful. The man sustained injuries to his arm and was also taken to hospital, according to an NPS statement. 

The first incident of the year occurred on May 31, when a 25-year-old woman from Ohio was attacked near a boardwalk at Black Sand Basin, just north of Old Faithful; she was gored and thrown 10 feet (3 meters) into the air, according to an NPS statement. She sustained a serious puncture wound and other minor injuries, although at the time it was mistakenly reported that she had died, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

American bison (Bison bison) are the largest land mammals in North America; males, or bulls, can grow up to 8.2 feet (2.5 m) tall at the shoulder and weigh up to 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms), and their horns can grow to a maximum length of 2 feet (0.6 m). Bison have large, protruding shoulder humps made of massive neck muscles that help the animals shovel a path through deep winter snow with their horns. The massive mammals are also extremely fast and can reach a top speed of 35 mph (56 km/h), which is around three times faster than a human can run, according to NPS. 

Related: Secrets of 'mystery sandwich' beneath Yellowstone revealed in new map 

Bison injure more visitors than any other animal in Yellowstone, including grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis), and there is typically at least one incident every year, according to NPS. During attacks, bison commonly charge at people and gore them with their horns, before throwing them into the air with their powerful neck muscles, as seen in this video of an attack in 1992. But surprisingly, despite the animals' incredible strength and size, these attacks are rarely fatal and are likely just a warning shot from the animals. 

This is not the first time Yellowstone has experienced a period of increased attacks. Between May and July 2015, five people were injured by bison, according to a 2016 report by the CDC. The highest number of attacks occurred between 1983 and 1985 when 33 people were injured, the report stated. Frequently occurring bison attacks have also been documented in other parks, such as Antelope Island State Park in Utah, where one individual was involved in two separate attacks just three months apart in 2019. 

However, bison only attack people when they feel threatened, which most commonly happens when people approach closer than they should. The NPS warns people to stay at least 75 feet (23 m), or the length of a tennis court, away from bison, especially around campsites, roads, walkways and car parks where the animals may be more stressed. The three people who were recently attacked in Yellowstone, as well as family members or friends who were with them at the time, were much closer to the animals than the recommended limit when they were gored, according to the NPS.

A problem in recent years has been people trying to get closer to bison — and other wildlife — to take photographs for social media. In 2015, one person who was injured by a bison later admitted they were attempting to take a selfie with the bison that attacked them.

National parks across the U.S. have seen a significant increase in visitor numbers since the easing of restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused a number of issues. However, it is unclear if this can be linked to bison attacks. 

There were once millions of bison in America, but by the 20th century the animals were in danger of becoming completely extinct. In 1902, there were only around two dozen bison left in the park, after the U.S. Army spent decades exterminating bison in America, in an attempt to starve Native American tribes, according to NPS. But thanks to a massive conservation program, there are now 5,450 bison in the park, as of the summer of 2021, and around 30,000 wild bison across North America, according to NPS.

Today, the challenge for park officials is to manage the growing bison population. Bison are naturally free-roaming and often try to migrate across park boundaries, which can cause conflict with locals due to the destruction of property and transmission of diseases to livestock, particularly brucellosis — a bacterial disease that causes miscarriages in bison, cattle and deer. As a result, Yellowstone officials prevent the population from growing by relocating bison to other parks or by implementing small, controlled culls.

Originally published on Live Science.

The subterranean "plumbing system" of superheated water that feeds Yellowstone National Park's geysers and other hydrological features has been mapped out in stunning detail — and the findings could fill a major knowledge gap that experts have described as a "mystery sandwich." 

Yellowstone is home to the world's largest hydrothermal system, which contains around 10,000 hydrothermal features, including geysers, hot springs, mud pots and steam vents, according to the National Park Service. These aboveground features are fed by a network of underground water pathways that get superheated by underground magma, causing the water to rise to the surface. However, researchers know very little about this underground network, or plumbing system.

"Our knowledge of Yellowstone has long had a subsurface gap," study co-author W. Steve Holbrook, head of the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech University, said in a statement. "It's like a 'mystery sandwich' — we know a lot about the surface features from direct observation and a fair amount about the magmatic and tectonic system several kilometers down from geophysical work, but we don't really know what's in the middle."

Related: 8 amazing national park structures 

In the new study, researchers attached a giant electromagnet, known as SkyTEM, to a helicopter and then flew back and forth hundreds of times above Yellowstone to scan the ground below. The magnet consists of an 82- feet-wide (25 meters) charged wire loop which generates a strong electromagnetic field. Because different types of material, such as rock or water, respond differently to the magnetic field, the researchers were able to create subsurface maps of large sections of the underground hydrothermal network for the first time.  

Mapping hydrothermal pathways 

The survey method used by the team, called transient electromagnetics (TEM), involves inducing an electrical current through the ground by turning the electromagnet in the air on and off. An electromagnet produces an electromagnetic field when an electrical current is run through a coiled wire loop, like the SkyTEM magnet. When the electrical current stops running through the wire, the electrical charge jumps from the electromagnetic field to the ground below. The electric charge dissipates through the ground, which causes fluctuations in the electromagnetic field that can be measured by the researchers above.   

The subsurface water pathways show up clearly in the resulting maps because water is a much better conductor of electricity than rock is, lead author Carol Finn, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey, told Live Science in an email. So an electric current induced in water dissipates more quickly than current in rock. The mapping technique could also differentiate between magma and bedrock because they have slightly different magnetic properties, Finn said. This allowed the team to see how the magma and water interact to create impressive geological features on the surface. 

This method allowed the researchers to create high-resolution maps to a depth of between 492 and 2,296 feet (150 to 700 m) and low-resolution maps to a maximum of 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers), Finn said. However, the researchers think the hydrothermal system may extend as far as 3.1 miles (5 km) below the surface, which means they have mapped only the top half half of Yellowstone's plumbing system.

In total, the team covered around 2,500 miles during their research flights. However, the technique was sensitive enough to pick up only the largest fluid pathways. "It's like imaging a city's water supply and distribution lines, but not the individual lines feeding a given house or the difference in pipes between your kitchen and bathroom," Finn said.

Missing links

Scientists already know a lot about the surface hydrothermal features in Yellowstone, thanks to decades of detailed observations and chemical samples. Researchers also have a good idea of the tectonic plates and fault lines deeper belowground because the park's frequent earthquakes provide lots of opportunities to study this. For instance, in July 2021, a swarm of more than 1,000 earthquakes rocked Yellowstone, Live Science previously reported. However, researchers have been "missing the precise links between the deep water heated by magma and the varied surface features," Finn said. 

With the new maps, researchers can now see how the water pathways interact with magma to provide the superheated water that creates the geysers and hot springs above. As a result, the team now has a better idea of the inner workings of certain famous features, including the Old Faithful geyser and the Grand Prismatic Spring, Finn said. The maps also show that individual surface features can be connected to other features separated by as much as 6 miles (9.7 km), according to the statement.

However, the maps also showed that geysers and hot springs, which can vary greatly in size, shape, color, chemical composition and volatility, were fed by remarkably similar subterranean pathways."Our work shows that most thermal features are located above buried faults that channel hot water and that flow paths are similar across Yellowstone, irrespective of the chemistry of local springs," Finn said. 

This finding suggests that chemical mixing or geological differences closer to the surface are responsible for the diverse range of surface features seen in the park.

The researchers said the huge trove of mapping data they collected could reveal much more about the park. 

"The data set is so big that we've only scratched the surface with this first paper," Holbrook said in the statement. "I look forward to continuing to work on this data and to seeing what others come up with, too. It's going to be a data set that keeps on giving."

And many scientific disciplines should benefit. For example, microbiologists can investigate whether subsurface features influence the biodiversity of microbial life-forms living in geysers and hot springs. Geologists will be able to map magma distribution to better understand past volcanic eruptions, and hydrologists will be able to learn about the differences between how hot and cold water flows underground. Researchers can also study how clay sediments block hydrothermal pathways that might lead to pressure buildups and explosions, which are a safety concern in the park, Finn said. 

In the future, deeper-sensing electromagnetic data could help reveal the rest of the hydrothermal network and provide researchers with a "complete view of the system," Finn said. 

The study was published online March 23 in the journal Nature. 

Originally published on Live Science.

After being attacked by a female grizzly bear, a (very fortunate) mountain goat seems to have fought back, ultimately using its horns to impale and kill the furry predator, according to an analysis of the bear’s corpse by Parks Canada.

Hikers discovered the body of the 154-pound (70 kilograms) female grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) just off a popular hiking route on Sept. 4. Park rangers quickly airlifted the carcass away from the trail to make sure that it did not attract additional predators and put hikers in danger. 

Officials initially weren't sure what had killed the female grizzly, which appeared to have been stabbed by something around the neck and armpit. A necropsy (animal autopsy) was carried out on the remains and revealed a surprising culprit.

Related: The 10 weirdest medical cases in the animal kingdom

"The forensic necropsy subsequently confirmed that the wounds incurred before death were consistent with the size and shape of mountain goat horns," David Laskin, a wildlife ecologist at Parks Canada, told local news outlet Rocky Mountain Outlook.

The location of the wounds on the grizzly's neck and armpit suggest that the goat, as it was being attacked by the bear, was able to pierce the bear with its horns.

"When grizzly bears attack, they tend to focus on the head, back of the neck and the shoulders of the prey, and it's usually from above — so, in turn, the defensive response of the mountain goat would be to protect itself using its sharp horns," Laskin said. "I guess the mountain goat was successful in this instance and turned the tables on the grizzly." 

Although it is very rare for a mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) to survive a bear attack, let alone kill the bear, it is not unheard of.

"Other cases of mountain goats defensively killing bears have been reported in the past," Laskin told Rocky Mountain Outlook. "This is not completely surprising, since mountain goats are strong animals that are well equipped to defend themselves."

Male mountain goats can weigh up to 300 pounds (136 kg), according to National Geographic, and their incredible climbing ability can give them an edge over grizzlies on steep terrain. In 2018, passersby captured a video of a mountain goat female and child escaping a grizzly bear in the Canadian Rockies by waiting on a narrow ledge that the bear had no hope of reaching. 

In the most recent situation, the grizzly was also quite small, even compared with other female bears, which can reach 800 pounds (360 kg), according to the National Wildlife Federation, more than five times the weight of the dead grizzly. The necropsy also showed that the bear had not given birth to any cubs in its lifetime, suggesting that it was not yet fully mature, according to Rocky Mountain Outlook.

The unfortunate young bear may quite literally have tried to bite off more than it could chew.

Originally published on Live Science.

Across the United States, national parks are facing an unprecedented number of visitors as COVID-19 restrictions end and people who have been stuck at home for over a year take advantage of their newfound freedom.

This is leading to long lines and traffic jams as hikers and outdoor enthusiasts flock to these open spaces, with some parks even turning people away. In Utah, around 194,000 people visited Arches National Park in April, a 15% increase from the number of visitors during the same month in 2019, and at Canyonlands National Park, the increase has been even greater, at around 30%, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

And in Tennessee, Great Smoky Mountains National Park has seen a flood of visitors so far this year, according to news site wymt; as of May 20, the National Park Service (NPS) had recorded more than 3.13 million visitors to the park, representing a 115% increase from the same time in 2020, when the pandemic kept people in lockdown mode. 

Related: Top 10 most visited national parks

Most of this "overflow" across the nation is coming from visitors who have never been to a national park before, according to The New York Post. Now, experts fear that overcrowding will ruin not only people's experience but also the parks themselves.

"That is why it is such a difficult problem," Michael Childers, a historian and national park expert at Colorado State University, told Live Science. "We all want to experience these places, but we can't all go at once." 

Overcrowding issues 

There are two main problems with the overcrowding of national parks. For one, the visitor experience suffers.

"The national parks were created so that visitors could experience the natural beauty and history of a place," Childers said. "This is difficult to do if you are queuing up to hike or trying to find a parking spot."

The second — and more serious — problem is that throngs of visitors also put a significant strain on the environment in and around national parks.

Related: The 10 least visited national parks

For instance, overcrowding has harmed the giant sequoia trees (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in California's Yosemite National Park.

"Yosemite overcrowding was damaging the rather shallow root systems of the giant sequoias," Childers said. "While the National Park Service did build a raised walkway to solve some of this problem, too many visitors driving to, parking and scrambling around the trees remains a problem." 

With more people come more litter, more noise, more pollution from cars and an increased chance of human-animal encounters, all of which can have a negative impact on the environment, Childers said.

Historic problem 

The number of people visiting national parks is increasing compared with pre-pandemic levels, but overcrowding has been an issue for national parks before the first case of COVID-19.

In 2019, more than 327 million people visited national parks in the U.S., which is more than double the 159 million people who visited the parks in 1969. Going back another 50 years to 1919, only 781,000 people visited national parks, representing just 0.2% of today's numbers, according to the NPS. 

"This is not a new issue," Childers said. "But the pandemic does appear to have accelerated a historic surge in visitation throughout the system."

In the past, two other significant increases in visitor numbers occurred. 

"The first was in the 1920s, when the automobile made travel much more affordable to a larger number of people," Childers said. "The second was in the 1950s, when national affluence caused a huge spike in tourism."

On both occasions, the federal government increased spending for national parks to build new buildings, roads, bathrooms and lodges to help accommodate the demand, Childers said. "This solved the immediate problem but also served to make the parks even more accessible, which is what we are struggling with today."

Potential solutions 

So what can be done to help national parks deal with the current overcrowding and limit its environmental impacts?

"There is no single solution to the problem," Childers said, "but rather a combination of things."

One option involves more government spending. The funds could be used to continue improving the infrastructure necessary to accommodate more people, such as ticket machines to reduce queues, bigger parking lots to alleviate traffic and more amenities, such as bathrooms, water fountains, trash cans and picnic areas. But an even more important step would be to hire more people to look after the parks.

"The national parks have been chronically understaffed for decades," Childers said. "We must invest in more rangers, scientists and administrative staff if we are going to properly steward these places."

Another option is to require people to book their trips to the biggest national parks. This would limit the number of people who could visit the parks and provide opportunities to allow access to a wider diversity of people, such as first-time visitors, Childers said. However, this would likely be an unpopular solution for frequent visitors and local businesses.

The final option is for visitors to take on the responsibility themselves. "We, the visitors, have to change our expectations that we can visit and experience the more popular parks whenever and however we want," Childers said. "This shift in expectations is likely the most difficult, but the most impactful" thing we can do.

However, despite the need for reform, Childers still believes that national parks are vital and wants as many people to be able to experience them as possible, with some limits. 

"The idea of the national parks is to provide respite and contemplation of wondrous places," Childers said. "The more people who can enjoy this, the better, but we need to find a way to do so so that future generations can also enjoy them."

Originally published on Live Science.

Bears are always large and in charge, but during September in southern Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve (KNPP), the brown bears that gather at Brooks River grow cartoonishly round, ushering in a magical time of year — Fat Bear Week. 

This annual tournament, which runs from today (Sept. 30) through Oct. 6, celebrates the titanic proportions achieved by these bears prior to their winter hibernation, and invites members of the public to vote for the fattest contenders.

And if the prospect of Fat Bear Week wasn't exciting enough, park rangers keep tabs on the bears' weight gain by pinging them from a distance with lasers, KNPP representatives wrote in a Facebook post on Sept. 24.

Related: Image gallery: Beastly bears

From June through October, dozens of the park's bears gorge on plentiful salmon in Brooks River, gaining as much as 4 lbs. (2 kilograms) in a single day, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). During this period, adult bears can gain several hundred pounds, while younger bears that are still growing can increase their weight by up to 60%, said Media Ranger Naomi Boak. 

Accumulating all that extra weight enables the bears to survive months of fasting during winter hibernation, as well as the lean months of early spring when grasses and other plants are the only available food, KNPP rangers told Live Science.

Approximately 2,200 Alaska Peninsula brown bears (Ursus arctos gyas) live in the park; they represent a population subset of the grizzly bears on the mainland, said KNPP Media Ranger Brooklyn White. This year, rangers counted about 80 bears in the Brooks River area, more than they've seen there in at least a decade.

Bears near Brooks River grow fatter during pre-hibernation binge-eating than other park bears because the river provides them with "an endless buffet" of high-calorie salmon — a single fish contains 2,500 to 6,000 calories, White said. These bears don't need to burn precious calories foraging; they simply loiter around the river and feast.

"In June and in July, some bears eat 40 salmon per day," Boak told Live Science. In fact, there's so much salmon in the river that the bears often eat only the fattiest parts of the fish, "so you see salmon fillets all over the banks of the river," Boak said. "It makes the gulls very happy, and it makes the younger bears very happy, because sometimes they can't compete for the whole fish."

Biggest by volume 

How can rangers and scientists track how fat or skinny the animals are if they can't get them on a scale? This year, for the first time, a National Park Service (NPS) survey team from Anchorage used lasers to conduct long-distance data collection on the bears, using the Terrestrial Laser Scanning Systems, KNPP representatives wrote on Facebook. The system fires lasers that rebound off the bodies of fishing bears (the animals need to remain stationary for about 30 seconds), pinging back data points in 3D space that software assembles into a model; from the model, researchers can determine a bear's volume, White explained.

"The best documented data we have is the volume of bear, to see how much space that bear is taking up on the river. We have been able to verify that Katmai bears are some of the largest in the world," she said.

The mighty Beefy Beadnose (aka "Bear 409") was voted the park's burliest bruin in 2018, and a portly female named Holly ("Bear 435") squashed the competition in 2019. But will Holly's hopes be crushed this year by a bear who's even fatter? Recent photos of Chunk ("Bear 32"), a big adult male with "a prominent brow ridge," display an impressive bulging belly, according to competition host Explore, a live nature cam network and documentary film channel website. Even at his skinniest, Chunk is well-padded — "especially on his hind quarters," Explore says. 

However, photos of another male adult named Walker ("Bear 151"), one of the largest of the Brooks River bears, highlight a remarkably rounded rear. The website hosts a live video feed of the Brooks Falls bears, so viewers can watch them fatten up in real time.

But even though only one Brooks River contestant will take home the title of fattest bear, every fat bear is a success story, Boak told Live Science.

"What we're celebrating in Fat Bear Week is the success of these bears in doing their jobs well to survive and thrive," and every extra pound they gain is a testament to the abundance of the river's pristine water, the health of the salmon, and the balance of the entire ecosystem, Boak said.

Each day of Fat Bear Week brings a new opportunity to choose between two of the park's biggest bruisers in the official bracket. You can download a bracket of all the contestants and cast your vote at the Explore website; matchups will be open for voting Sept. 30 through Oct. 6, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. PDT.

Originally published on Live Science.

The Statue of Liberty is famous for her torch-bearing arm, but newly discovered blueprints reveal that this arm was revised to be more slender at the last minute, changing the plans of the French engineer Gustave Eiffel who helped design the statue. 

Eiffel, of course, is famous for his tower in Paris. But he also determined how to make the already drawn design of the Statue of Liberty structurally sound; that was no easy feat given that New York Harbor experiences ferocious winds. 

The newly analyzed blueprints show that Eiffel originally designed Lady Liberty's arm to be more robust and vertical — in a word, sturdier — than it is today, according to Smithsonian magazine, which first covered the story. But the blueprints reveal that someone else, perhaps the statue's sculptor, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, went in with red ink and revised the arm to be more slender and tilted, making it more aesthetically pleasing, but also more fragile. 

Related: 19 of the world's oldest photos reveal a rare side of history 

Paris auction

The blueprints were brought to light when, in 2018, California map dealer Barry Lawrence Ruderman bought a folder of Eiffel's historic papers at an auction in Paris. According to the auction catalog, the papers included blueprints for the Statue of Liberty, a unique prize because there are only two other known surviving copies of these blueprints; one is at the Library of Congress and the other is in a private collection in France, according to Ruderman's gallery, Antique Maps Inc.

Inside the folder, Ruderman and Alex Clausen, director of Ruderman’s gallery, found a pile of tightly folded papers that looked too delicate to open without destroying. So, they sent the historic documents to a conservator, who put the papers in a humidified chamber to make them more pliable. The technique worked; Ruderman and Clausen soon found themselves poring over not just blueprints but 22 original engineering drawings of Lady Liberty, many with notes and calculations in the margins.

'"When we first realized what we had, we were awestruck," Ruderman told Live Science in an email. "The Statue of Liberty is quite possibly the most famous modern man-made object on the planet, and we were holding the engineering work that made its public display possible."

A gift from France

The Statue of Liberty was originally intended to celebrate the end of slavery, according to the statue's new museum, The Washington Post reported last year. Only later did the statue turn into a beacon for immigrants, especially with the addition of Emma Lazarus' poem — "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" — that was cast onto a plaque and placed inside part of the statue in 1903. 

The French poet Édouard de Laboulaye first conceived of the statue. He loved America, but was an abolitionist who raised funds for freed slaves. After the American Civil War, Laboulaye and his fellow abolitionists decided to recognize America's milestone with a gift. Laboulaye commissioned the sculptor Bartholdi to design the statue, which was modeled after the Roman goddess of liberty, according to the National Park Service (NPS). 

Bartholdi realized that he needed an engineer to give the copper statue structural integrity. So, he turned to Eiffel. At the time, Eiffel was known for designing railroad bridges, and he used that knowledge to make the statue flexible enough to sway in the wind without toppling over. Even today, Lady Liberty can sway up to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) and the torch up to 6 inches (15.2 cm) in 50 mph (80 km/h) winds, according to the NPS.

The newly analyzed blueprints show Eiffel's handiwork, including calculations and the iron trusswork designs that would support the Statue of Liberty. Historians have long thought that Bartholdi revised Eiffel's schematic for the statue's arm, and it appears that these blueprints finally give concrete evidence of that, Edward Berenson, a historian at New York University and author of "The Statue of Liberty: A Transatlantic Story" (Yale University Press, 2012), told Smithsonian magazine.

"It looks like somebody is trying to figure out how to change the angle of the arm without wrecking the support," Berenson said.

The revisions are dated to July 28, 1882, after construction for the statue had begun. It's unclear what Eiffel thought of these changes; he had moved onto other projects by that time, and had his assistants act as liaisons with Bartholdi. "That may be one reason why Bartholdi decided he could make modifications, because he knew that Eiffel was not totally hands-on,” Berenson said.

The statue formally opened in 1886. Since then, Lady Liberty's slender arm has posed problems at various times. For instance, in 1916, a German saboteur blew up a munitions depot on a nearby island, a blast that measured the equivalent of a magnitude-5.5 earthquake, Smithsonian magazine reported. This blast caused more than $100,000 worth of damage to the statue, and closed her torch to visitors henceforth. 

In the 1980s, engineers suggested fortifying the statue's arm, but preservationists intervened, saying that the statue shouldn't waver from Bartholdi's vision. 

To see digital versions of these altered blueprints, visit Antique Maps.

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Originally published on Live Science.

The Mighty Five

"The Mighty Five" — Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Arches — are the five spectacular national parks found within the State of Utah. All are found on the Colorado Plateau which is the world's premier location to see, marvel and enjoy the creations of earth's geological history. The National Park Service oversees a total of 32 parks, national monuments, recreational areas and historic sites, shown above, that are located on the Colorado Plateau, many rivaling the geological beauty of Utah's Mighty Five. Cedar Breaks National Monument is one such geological paradise of the Colorado Plateau and well worth consideration for a summertime visit.

Breathtaking landscapes

Cedar Breaks National Monument is a 6,155 acre (2,469 he) preserve of high desert landscapes. The park ranges in elevation from 10,662 feet (3,250 m) in the northern region to 8,100 feet (2,469 m) near Ashdown Creek on the western boundary. Cedar Breaks is the crown jewel of the Markagunt Plateau and marks the the top of the "Grand Staircase" of the Colorado Plateau. Long used by Archaic as well as the modern Paiute people, the land encompassing Cedar Breaks was described in 1868 by early Mormon settlers as "a paradise on the mountain."

Remote location

Even for this modern world, Cedar Breaks National Monument is located in a remote area. There are no park dining or lodging accommodations. The closest town is Brian Head, Utah, best known for its winter ski resorts and cool summer lodging, shopping and rentals. Due to the high average elevation, Cedar Breaks National Monuments and the roads that connect it to the outside world are usually closed from mid-November to late May. During the summer months the monument does offer a 28-site campground that has grills, restrooms, showers and fresh water. An overnight stay at the monument allows visitors to experience the regions world famous dark skies. Warm clothing and sunscreen are a must even during the days of summer.

Dramatic views

Cedar Breaks National Monument is home to some of the most dramatic desert erosional features on earth. The interactions of water, tectonic forces, climate and geology have resulted in a place of architectural magnificence on the landscape. Mesozoic rocks are the bedrock of Cedar Breaks underlying the entire monument region. The strata of the higher elevations are capped with Tertiary and Quaternary rocks which, due to glacial and periglacial processes of erosion are on spectacular display. The multi-colored geological amphitheater found at Cedar Breaks, shown above, eroded from the Claron Formation, shown above, is 2,500 feet (762 m) deep, 3 miles (5 km) wide with the highest point of the amphitheater's rim standing at 11,000 feet (3,353 m).

Ancient processes

Even while gazing upon the colorful palette of weathered pinnacles and cliffs, the real story of Cedar Breaks are the multiple ancient seas, long-ago eroded mountain ranges, violent volcanoes and ancient seashores. Some 60 million years ago Lake Claron covered the region while local streams brought sand, silt and mud into the lake along with calcareous skeletons. Small amounts of iron in the deep sediment colored the layers into hues of red, orange and pink. Climatic changes over 25 million years slowly dried the area while volcanic activity and faulting due the rise of the modern Rocky Mountains all played a role in creating the landscape that is so magical today. All of this movement of the land actually has resulted in oyster and gastropod fossils being found in the older rocks of Cedar Breaks amphitheater nearly 11,000 feet ( 3,353 m) above sea level.

Nature's handiwork

Weathering and erosion were the hands of nature that sculptured the multicolored cliffs, spires, pinnacles, and other unique features at Cedar Breaks. Without such geologic processes, Cedar Breaks would be just another of the many alpine plateaus so common in the American West. Thousands of years of freezing and thawing of water has acted as a wedge to pry the rocks apart while chemical alteration and dissolution of minerals from percolating ground and surface water have resulted in the dramatic fins, shown above, arches and hoodoos of Cedar Breaks that visitors from around the world come to see today. The landscape of Cedar Breaks National Monument has been under construction for nearly 100 million years and those slow moving forces of nature continue to shape and reshape the landscape today.

Ancient population

Archeologist believe that the Southern Paiute people have lived in the Cedar Breaks region since at least 1100 CE. They called the giant amphitheater "u-map-wich" which when translated to English means "place where the rocks are sliding down" The Paiutes believed that the stone hoodoos seen in the amphitheater were actually people who had done bad things and were punished by being frozen into stone. Earliest American settlers called the area "the badlands" or "breaks" in reference to common cliff like edges that they came upon while traveling across the relatively flat plateaus. These "breaks" often cause time-consuming and dangerous detours as settlers sought ways to travel around them. Utah juniper trees, Juniperus osteosperma, were the common vegetation of the area and early settlers incorrectly called these trees "cedars" thus soon giving rise to the name Cedar Breaks for the entire area. Shown above, the remains of a "cedar" tree stands at the edge of a "break" in the plateau.

Stargazing destination

An incredible dark sky is one of the real attractions for tourists to visit Cedar Breaks National Monument. In January 2018 the monument was designated a Dark Sky Park by the International Dark Sky Association. Cedar Breaks is the 16th of the 417 National Park Service units to be so designated. In fact, the State of Utah now has seven, designated IDA Dark Sky Parks, more than any other American state. To become an IDA International Dark Sky Park the land must possess "an exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights and a nocturnal environment that is specifically protected for its scientific, natural, educational, cultural heritage, and/or public enjoyment."

Mammal crowd

Since Cedar Breaks lacks the large crowds of tourists, wildlife can often be seen and enjoyed. The high elevation of the national monument results in no species of native fish in the area, only 1 species of amphibian — the western chorus frog, Pseudacris triseriata — and 1 species of reptile — greater short horned lizard, Phrynosoma hernandesi. Bird species that naturally visit or live within the park number 108 while 50 species of mammals are known to frequent the park. Mountain lion, black bear, mule deer and elk, shown above, are the park's dominate large animals.

Trees, trees everywhere

The flora of Cedar Breaks is a typical mixture of spruce/fir forest and subalpine meadows. Wildflowers like the ones shown above bloom in profusion during the summer months with the national monument holding an annual Cedar Breaks Wildflower Festival each July. Utah Juniper, Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Engelmann Spruce, Picea engelmanii, and Limber Pine, Pinus flexilis, make up a diverse and dense forested region. At the highest of elevations, the ancient Bristlecone Pine, Pinus longaeva, is found. The oldest Bristlecone Pine found within the boundary of Cedar Breaks is believed to be about 1,700 years old.

Local lore

The Southern Paiute and other Numic speaking people who began moving into the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau regions around 1000 CE. Numic is a part of the Uto-Aztecan language family whose linguistic roots are in the Ute language of the Western United States and Nahuan languages of the pre-Columbian indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico. Their lifestyle was nomadic, following the herds of grazing animals and harvesting seasonal plants. Their origin goes back to Tabuts, the wise wolf who decided to make many different people out of sticks. Tabuts' plan was to scatter the people equally around the earth so all had a good place to live. But younger brother, Shinangwav the coyote, ripped open his sack and the people all fell in the same location causing them to fight amongst themselves. The only people left in the sack were the Southern Paiutes that Tabuts blessed by putting them in the very best place on earth — the Cedar Breaks region of today's Colorado Plateau.

Inviting visitors

The first tourists to arrive by car to Cedar Breaks occurred in 1919. Between 1920 and 1923 a rustic road was carved from Zion National Park to Cedar Breaks allowing more tourists to discover the splendid landscape. The grandeur of the area was recognized immediately but the isolation and difficulty in reaching such geological magnificence delayed the recognition and final preservation of Cedar Breaks until August 22, 1933. It was on this date that President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the powers of the Antiquities Act to designate this majestic land as the Cedar Breaks National Monument. A late 1930s road advertisement proclaimed that Cedar Breaks National Monument had "countless grotesque and magnificent geological forms, caused by water erosion, anointed with all colors of the rainbow." That description still stands today.

Scenic wonder

A journalist once wrote that "if Cedar Breaks were anywhere but in this Southwest region, it would be picked as one of the world's greatest scenic wonders." But the facts are that remote Cedar Breaks National Monument is near "The Mighty Five" national parks of Utah and just a few hundred miles north of Arizona's Grand Canyon. Sadly, Cedar Breaks is all too often passed by. But for those wanting to view nature at its finest, geology at its most creative beauty and dark skies seldom seen by modern man, a trip to Cedar Breaks National Monument is certainly a journey worth traveling.

In southwestern Kenya, in the Kenya Rift Valley Province, lies 583 square miles (1,510 square kilometers) of protected land known as the Maasai Mara National Reserve. It was established in 1961 and is a popular safari destination, renowned for its wildlife population, according to a 2019 study about the park published in the journal Land Use Policy. The wildlife roam freely across the boundaries of the reserve into areas with several villages, where animals and humans coexist.

Also known as Masai Mara, Maasai Mara or simply the Mara, the reserve lies at between 4,875 and 7,052 feet (1486 and 2149 meters) in elevation and extends south to Serengeti National Park. The name comes from the local Maasai people, who called this expanse of land "Mara," or spotted, in their native language of Maa, because of the way the acacia trees and wildlife dotted the plains.

Wildlife

A diverse group of animals call the Maasai Mara home, including Africa's "big five" (the African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, African lion and African black rhino). Cheetahs, wildebeests, gazelles, zebras, hyenas, giraffes, crocodiles, hippos, more than 500 bird species and many more residents can also be found across the reserve. [In Photos: The Lions of Kenya's Masai Mara]

The most popular time to visit the reserve is between July and October. The peak of the wildebeest migration, usually in October, is a particularly popular time in the park, as visitors come to see the more than 2 million animals travel up to 500 miles (800 km) from Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to the Maasai Mara National Reserve, according to the World Wildlife Fund. During their migration, wildebeest and several hundred thousand other migratory mammals, including gazelles and zebras, must cross the Mara River while avoiding crocodiles and other predators, such as large cats and hyenas.

An estimated 250,000 wildebeest never make it to their destination, as they fall prey to carnivores, die of hunger, thirst or exhaustion, or drown in the Mara River, according to the World Wildlife Fund. The fallen animals, however, provide a wealth of food and nutrients for the ecosystem.

Climate

The great migration occurs during the main dry season, which lasts from June through October. The two wet seasons, a short one and a long one, occur between November and December and March and May, respectively. Due to Kenya's location at the equator, temperatures there remain fairly constant throughout the year, with daytime temperatures of about 73 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Celsius) during the dry season and 81 F (27 C) during the wet season.

Average annual rainfall is about 1 meter (3 feet) per year, with nearly 80% of the rain falling during the wet season, according to a 2018 article published in the journal PLOS One. During the dry season, many of the temporary lakes and rivers dry up, leaving the one permanent body of water in the region, the Mara River, to provide for both the Maasai Mara and Serengeti regions.

Flooding is common during the wet season and can displace wildlife and increase the risk of diseases such as Rift Valley fever and anthrax, both of which can infect domesticated and wild animals as well as humans. The flooding also affects livestock and agriculture in the surrounding areas.

Culture

The Maasai people, known for their fierce warriors and bright red robes, were once one of the dominating native tribes in Kenya. They are one of the few who have retained much of their traditions and lifestyles, according to the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust.

The Maasai moved into the highlands of what is now Kenya in the early 17th century and spread across what became Kenya and south into what is now Tanzania soon after, according to an article from the nonprofit Cultural Survival. They were seminomadic, moving with their prized cattle herds to different areas during the wet and dry seasons to prevent any one area from becoming overgrazed.

As with most other African tribes, however, the Maasai lost much of their fertile lands and parts of their culture when European settlers moved into the territory. The Maasai people are no longer nomadic and are now settled in a single location, where they depend on local agriculture and tourism to sustain their lifestyle and traditions.

Within the Maasai Mara, conflicts between wildlife and villagers have become increasingly controversial. As humans and beasts compete for natural resources in this remote area, millions of animals have been forced to alter their behaviors, territories and migration patterns. As a result, their populations have suffered.

Additional resources:

• Learn about research in the Maasai Mara, from the Maasai Mara Science and Development Initiative.
• Read more about the conservation efforts within the Maasai Mara, from the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust.
• Discover more about the Maasai people, from the Maasai Association.

While the U.S. government was partially shut down for 35 days, the country's national parks suffered damage that could last generations. Now, as volunteers and conservationists assess the environmental and economic damage around the country, it seems that Joshua Tree National Park — a wonderland of spiky trees and surreal, time-sculpted rocks in Southern California — has experienced some of the worst damage.

"What's happened to our park in the last 34 days is irreparable for the next 200 to 300 years," Curt Sauer, a former superintendent of the park, said at a rally on Saturday (Jan. 26).

However, that estimate might be a bit overstated, according to one expert Live Science spoke to. While it's true that the survival of the park's Joshua trees has downstream impacts on the desert birds, insects, mammals and reptiles that rely on them for shelter and sustenance, the loss of a few individual trees is unlikely to have long-lasting effects on the park's 800,000-acre (324,000 hectares) ecosystem, Cameron Barrows, an associate research ecologist at the University of California Riverside's Center for Conservation Biology, told Live Science in an email.

Short shutdown, long-term damage

Reduced to a handful of essential staff during the shutdown, the park was unable to perform basic maintenance functions like emptying the trash or making sure the toilets didn't overflow with human waste. Meanwhile, only eight law-enforcement rangers were tasked with protecting the entire park's 1,238-square- mile-grounds (3,207 square kilometers) grounds — an expanse of land about the size of Delaware, Live Science previously reported.

During that time the security lapse, park gates were toppled and locks smashed. Rocks were defaced with graffiti, illegal campfires and vehicle traffic destroyed vegetation at some of the park's most iconic sites, and at least three of the park's ancient Joshua trees were chopped down in order to make way for illegal off-road paths. According to the National Park Service website, the average joshua tree in the park is age of the park's iconic trees is estimated to be about 150 years old.

But that doesn't necessarily mean damage to the park will take centuries to repair, Barrows said.

"Certainly, replacing one destroyed Joshua tree to the same age and condition could take [centuries]," Barrows said. "But I would be hard pressed to say the park is at greater risk of ecological damage by the loss of one tree. If it was, say, 100 acres or greater, then we are probably at a scale where ecosystem integrity is compromised." (Barrows noted that he has not been back to the park since the shutdown to see the full scale of the damage.)

More harmful to the ecosystem may be the many miles of fresh tire marks pummeled into the park's soil by off-road vehicles. That desert soil isn't just dirt or sand — it's also a complex community of vegetation and microbes that can help support every plant and animal that interacts with it.

"Vehicles creating improvised roads are a significant issue," Marinna Wagner, Masters in Landscape Architecture, told Live Science in an email. "Not only does such activity destroy existing vegetation, but the resultant soil compaction reduces soil moisture, increases runoff, causes erosion and sedimentation, and prevents seedling germination, thus slowing down the rate of ecosystem recovery even further."

National Park Service spokesperson Mike Litterst told Vice.com that soil damage like this can last for decades. So far, crews have helped repair about 20 miles (32 km) of tire tracks left during the shutdown, Vice reported, with many more to go.

These and other repairs may stress the park financially as it reckons with considerable financial losses from the shutdown. According to Sauer, the park relied on more than $300,000 in entrance fees to stay open during the shutdown, dipping into money that was meant to be used on park maintenance and the construction of a new visitors' center. In total, Sauer estimated that Joshua Tree lost about $800,000 in revenue during the shutdown.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to add comment from Marinna Wagner.

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Originally published on Live Science.

Joshua trees are beautiful, but humans can be pretty awful.

That's what park rangers learned during the first week or so of the partial government shutdown.

Joshua Tree National Park is about the size of Delaware, but only eight law-enforcement rangers were tasked with protecting the 1,238 square mile (3,207 square kilometers) wonderland during the shutdown.

The result? Visitors did not play by the rules, cutting illegal roads, chopping down the park's most famous occupants — the Joshua trees — and damaging federal property, according to the nonprofit National Parks Traveler.

"There are about a dozen instances of extensive vehicle traffic off roads and in some cases into wilderness," said the park's superintendent David Smith, as reported by National Parks Traveler. "We have two new roads that were created inside the park. We had destruction of government property with the cutting of chains and locks for people to access campgrounds. We've never seen this level of out-of-bounds camping. Every day use area was occupied every evening." [All Yours: 10 Least Visited National Parks]

Smith added, "Joshua trees were actually cut down in order to make new roads."

Due to the vandalism and sanitation issues, Smith had scheduled a park closure beginning today (Jan. 10). However, instead the park has allocated funds from recreation fees, averting a temporary closure, he said.

"National Park Service officials have determined that by using Federal Land and Recreation Enhancement funds to immediately bring back park maintenance crews to address sanitation issues, the park will be able to maintain some visitor services, including reopening the campgrounds," read a park statement. "The park will also bring on additional staff to ensure the protection of park resources and mitigate some of the damage that has occurred during the lapse of appropriations."

The cut-down trees, however, are irreplaceable, as they take some 60 years to mature and live for more than 500 years. The tree, called Yucca brevifolia, often grows alongside its relative the Mojave yucca, Yucca schidigera — both are part of the Agave family.

As if posing for an album cover or a backdrop in a Dr. Seuss book, Joshua trees look both stoic and whimsical, their spindly, sometimes bushy, limbs twisting out from the trunk. Legend has it that Mormon immigrants who made their way across the Colorado River in the mid-19th century named the trees after the biblical Joshua, "seeing the limbs of the tree as outstretched in supplication, guiding the travelers westward," vegetation specialist Jane Rodgers writes on the National Park Service website.

Read more about the ecological wonders of the Joshua Tree National Park, including its range of sights, from sand dunes and dry lakes to granite monoliths and oases, and two distinct desert regions — the Mojave and Colorado.

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Originally published on Live Science.

President Donald Trump shrank the size of two national monuments — Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — in Utah today (Dec. 4) after signing proclamations that cut the protected lands by more than 1.1 million acres and 800,000 acres (445,000 and 323,000 hectares), respectively.

The two proclamations constitute the largest rollback of federally protected land in U.S. history, according to USA Today, and will allow miners and ranchers access to the previously protected land.

In a speech today, Trump said that previous administrations had violated the spirit of the American Antiquities Act on 1906, which mandates that monuments be made with "the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected." [5 Fossil Hotspots: National Parks to Visit]

The new proclamations are the result of an executive order Trump signed in April that authorized a review of national monuments designated since Jan. 1, 1996, that were either more than 100,000 acres (40,400 hectares) in area, or that were "made without adequate public outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders," Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said, in a previous report by Live Science. 

However, reducing the size of these monuments could imperil countless scientific sites and fossils, including those of dinosaurs, crocodilians, turtles, lizards and mammals, P. David Polly, president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology and a professor of sedimentary geology at Indiana University, wrote in an op-ed for Live Science last week.

"These two monuments were set aside specifically under the American Antiquities Act to protect their paleontological and archaeological resources from damage by mining and other mineral extraction," Polly wrote. "Both monuments protect exquisite fossil sequences that tell us about crucial intervals in the history of our planet."

Almost 40 previously unknown animal species have been discovered at Grand Staircase-Escalante, which was established as a national monument in 1996 by then-President Bill Clinton. This includes 13 newfound dinosaur species, such as Diabloceratops eatoni, a distant relative of Triceratops, and Teratophoneus, a meat-eating tyrannosaur related to Tyrannosaurus rex, Polly said.

Researchers also found a small creature known as Paranyctoides, which was the oldest animal with a placenta (an animal that gives birth to live young) on record at the time, he noted.

"We're never done finding new fossils and filling in those gaps," Michelle Stocker, a paleontologist at Virginia Tech University, told Polly.

Shrinking these monuments is "a loss to science and the American public," Polly said. "The paleontological science at Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears was one of the primary justifications for turning these wilderness lands into national monuments so that coal mining, petroleum extraction and other damaging activities would not ruin the scientific value they provide to us all."

The monuments "also provide homes for hundreds of species of birds and other wildlife, David Yarnold, president and CEO of the National Audubon Society, said in a statement.

Moreover, "more than 100,000 archaeological sites within the Bears Ears National Monument require conservation, including rock art dating back at least 5,000 years as well as cliff dwellings and other remnants of past cultures that have existed in the region for millennia," the Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization headquartered in Philadelphia, said in a statement.

Thousands of people protested the new proclamations at the Utah State capital today. Several tribes, including the Navajo Nation, and conservation and outdoor industry groups say they will challenge Trump's decision in court, according to The New York Times.

Original article on Live Science.

P. David Polly is the president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology and the Shrock professor of sedimentary geology at Indiana University. Polly contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

President Donald Trump is expected to make a big announcement in Utah this Monday (Dec. 4), where he will detail the government's plan to shrink two of the state's national monuments: Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears, according to news sources.

The coal industry may welcome this venture, but it could destroy evidence of yet-to-be-discovered dinosaurs and the fossils of ancient mammals, turtles and crocodilians.

There are countless fossils within the nation's national monuments, regions of U.S. public land that are protected by presidential proclamation because of their importance to national heritage. Bears Ears, which received monument status last year, likely holds many key fossils. Grand Staircase-Escalante, designated as a monument more than 20 years ago, has already provided scientists with incredible fossils, including those of triceratops relatives and tyrannosaurs, and there are likely more. Reducing the size of these monuments would be a loss to science and the American public. [5 Fossil Hotspots: National Parks to Visit]

Paleontological treasures

Maps leaked from Utah Gov. Gary Herbert's office suggest that the Trump administration may reduce the monuments by as much as two-thirds their current size, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Why are they doing it? According to the LA Times, the motivation behind the decision is to open these protected areas to ranching and coal mining.

But that reasoning overlooks an important point: These two monuments were set aside specifically under the American Antiquities Act to protect their paleontological and archaeological resources from damage by mining and other mineral extraction. Both monuments protect exquisite fossil sequences that tell us about crucial intervals in the history of our planet.

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was established in 1996, largely because proposed mining activity on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property threatened the remote highland area known as the Kaiparowits Plateau, a region rich with fossil treasures. About 28 billion commercially extractable tons of coal lie beneath its surface, formed in the same ancient swamps that were home to animals that lived during the Cretaceous, a period lasting from 145 million to 65 million years ago.

Mining on national monuments is illegal, but the government often grants mining leases on other types of federal land. Indeed, mining on public lands can be especially profitable because there are no private, surface landowners to compensate for the access to the land.

In the 1990s, the coal mining company Andalex Resources was planning to open a mine twice the size of Manhattan on the Kaiparowits Plateau. But the plateau had already become an important site for science because of the spectacular fossils of Cretaceous-period mammals discovered there by Richard Cifelli, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Oklahoma, and Jeff Eaton, then an assistant curator of paleontology at the Museum of Northern Arizona, who is now retired. Using screen washing, a technique similar to panning for gold, these paleontologists discovered minute fossils in the coal-bearing rocks.

These fossils included those of a tiny creature known as Paranyctoides — the oldest placental known at the time — that filled a critical gap in scientists' understanding of the origin of mammals, Cifelli explained in a 1990 study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. (A placental animal is one that, like humans, gives birth to fully viable young, in contrast with marsupials that nurse their young in pouches or monotremes, such as the platypus, that lay eggs.)

The importance of these fossils — and the prospect of an even richer paleontological record that, unlike coal, was unique to the Grand Staircase area — motivated the creation of the monument. [Album: Discovering a Duck-Billed Dino Baby]

Fossil wonderland

The monument promised to be "one of the best and most continuous records of Late Cretaceous terrestrial life in the world," according to a 1996 proclamation from then-President Bill Clinton. But the scale of the discoveries since then is so large that they would have inconceivable at the time. Within the monument, scientists and amateurs have discovered more than 3,000 scientifically important sites (places with intact, identifiable fossils in their original geologic context), collected hundreds of thousands of fossil specimens and uncovered nearly 40 previously unknown animal species, including 13 new kinds of dinosaur.

Last month, I visited Grand Staircase as president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology to see this incredible site for myself. As a paleontologist, I have worked in the Cretaceous-age rocks of Hell Creek in Montana and Big Bend National Park in Texas, as well as in central Kazakhstan and the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, but I was totally blown away by the Kaiparowits Plateau's wealth of fossils. Prospecting for fossils there is accessible in a matter of steps rather than miles.

The Kaiparowits Plateau is exceptionally rich in fossils of mammals, turtles, crocodiles, lizards and dinosaurs. Moreover, its status as a monument provides resources for science — notably, coordination from the BLM monument paleontologist Alan Titus. Hundreds of paleontologists from museums and universities around the country have organized their field research through Titus' office. For example, in 2009, a field crew led by Andrew Farke, a paleontologist at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, California, discovered a baby duck-billed dinosaur, Parasaurolophus, that revealed that the bony crests on the heads of these remarkable creatures grew larger as they got older, according to Farke's 2013 study in the journal PeerJ.

In 2006, a newfound short-skulled tyrannosaur called Teratophoneus curriei was unearthed by a collaborative group from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin; the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque; and Brigham Young University in Utah. Teratophoneus filled a gap in the evolutionary history of its younger cousin Tyrannosaurus rex, according to the researchers' 2011 study in the journal Naturwissenschaften (now called The Science of Nature).

More of these remarkable animals have been found since, including a virtually complete skeleton of Teratophoneus that was airlifted from a nearly inaccessible part of the Kaiparowits Plateau in October of this year. Another Grand Staircase paleontologist from Virginia Tech University, Michelle Stocker, told me, "We're never done finding new fossils and filling in those gaps." Without the monument, much of this work would not have happened, and it would have been a greater challenge for researchers across the country to coordinate with one another. [Top 10 Most Visited National Parks]

Because the land and its fossils remain the property of all Americans, federal law stipulates that the fossils themselves be placed in an approved public research repository, which will make the fossils available to those who want to see them.

"Every fossil stored in a museum is a little piece of life frozen in time," said John Long, former president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. The preservation of the fossils and their sites is critical to scientific progress because paleontologists often revisit them with new questions and techniques. As Anjali Goswami, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London, explained, "New technology has made it possible to extract information from fossils and fossil sites that would have been impossible even 10 years ago."

But not everyone sees the scientific potential of these monuments.

"I'm approving the recommendation for you, Orrin," Trump told Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. But neither the monuments nor the fossils are Trump's to give or Hatch's to take. They belong to all Americans as part of the U.S. public land system. The multiple-use principle used to manage federal public lands means that most of the system's 640 million acres (260 million hectares) are already open to ranching and coal mining, including the strip mining and gas fracking in the Thunder Basin National Grassland of Wyoming.

Just a few public land areas are set aside to protect unusually delicate or important assets such as wildlife, archaeology, landscapes and scientifically important resources. The paleontological science at Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears was one of the primary justifications for turning these wilderness lands into national monuments so that coal mining, petroleum extraction and other damaging activities would not ruin the scientific value they provide to us all. 

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.

Ancient civilization

In the great desolation and emptiness of northwestern New Mexico, the ruins of an advanced Pre-Columbian civilization is preserved today within a 53-square-mile (137 square kilometers) national historic park. Here, the Chacoan people from the mid-9th to early 13th centuries created along Chaco Canyon the largest, most architecturally advanced (and most archaeoastronomically aligned) series of roads, villages and solar stone structures found in North America, and arguably anywhere in the world. Fajada Butte within Chaco Culture National Historic Park is shown here. [Read more about Chaco Canyon]

Historic park

Chaco Culture National Historic Park is located in the southeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau, some 88 miles (142 km) as the crow flies from the Four Corners region. Chaco Canyon is one of hundreds of Ancestral Puebloan sites found across the 130,000-square-mile (337,000 square km) plateau. These ancient indigenous people created large population centers across the Colorado Plateau that show evidence of a very rich culture of art, trade, religion and the celestialsciences. Many suggest that Chaco Canyon was the epicenter of the Ancestral Puebloans' world.

Geological wonder

The park is situated totally within the San Juan Basin. This high scrubland desert canyon, with an average elevation of 6,175 feet (1,882 meters), has a general northwest-to-southeast alignment. It is surrounded by ancient dune fields, ridges and three mountain ranges: the Chuska Mountains to the west, the San Pedro Mountains to the east and the San Juan Mountains to the north. Chaco Canyon was carved over time by the Chaco Wash, a seasonal stream. The layout of the 10 Ancestral Puebloan pueblos scattered along 9 miles (14 km) of the Chaco Wash are considered to be the most significant of all ancient Colorado Plateau pueblo communities.

Preserving culture

Some archeologists have long contended that the ruins of Chaco Canyon are the most significant ancient ruins in North America and even across the world. President Theodore Roosevelt recognized these alluring ruins in 1907 when he designated Chaco Canyon a national monument. The ruins were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

In 1980, the boundary of the national monument was enlarged by 20 square miles (52 square kilometers) and the monument became the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Finally, because of the exceptional architecture, skillfully engineered and constructed roads, and the influence that the Chaco culture had upon the people of the Four Corners area for more than four centuries, Chaco Canyon was recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1987. Today, Chaco Culture National Historic Park preserves more than 4,000 cultural sites reflective of habitation by Paleo-Indians, Ancestral Puebloans, Navajo, Hopi and the Euro-American occupation.

Pueblo Bonito

The uniquely D-shaped Pueblo Bonito (Spanish for "beautiful town") is the most famous and largest of all Chacoan great houses, hosting more than 350 ground floor rooms, three great kivas and 32 smaller kivas. At its peak, Pueblo Bonito rose some four stories along the arc of north side rooms with interior rooms from one -- three stories high. Pueblo Bonito was first occupied from the mid-850s A.D. until the early 12th century. Like all the other major structures found in Chaco Canyon, Pueblo Bonito was built with an internal geometry that aligns it to the relationships of the solar and lunar cycles. Itsnorthern back wall is built along a perfect east-west axis. In addition, Pueblo Bonito is located near the center of Chaco Canyon and plays a crucial role in the astronomical solar/lunar alignment of 10 other Chaco Canyon great houses.

Ceremonial role

The Chaco great houses found along a 9-mile (14 km) beltof the canyon floor are astronomically aligned. Some are positioned with the 18.6-year cycle of the maximum and minimum moonrise and moonset, while others were set up cardinally. Archeologist think that many of the great houses served as temples with people throughout the region making annual pilgrimages to the Chaco kivas for ceremonial activities. Chetro Ketl, shown here, contains some 500 rooms, and a Great Kiva, also found here, illustrates how the great houses of Chaco Canyon served during this time as the spiritual, administrative and economic capital of the American Southwest.

Chacoan construction

The many spectacular great houses found along Chaco Canyon remain a modern-day testament to the fact that the Chaco people were very skilled masons. Their pueblos were built in sections over hundreds of years, and archaeological architects have identified seven evolving styles. The vast majority of the great houses were built with slabs of sandstone rocks, specifically quarried and preciously stacked as if the Chacoans were following some magnificent ancient blueprint. These designs and styles allowed the people to build strong, multi-storied structures with a large number of interconnecting rooms. It is estimated that more than 240,000 ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, spruce and aspen trees were used in the construction of the floors and the roofs of the Chaco great houses. The average weight of these logs was more than 600 pounds ( 272 kilograms). Since the Chacoans had no beasts of burden (horse, oxen, mules or even cows), metal tools, nor did they know of the wheeled cart, these timbers were simply carried from forests that were upwards of 40 to 60 miles (64 to 97 km) from Chaco Canyon.

Network of roads

Another stunning achievement of the Chaco people was their large and carefully engineered series of roads found both within the canyon and extending from the canyon to the far outlying Chaco villages. Some 250 miles (400 km) of road were built by these industrious people. Within the canyon, the roads were about 15 feet (4.6 m) wide, while the roads leaving the canyon were nearly twice as wide. These roads are incredibly straight and when they come to a mesa or cliff face, steps (like the ones shown here) were cut, never wavering from the road's straight alignment. Why would a people with no beast of burden nor wheeled carts build such an extensive system of wide roads? Archeologist can only speculate that the roads were used for large ceremonial and religious parades, yet their actual purpose may forever be lost in the dust of history.

Cosmic connection

Archeologist and astronomers both agree that Chaco Canyon just might be the greatest example of an archaeoastronomy site found anywhere in the world. The scientific knowledge and mathematics needed to accurately position and then build each of their great pueblos aligned with the cosmos would take generations of astronomical observations. Some suggest the mathematics for such construction came from trade and influences of the Mayan people of the Yucatan. Whatever the origin, the ancient people of Chaco were an intelligent and creative people. Today, the Chaco Observatory continues the centuries-long tradition of watching the nighttime sky started by the ancient Chacoans. This photo, of the famous Horsehead Nebula, was taken by one of the telescopes working at the Chaco Observatory.

Dark skies

The Chaco Culture National Historic Park was designated a "gold-tier" Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association in 2013. The park's observatory staff oversees the Chaco Night Sky Program, which aims to not only educate but also continue to advocate for the elimination of the effects of light pollution upon the park's amazing nighttime sky. Some 14,000 visitors come to the Chaco Observatory each year for the superior views of the cosmos that can be seen here. These dark skies are threatened by recent coal mining activities on nearby federal lands of the San Juan Basin.

Impressive archaeoastronomy

At the 480-foot (146 m) summit of Fajada Butte is found one of Chaco Canyon's most impressive archaeoastronomy sites. Here, the ancient Chacoans perfectly aligned three large slabs of sandstone for specific astronomically significant days, like the seasonal equinoxes and solstices. On these days, a narrow shaft of light falsl upon two, spiral petroglyphs. This light, shown here and known as the Chaco Sun Dagger, also tracks an 18 1/2-year lunar cycle. Such an astronomical site is found nowhere else among North American Indian cultures. But, such solar/lunar sites were once common to the Toltec and Mayan people of central and southern Mexico. For many archeologists, the Chaco Sun Dagger, along with the copper bells, mother-of-pearl and macaw feathers found among Chaco ruins, confirms the theory that Chaco Canyon was once the terminus of the great Toltec trade route.

Pottery patterns

It should be no surprise that Chaco pottery was also unique and beautiful in its design, function and quality. Plain, clay cooking pots first appeared at Chaco around 450 to 500 A.D. More durable and easier to make than baskets, pottery artisans became an indispensable part of the Chacoan culture, producing both plain and ornate ceramics for cooking, serving and the storage of food supplies. Chaco pottery makers soon began using black paint to decorate their pottery with geometric designs, as seen in this photo. This black-on-white painted pottery is the hallmark of Chacoan pottery. Archeologists find great value and insight in studying pottery because variations in pottery design reflect the peoples’ cultural changes.

Park animals

Chaco Canyon is located in an arid region with a characteristic high desert and a xeric scrublands biome. The flora throughout the region is similar to what is typically found within all North American high deserts, areas with short growing seasons, long winters and minimal rainfall. Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata() a variety of cholla with a mingling of piñon and juniper trees are typically found. A wide variety of high desert animals, such as elk (Cervus elaphus), American badger (Taxied taxes), black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) and the bobcat (Lynx rufus), shown here, are just some of the many mammal species that have long made Chaco Canyon their home.

Rich history

Chaco Canyon was the major center of the ancient Pueblo Peoples culture between 900 to 1150 A.D. The great houses that they built were the largest building in North America until the 19th century. At its zenith, the population of Chaco probably never exceeded more than 6,000 people, but their influence spread across the Colorado Plateau and southward to their trading partners within the large Mesoamerica cultures ofcentral Mexico. Exactly why the people eventually abandoned Chaco Canyon is not known, but an extensive drought that began around 1130 A.D. may have been a major contributing factor. The bumpy journey across the unpaved roads that lead even today to Chaco Culture National Historic Park is well worth the effort for visitors to explore firsthand the amazing ruins still found in Chaco Canyon.

Apache Pass

Throughout history, natural features such as mountain ranges, broad rivers and even desert lands have not only been barriers to human movement but have been contributing factors to human cultural conflicts. A perfect example of a natural environment contributing to deadly conflict between two human cultures can be found in the Sky Islands of southeastern Arizona, in a place known in history as Apache Pass.

Sky Islands

Sky Islands are mountain ranges that have become isolated from each other by vast, sediment-filled valleys of grasslands or deserts that act as natural barriers, just like seawater, to the movement of plant and animal species. In the American Southwest and in northern Mexico, 27 Sky Islands are scatted over some 70,000 square miles (181,300 square kilometers) at the meeting point of two great mountain ranges: the Rocky Mountains of the north and the Sierra Madre Mountains of the south. Known as the Madrean Sky Island archipelago, this area has seen over eons of geological time the sinking of the valley floors, resulting in sky island mountain peaks rising to more than 10,000 feet (3,050 meters) in elevation above the dry Chihuahua and Sonoran Desert floors.

Where the mountains meet

Two of these Sky Islands, the Dos Cabezas Mountains and the Chiricahua Mountains, come together in the dry desert of southeastern Arizona and separate the San Simon Valley on the east from the Sulphur Spring Valley on the west. Where the two mountain ranges meet, a 3-mile-long (5 km) mountain valley once allowed the native Chiricahua Apache people, 16th-century Spanish Conquistadors and the 1840s American miners, settlers and soldiers to quickly move between the two desert valleys and avoid many days of traveling around the hot and dry desert lands surrounding the two Sky Islands.

Pass of Chance

Spanish Conquistadors called this valuable mountain valley "Puerto del Dado," meaning the "Pass of Chance." Conflict was common between the local Chiricahua Apache people and the Spanish soldiers who always took a dangerous chance each time they passed through this valley. The saddle of Apache Pass is at an elevation of 4,550 feet (1,387 m) with surrounding mountain peaks rising to a height of 5,250 feet (1,600 m). This elevation is at the upper elevational limit for a desert environment and the pass is populated with plant species common in desert, grassland and woodland habitats.

Freshwater source

But quick passage between two vast desert valleys was not the only reason that Apache Pass was so valuable to all the people living and traveling through this land. Just a few hundred yards west of the mountain's saddle, a natural spring of water (shown here) flowed year round. Apache Spring is the result of a fault zone, initiated more than 1 billion years ago and active throughout geological time. Extensive fractured and faulted rocks are dominant throughout this mountain valley and have long provided a channel for groundwater to constantly flow to the surface at Apache Springs over the millennia. In this vast desert region, a constant source of fresh water is priceless!

Go West

In the 1840s, when young men from around the world heard the call of Horace Greeley to "Go West, young man, Go West," a southern land route to the gold fields of California was needed. The only logical route passed through the American Southwest, but even in winter, the vast deserts were a challenge. Soon, gold miners and settlers alike began moving through Apache Pass for both its convenience and its constant source of fresh water. In 1857, the historic Butterfield Overland Mail Stage Line built a station, shown here, just half a mile west of the Apache Pass mountain saddle, as it began carrying both mail and passengers between St. Louis, Missouri, and San Francisco, California.

Human conflict

Two significant events would soon occur between the Chiricahua Apache people and the U. S. Army. The first occurred in January 1861, when the great Chiricahua chief, Cochise, was wrongly accused of raiding a local ranch. It would become known as the Bascom Affair and resulted in fighting between Chiricahua Apache warriors and the U.S. Army that would last for more than 20 years. The second, the Battle of Apache Pass, occurred in July 1862, when troops from the Union's California Column were attacked by warriors as they moved through Apache Pass toward the New Mexico Territory to battle Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War.

Fort Bowie camp

The California Column established a makeshift Fort Bowie camp in 1862. But with the growing movement of people and goods through this mountain valley, and the now all too common conflict with the local Chiricahua Apache people, the United States governments responded by building a more permanent outpost at the saddle of Apache Pass in 1864. The new outpost was named Fort Bowie in honor of Colonel George Washington Bowie, commander of the 5th Regiment California Column Volunteer Infantry.

Apache Wars

Fort Bowie became the center of military operations for the U.S. Army against the Chiricahua Apaches until the tragic Apache Wars ended in 1886. During that time, U.S. soldiers fought Apache warriors led by both hereditary chief Cochise and a Chiricahua shaman known as Geronimo. When the Apache Wars ended, Fort Bowie was a post with more than 50 adobe and stone buildings. A then-modern heliograph station was also present. Family picnics, a game of tennis and a concert by the post band were all a part of daily post life. By 1894, the need for Fort Bowie had come to an end, and the U.S. Army closed the post and abandoned the buildings.

Journey back in time

Today the old adobe walls of the second Fort Bowie site lie in ruin on the mountain's saddle. These remaining ruins are encased in protective limestone casings. Stabilization of the ruins began in 1964 by the National Park Service, and Fort Bowie National Historic Site was officially established in 1972. The park is some 1.56 square miles (4 square kilometers) in size, and offers visitors a unique glimpse into a time when an emerging country driven by its belief in "manifest destiny" encountered a courageous indigenous people fighting for their very existence.

Take a hike

Visitors to Fort Bowie today must put forth some physical effort. A 1.5-mile (2.4 km) hiking trail leads from the parking lot along Apache Pass Road through a biogeographic transition zone between the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts and the Rocky and Sierra Madre mountains. The trail is rated "moderate" with just under a 200-foot (60 m) elevation gain between the parking area and the fort's ruins. An alternative ADA access to the visitor center is available.

Among the ruins

Walking the trail to Fort Bowie is a journey through the history of the American West. Visitors will pass by the ruins of the Butterfield Overland Mail Stage Station, the first Fort Bowie site, the site of the Bascom's Camp, the still-flowing trickle of water coming from Apache Springs and the post's cemetery. When the post closed in 1894, some 112 graves were believed to be present. Today, between 23 and 33 bodies remain interred in the earth of Apache Pass, including Little Robe, the son of Geronimo who died on Sept. 10, 1885, of dysentery at the age of two, while a prisoner at Fort Bowie.

Historic buildings

When arriving at the saddle of Apache Pass today, visitors will find a barren landscape with the foundations of the 74 historic buildings that once stood here and nearly a dozen adobe and stone wall ruins. Because the National Park Service has purposely engaged in very little development at the site, the integrity of the historic setting still remains. The walk, along with the remoteness and still-open vistas, allow visitors to sense the history that once occurred here. Walking through the ruins of the Cavalry Barracks, shown here, still gives a sense of the challenging military assignment once found at Fort Bowie.

Visiting Fort Bowie

The howling winds that still ripple the flag above the abandoned parade grounds of Fort Bowie help visitors sense the remoteness of this place along Apache Pass. The hot summers and cold winters and the transitional flora and fauna from two vast deserts all made living and working here a challenge for people of all cultures. Visiting Fort Bowie is still as much an emotional experience as an intellectual endeavor.

Plan your trip

A modern visitor center staffed with park rangers welcome all who complete the hike to Fort Bowie. Fort Bowie is open to visitors every day except Christmas and New Years, from 8:00 a,m. - 4:30 p.m. local time. There are no fees to visit this historic site. Visitors should be sure to wear good hiking shoes and a hat, and bring along water to drink. There are no food services nor gasoline available at Fort Bowie.

Teton Mountain Range

The Teton Mountain Range is one of the most dazzling, awe-inspiring natural places still found on the North American continent. The magnificent mountains are located in the state of Wyoming and encompass most of the Jackson Hole valley. The range is a part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which is the largest nearly intact natural area in the contiguous United States. Today, many species of animals such as bison, elk, bear, eagles and moose can still be found and enjoyed in the two national parks, seven national forests and two national wildlife preserves that make up the ecosystem.

From above

The Teton Range is a young mountain range that was uplifted only about 9 million years ago. The tallest peak, the Grand Teton, rises some 13,775 feet (4,200 meters). The origin of the naming of the Tetons is shrouded in controversy. Some historians think that French explorers named the mountain range "Les Trois Tetons" (which translates to "the three breasts") to honor the female anatomy. Other historians contend that the mountains received their name from the local Teton Sioux tribe, one of the seven indigenous groups of Lakota people found on the Great Plains of North America.

Long and tall

The Teton Range extends some 40 miles (64 km) in length while rising some 7,000 feet (2,130 m) above the Jackson Hole valley. The area has many lakes including the 15-mile-long (24 km) Jackson Lake, as seen here in this NASA Landsat photo. The primary downstream segment of the Snake River also meanders across the Jackson Hole valley.

From sea to mountains

The geological history of the Teton Range began some 2.7 billion years ago along the edge of an ancient seaway known as the Cordilleran trough. The constant ebbing and flowing seafloor was being filled daily with thick layers of mud, sand and volcanic sediment that would over the years reach miles in depth. Some 60 million years ago, the Farallon Plate under the Pacific Ocean began to subduct below the North American Plate, resulting in the creation of today's Rocky Mountains. Then, 10 million years ago, massive earthquakes triggered by the shifting of the Teton fault began tilting the mountain blocks upward, resulting today in an offset along the valley floor of nearly 30,000 feet (9,140 m).

Young and old

Even though the Teton Range contains some of the oldest rock found in North America, the Tetons themselves are one of the youngest (9 million years old) of North American mountain ranges. The 2.7-billion-year-old metamorphic rock, known as gneiss, make up the vast majority of the Teton Range. Before the collision of the two tectonic plates, these rocks of the Tetons were buried some 18 miles (30 km) below the Earth's surface.

Erosion over time

The striking appearance of the Teton Range is due to both their relatively young age and the ever-present and constant forces of erosion. Massive Pleistocene Ice Age glaciers are responsible for sculpturing the rugged high peaks with their deep U-shaped canyons. These Pleistocene glaciers disappeared some 10,000 years ago, but smaller glaciers reformed in the Teton Range during the Little Ice Age (1400 CE - 1850 CE). Today, there are 11 active glaciers within the Teton mountains, 10 of which are large enough to be named on U.S. Geological Survey maps. The Teton Glacier is shown here just to the right of the Grand Teton peak.

Slice and dice

The movement of glaciers through the Teton Range resulted in the carving of many deep depressions in the valley floor. Six, jewel-like morainal lakes are now found at the base of the Teton Range. Jackson Lake, shown here, is the largest of the glacier lakes covering 40 square miles (104 square kilometers) with a maximum depth of 438 feet (134 m). More than 100 additional backcountry and alpine lakes and ponds are also found scattered throughout the Teton Range.

Opportunities to wade

The many opportunities to enjoy water throughout the Teton Range include world-class fishing along the Snake River, which meanders along the base of the mountains. With its headwaters on the Two Ocean Plateau inside of Yellowstone National Park, the Snake River is a major river of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The Snake River, shown here flowing near the Grand Teton, is 1,078 miles (1,735 km) long and is the largest tributary of the Columbia River.

Splendor in all directions

With such natural beauty everywhere, it is little wonder that the Grand Teton National Park was established in February 1929. The park encompasses some 484 square miles (1,250 square kilometers). Park elevation ranges from 6,320 feet, (1,926 m) to 13,775 feet (4,200 m). Archeological evidence suggests that early hunter-gatherer Paleo-Indians first entered this land some 11,000 years ago. The Shoshoni tribe claimed this region when French and American fur trappers entered the beautiful river valley early in the 19th century in search of beaver pelts. A herd of American bison is shown here grazing in one of the meadows in front of Mt. Moran.

Perfect for plants

The floor of the Jackson Hole valley, as well as the many mountain valleys, are predominately composed of a loose rocky soil that is ideal for water to percolate through it. With such ideal conditions of moisture and soil, more than 1,000 species of vascular plants grow within the park's boundaries. Big leaf sagebrush, Artemisia tridentata , dominate the valley floor, intermingled with a vast diversity of wildflowers. Conifers dominate the mountain sides and canyon regions. A patch of lupine flowers, Lupinus perennis, is shown here and is one of many species of wildflowers that add seasonal beauty to the national park.

Home to many

With such a lush and diverse natural environment, wildlife abounds throughout the Teton Range. Sixty-one species of mammals, including bears, moose, badgers and more, are found in the area's alpine, forest, sagebrush flat and wetland zones. The national park is renowned for its excellent trout fishing. More than 341 species of birds, including the yellow-headed blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) have been documented within the park's boundaries. Both golden eagles, Aquila chrysaetos, and bald eagles, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, are commonly seen soaring above the vast meadows along the Snake River in search of a delicious rabbit, carrion or trout dinner.

Say 'Cheese'

Grand Teton National Park is a photographer's paradise. Beautiful landscape scenes are found around every twist and turn. For those willing to take a 3/4-mile (1.2 km) hike, one of the most iconic photos within the park is of the Old Patriarch Tree which rises above the sagebrush flats with the Cathedral Group Peaks as a background. The Old Patriarch Tree is a limber pine (Pinus flexilis) and thought to be some 1,100 years old. Limber pines are famous for their twisting and turning growth patterns as they stand against the strong winds and storms that sweep across the mountain range.

Untouched beauty

The Teton Range and the surrounding national park continues to be one of the best places in North America to experience the beauty and diversity of undisturbed natural flora and fauna. In the summer of 2017, this special place will be the site of yet another of nature's spectacular events, when the center line of a total solar eclipse will pass over Grand Teton National Park on the morning of August 21, reaching totality at 11:35 a.m. local time. It will certainly be an ideal time to visit and enjoy the many natural wonders still found in this small corner of our natural world.

Blue and beautiful

Crater Lake is a caldera lake and is one of the most spectacular natural wonders of North America. Located in south-central Oregon, Crater Lake is a part of the Cascade Mountain range volcanic arc. It is considered a sacred site by the aboriginal Klamath people. Crater Lake was first seen by a non-Native American in June 1853, when gold prospector John Wesley Hillman came upon it and gave it the name "Deep Blue Lake."

Water and woods

At a maximum depth of 1,943 feet (592 meters), Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States, and the second deepest lake in the Western Hemisphere. It also ranks are the seventh deepest lake in the world. The average depth of the lake is 1,148 feet (350 m). Since there are no running rivers or streams that enter Crater Lake, all the water is the result of rain and snowfall.

Rock overlook

At an elevation of 6,173 feet (1,881 m), Crater Lake receives an average rainfall of 66 inches (168 centimeters) and an average snowfall of 44 feet (13 m). The lake's water level remains amazingly constant through the many cycles of precipitation, evaporation and seepage. The lack of inflowing sediment-laden water from any source explains why the water of Crater Lake is so crystal clear and vibrant blue in color.

In the beginning

The story of the genesis of Crater Lake began some 500,000 years ago, when the 12,000-foot-tall (3,700 m) shield volcano called Mount Mazama formed on an edge of the Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire. Many such volcanos were forming as a result of the Pacific Plate being forced slowly below the North American Plate, creating a series of high mountain ranges, frequent earthquakes and a chain of active volcanoes.

Ancient eruption

About 7,700 years ago, Mount Mazama erupted, expelling magma as pyroclastic materials like rhyodacite pumice and fine ash destroyed life over an area of thousands of square miles. A second eruption soon followed, resulting in the collapse of the volcanic mountain into its center, forming what would become the Crater Lake caldera. This caldera was 5 to 6 miles (8 to 9.6 km) in diameter and had an original depth of 3,900 feet (1,189 m). Over the years, volcanic materials have been falling into the caldera from the collapsing walls, meaning the caldera is not as deep as it once was.

Fifth oldest national park

Crater Lake became a national park on May 22, 1902, making it the fifth oldest national park in the United States. It is the only national park in the State of Oregon. At an elevation of 6,475 feet (1,974 m), the park has two main seasons: a long, cold, windy and snowy winter and a short, wildflower-filled summer. Despite the long, cold winters, Crater Lake itself seldom freezes over. Heat from the summer is stored in the deep lake waters and the stirring of the surface by the constant winds keeps the lake's winter temperature just above freezing. The last time the lake actually froze over completely was in 1949.

Colorful beauty

When summer finally arrives each June, an explosion of wildflowers occur around the lake and surrounding meadows. Seeds must be produced and scattered before the snows arrive again in September. Crater Lake National Park has about 400 species of colorful blooming plants growing within the park's boundaries. Here, the beautiful wavy-leaved Indian paintbrush, Castilleja applegatei, grows in the rocky volcanic soil surrounding Crater Lake.

Tall trees

A wide variety of trees can be found within Crater Lake National Park, but each species is located in fairly well-defined zones determined by temperature, altitude and moisture. The lower, northeastern elevations are dominated by western yellow pine while on the western slopes, scrubby oaks and small Douglas fir prevail. Forest of Quaking aspen, Populus tremuloides, (shown here) can be found in the southern regions of the park.

Pine trees

Sugar pine, Pinus lambertiana, (shown here) are the tallest of all the pine trees found in the Crater Lake region. They can grow upwards of 200 feet (60 m) and are easily identified by the very large pine cones that can develop to be more than 1 foot (30 cm) long. Other common conifers include the ponderosa pine, Pinus ponderosa, Western hemlock, Tsuga hetero-phylla, White fir, Abies councilor and the Engelmann spruce, Picea engelmannii.

Wildlife

A wide variety of animal species make their home at Crater Lake. The clear blue lake had no native species of fish. Only the introduced rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, and the landlocked kokanee salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka, have been able to successfully adapt to the lake environment. More than 24 species of mammals, including a small herd of pronghorn, Antilocapra americana, (shown here) have been present in the lake area since the first biological survey was completed in 1896.

Volcanic islands

Several volcanic islands are found within the waters of Crater Lake. Shown here is the island known as Phantom Ship, the 400,000-year-old remains of a volcanic dike. The rugged peaks of Phantom Ship are as tall as a 16-story building, but when viewed within the grandeur of Crater Lake, the island resembles a small toy sailboat. The clear, mirror-like water allows light to play many illusions on Crater Lake and often the island seems to appear then disappear (giving rise to the name Phantom Ship) as light and shadows cross the lake.

Old Man

The Old Man of Crater Lake (shown here) is one of the more enduring stories of these incredibly blue waters. First reported in 1886, this elusive 34-foot-long (10 m) trunk of an old hemlock tree floating upright, moves mysteriously around the lake by the ever-present winds and lake currents. Thirty feet (9 m) of the trunk is submerged below the lake's surface, while the remaining 4 feet (1.2 m) bobs up and down across the crystal clear lake water.

A national gem

Crater Lake National Park is truly one of the spectacular gems of America's National Park System. From the amazing crystal clear blue water to unique volcanic features like Wizard Island (shown here) which is a volcanic cinder cone inside the Crater Lake cauldron, Crater Lake becomes a visual testimony to the beauty and wonder found throughout the natural world.

Norris enters Yellowstone

Colonel Philetus W. Norris, (August 17, 1821 – January 14, 1885) the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, entering Upper Geyser Basin. Photographer unknown, August 1878.

Baronett's toll bridge

Jack Baronett's toll bridge across the Yellowstone River (1871-1905).Baronett build and operated the toll bridge as an important link in the road to the mining region on the Clark Fork River. Photographer unknown, circa. 1879.

The capture of poacher Ed Howell

Notorious poacher Ed Howell, who illegally killed and butchered bison in Yellowstone, photographed with soldiers after he was captured.Photographer: F.J. Haynes,1894.

Bison heads

The poacher Ed Howell was caught by men who later posed with eight bison heads from animals he had poached. The men are, from left: Dr. Charles M. Gandy, Lieutenant John T. Nance, Captain George Lawson Scott and Lieutenant Forsythe.

Off to Fall River

A trip to Fall River, located in the remote "Cascade Corner," in the southwest of Yellowstone National Park. Photographer unknown, 1897.

Old Post Exchange

The old Post Exchange at Fort Yellowstone, seen from the inside. Men sit at tables and drink while the bartender stands behind the bar. Photographer: Richards,circa 1901.

Roosevelt's camp

One of Theodore Roosevelt's camps. Photographer unknown,circa 1903.

Teddy Roosevelt

President Theodore Roosevelt's camp near Calcite Springs.Photographer unknown,circa 1903.

At home

At one of President Roosevelt's camps, soldiers make themselves at home. Photographer unknown,1903.

Ladies by the canyon

Female park employees sitting on Canyon Rim. Photographer:Haynes, 1904.

Tally-ho

Horses kick up dust as a stage coach passes the National Hotel. Photographer unknown, 1904.

Maids at camp

Maids at one of the Wylie Camps, eight semi-permanent camps established throughout the park, for visitors of modest means.Photographer unknown, circa 1908.

Mammoth Hotel

Soldiers on horses in front of Mammoth Hotel. Still standing today, the hotel retains a wing of rooms built in 1911.Photographer unknown, circa 1910.

Shooting practice

Several soldiers — some on horseback, some standing and others sitting on the ground — practice their skills at Gardiner Rifle Range. Photographer unknown, circa 1910.

Ski patrol

Ski patrol at Canyon.Photographer unknown, circa 1910.

Officer drills

At Fort Yellowstone, soldiers complete drills near quarters for bachelor officers. Photographer unknown, circa 1910.

Drilling

During the Mammoth Parade, officers stand at attention and rehearse guard drills. Photographer unknown, circa 1911.

Up and over

Military personnel watch as Sergeant Henry A. McCartney jumps over high fence. Photographer unknown,1911.

Sunset salute

The firing of the sunset gun on Capitol Hill at Fort Yellowstone. Possibly the last-ever firing of the cannon, it signaled the end of army protection of Yellowstone.Photographer unknown,July 4, 1916.

For Bears Only

Ranger Naturalist Walter Phillip Martindale poses on horseback near the "Lunch Counter: For Bears Only" at Old Faithful, southeast of the upper Hamilton Store. Photographer unknown, circa 1921 to the mid 1930s.

Side car

James McBride, chief ranger of Yellowstone National Park, and a motorcycle with a side car.Photographer unknown, circa 1921.

One step

Herma Albertson Baggley, first permanent female National Park Service naturalist, beside the Mammoth Visitor Center Antlerhouse.Photographer unknown, circa 1931.

A lava delta — an expanse of unstable rocky terrain formed by cooled lava — in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park collapsed suddenly into the ocean on New Year's Eve, creating a spectacle of volcanic ash, steam and gas to mark the end of 2016.

The 26-acre (11 hectares) delta was created by a recent and massive lava flow from the Kilauea volcano pouring into the sea. The feature's collapse produced towering plumes of ash and sent large waves washing over and eroding the nearby sea cliff, according to the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). [Explosive Images: Hawaii's Kilauea Erupts for 30 Years]

Loud cracks throughout the area were audible after the collapse, which destroyed a public viewing area, park rangers reported in a statement.

After the explosive event, the Kamokuna ocean entry, where the lava met the sea, was closed to the public, and a temporary flight restriction prohibited air travel 1,000 feet (305 meters) above ground level, NPS officials said.  

No one was harmed when the delta gave way, though the power of the fracturing rock was considerable, said Park Superintendent Cindy Orlando.

"Fortunately, there were no aircraft or boats reported in the area at the time of the collapse, nor were any visitors on the delta itself, which is closed for public safety," Orlando said in the statement.

"Had anyone been close by on land, water or air, lives would have surely been lost," she added.

However, several tourists experienced an uncomfortably close call hours after the delta collapsed, when they snuck past a barricade to get a closer look at the lava.

Around 7 p.m. local time on Dec. 31, hours after the initial collapse, five park visitors crossed a closure line placed by park rangers and made their way toward the cliffs. Two park rangers chased the visitors down and returned them to safety; the cliff where they had been standing dropped into the sea 15 minutes later.

"It was a really close brush with death for them," Eruption Crew Ranger Travis Delimont said in a statement. "Luckily, they finally listened to us and turned around in time."

Original article on Live Science.

Natural art

On the high western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, the forces of erosion have created one of nature's greatest works of sculptured rock. Known today as the Yosemite Valley, this most beautiful landscape of promontories, sheer walls, domes and waterfalls are found together, creating some of the most scenic views anywhere in North America.

Origins of beauty

The genesis of the Yosemite Valley arose from the expansive molten material-magma buried deep within the Earth's surface. Crystallization and cooling of this deep magma occurred over millions of years, resulting in massive blocks of granite composed of interlocking crystals of five basic minerals — biotite, hornblende, quartz, potassium feldspar and plagioclase.

Unique formation

Because of how it was formed, the granite rock that makes up most of the Yosemite Valley is said to be plutonic rock. It is named for the Roman god of the underworld, Pluto. Much of this magma intruded into host rocks as it rose from the depths of the Earth and created individual bodies of rock, known as plutons. Due to erosion, many of these plutons are now visible today in the Yosemite Valley. The most famous of these plutons is the granite dome commonly called Half Dome.

Old, but young

Half Dome is advertised to be the most recognizable and colossal rock monument within the Sierra Nevada mountains. It rises some 8,800 feet (2,682 meters) above sea level and the summit of Half Dome rises some 4,800 feet (1,462 m) above the surrounding Yosemite Valley floor. Half Dome is about 87 million years old, one of the youngest plutonic rocks in the area.

Sculptures from violence

The igneous granite that forms Half Dome was created during the Cretaceous Period. The magma source for its creation came from the Pacific tectonic plate as it was being forced downward by the North American plate. During this mountain-building episode some 10 million years ago that formed the modern Sierra Nevada range, many deep granite domes were brought near the surface where the forces of erosion have sculptured the features we see today.

Weather's effects

The granite of Half Dome is composed of medium to coarse grains of well-formed plates of biotite and crystals of hornblende. This granite tends to disintegrate by what geologists refer to as sheet jointing. The action of freezing and thawing along these joints has resulted in the dome's contours seen today. The rounded crown of Half Dome is the result of whole sheets of rock peeling away in a weathering process called exfoliation.

Remaining questions

Three sides of Half Dome are smooth and round while the remaining face is a 2,000-foot (610 m) sheer cliff. These features make this granite dome appear to have been cut in half. Geologist still question if there was ever once a matching half to Half Dome. Perhaps as it was formed deep within the Earth, events prevented the second half from ever forming. Or, as others suggest, the vertical joints within the massive granite dome may have broken loose and undercut Half Dome's base, resulting in ancient glaciers carrying away the second part of the rock dome and forming the nearby U-shaped valley.

High traffic area

Half Dome, as well as majority of the Yosemite Valley, is overseen and protected within Yosemite National Park. This highly visited national park encompasses some 1,169 square miles (3,028 square kilometers) of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was first explored by Americans in 1855, when James Hutchings and artist Thomas Ayres visited the wilderness area. Their writings and drawings quickly resulted in the Yosemite Grant Bill, making this land the first parkland in America preserved specifically for public use by action of the United States Congress. The legislation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War on June 30, 1864.

Diverse habitats

The elevation of Yosemite National Park ranges from 2,127 to 13,114 feet (648 to 3,997 m). The vast wilderness areas of the park encompass five major vegetation zones. More than 160 of the nearly 3,500 plant species found within the park have been designated as rare. Most famous of those rare species would be the three ancient giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum

So much to do

Recreational opportunities are abundant throughout the Yosemite Valley. Hiking, camping, mountain biking and the never-ending opportunities for spectacular photography bring nearly 4 million visitors to the national park each year. One very popular hike is to the top of Half Dome. In 1919, a cable route, shown here, was created along the eastern face to help hikers pull themselves up to the summit. This strenuous hike to the top and back can take upwards of 12 hours.

Tribal tales

The Yosemite Valley was once the land of the Ahwahneechee tribe. Tribal legend tells the story of a wife and her husband once fighting with each other near the giant granite domes. Because of their wicked fighting, both were turned into stone with the wife, Tissiak, becoming Half Dome. Even today, the tears of Tissiak stain the sheer granite face of Half Dome.

Destination spot

Half Dome within all of Yosemite National Park became the world's first national park in 1906. The incredible beauty and uniqueness of this wilderness land resulted in Yosemite being declared as a UNESCO Heritage Site in 1984. Yosemite National Park today is certainly considered a must-visit place for many travelers from all around the world.

Unspoiled Earth

High in the crest of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of central California, the Rio Los Santos Reyes cuts deeply through the ancient granite of this spectacular mountain range. Named in 1805 by Spanish army officer Gabriel Moraga, the flowing waters of the Kings River over the millennia, along with other natural forces of erosion, have created an unspoiled, beautiful landscape much of which is preserved today within the boundary of Kings Canyon National Park.

Winding waters

The Kings River is the major river of this part of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It runs southward for some 125 miles (200 kilometers), through the mountainous landscape containing deep glaciated canyons, meadows and waterfalls flowing from multiple lakes. Within the park boundaries are more than 20 mountain peaks that rise in elevation more than 13,000 feet (4,000 meters).

Keeping watch

Kings Canyon National Park's southern boundary adjoins the northern boundary of Sequoia National Park. Within the Kings Canyon boundary, six groves of giant sequoia trees, (Sequoiadendron giganteum) grow under the watchful protection of the U.S. National Park Service. Kings Canyon National Park encompasses 722 square miles (1,869 square kilometers). Kings Canyon, together with Sequoia National Park, was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1976. The boundaries of both national parks are outlined in red in this photo taken by a satellite in space.

Relative age

The Sierra Nevada Mountains are relatively young in geological time. Most geologists think these predominately granite mountains are less than 10 million years old. Four distinct periods of glacier formation have carved deep valleys and rugged peaks throughout the mountain range. Since granite readily resists all forces of erosion, including glaciation, the landscape of beautiful Kings Canyon and its surrounding area features many hanging valleys, alpine lakes, expansive meadows and waterfalls. Columbine Lake is shown here.

Diverse environments

The State of California is home to nearly 6,000 species of vascular plants and more than 20 percent of them are found in the Kings Canyon-Sequoia National Parks. The extreme variance in elevation, from 1,360 feet (412 m) to 14,494 feet (4,417 m) creates a wide variety of environments, from hot, dry lowlands to snow-covered alpine peaks. Even when the soils are limited, plants such as this Common manzanita shrub, Arctostaphylos manzanita, find a way to take root and thrive on this granite cliff.

Botanical variety

Botanists have identified more than 100 species of manzanita within the genus group Arctostaphylos. They vary in size from low-growing ground cover to diminutive trees with crowns reaching 20 feet (6 m). They are indigenous to western North America, from British Columbia, Canada, to Baja, Mexico. Manzanita bark is very smooth and its colors can range from orange to red. Small red berries ripen each summer and resemble little apples. Manzanita is a Spanish word for "little apple."

Lovely foliage

Mountain dogwood, Cornus nuttallii, is another of the beautiful trees found within Kings Canyon National Park. When they bloom in April through June, they turn the high Sierra Mountains of Kings Canyon into a spectacular floral display. Mountain dogwood trees can grow to 30 feet (9 m) in height and the large flowers will be 3-4 inches (7-10 cm) in diameter.

Long life

Sugar Pines, Pinus lambertiana, are also a common tree found within Kings Canyon National Park. They are the tallest of all pine trees, reaching a height of 200 feet (61 m). They can live to upwards of 500 years and are second only in volume to their nearby giant sequoia neighbors. They are found from the Cascade Mountain Range of central Oregon to the Sierra San Pedro Mountains of Baja California.

Danger zone

Sugar pine cones are known for their large size, having the longest cones of any conifer — ranging in size from 9 to 18 inches (23 to 46 cm) and 4 to 5 inches (10 to 13 cm) wide. Studies show that each cone contains about 150 viable seeds. Seeds are large and heavy with relatively small wings. Most seeds fall within 100 feet (30 m) of their parent tree. Anyone living or visiting any area where sugar pines grow must be cautious of falling sugar pine cones, as the large cones can cause severe injury when falling to the ground from a height of 200 feet (61 m).

Natural habitats

The largest natural grove of giant sequoia trees, Sequoiadendron giganteum, are found within Kings Canyon National Park. Nearly 16,000 of these magnificent trees with a diameter greater than 1 foot (0.3 m) thrive in the Grant Grove and Redwood Mountain Grove of the park. The General Grant Tree, shown here, was named in 1867 in honor of General Ulysses S. Grant. It is 267 feet (81 m) tall, has a ground circumference of 107 feet (33 m) and a diameter of 13 feet (3.9 m) at a distance of 180 feet (55 m) above the base. It is considered to be the second largest tree in the world.

Reaching the clouds

Elevation within Kings Canyon National Park ranges from 2,100 to 14,248 feet (640-4,343 m). Many of the highest granite peaks are adorned with the rare foxtail pine trees, Pinus balfouriana, which is shown here. These rare trees are endemic to California and can live for more than 3,000 years. They are closely related to the Rocky Mountain and Great Basin bristlecone pines, Pinus aristata.

Many critters

More than 300 species of wildlife live within Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The wide variety of ecological zones and the great variance of elevation make for a wilderness teeming with birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects, fish and mammals. The American pika, Ochotona princeps, shown here, is a common resident at the highest elevations of the park. These small, rodent-like herbivores readily survive just above the treeline of the park's highest mountain tops.

Little-known paradise

The North American continent is blessed with many spectacular wildness areas. Kings Canyon National Park in the High Sierra Nevada Mountains of California may not be the most famous of these wilderness areas but it is surely as magnificent as any virgin wilderness area on the continent. From hikers to bikers, photographers and just lovers of nature, Kings Canyon is a natural paradise to explore and enjoy. Weather can be extreme here as some 22 feet (6.7 m) of snow has been known to fall during the winter months. The General Grant tree is shown here during one of those famous Kings Canyon National Park snowstorms.

Colorful view

Acadia National Park is located in the farnortheastern corner of Maine. During certain months of the year, a few mountain peaks of Acadia receive the first rays of morning sun in the United States. The landscape found here is considered to be one of the most geologically diverse sites along the entire Atlantic coast.

Gorgeous rock

The land of Acadia National Park is made up of all three types of rocks: sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. Granite is the underlying bedrock of Acadia. Various granite can be found here, differing slightly in color, texture, chemical composition and accessory minerals.

Ancient carvings

Massive Pleistocene glaciers once covered even the highest peaks of Acadia, with ever-pounding waves creating the incredible landscapes seen in the region today. The erosional force of the glaciers polished the bedrock and carved grooves in the granite. Large U-shaped valleys that extended to the sea were sculpted by the movement of the ice. Large areas of glacial debris, including large boulders, were left scattered across the land.

Natural effects

When the glaciers melted at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, the level of the Atlantic Ocean rose rapidly, reaching a height some 230 feet (70 meters) higher than what is found today. The complex interactions between glaciation, sea level fluctuation and simple crustal rebound all helped shape the unique and interesting landscape found throughout Arcadia.

Sandy variety

Acadia is blessed with many different types ofbeaches. The sand composition of the beach depends on the energy of the Atlantic waves that create it. Coves protect some beaches from strong waves and result in the fine-grain Sand Beach shown here. Sand Beach is considered a geological rarity, as it is one of the few cold-water, shell-based sand beaches in the world. Other Acadia beaches unprotected from the surf of the Atlantic Ocean consist of cobbles, pebbles and large boulders.

Highs and lows

Shown here is one of more than 20 mountains that rise directly from the sea at Acadia National Park. Cadillac Mountain, a mountain found on the mainland, rises some 1,530 feet (466 m) and is not only the highest point in the park but also the highest point along the Atlantic Seaboard, from the Canadian border to the granite monoliths of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Lakes and ponds

Acadia is also a land of lakes and ponds covering about 2,600 acres (1,052 hectares) of the park, or some 7.4 percent of the land. Fourteen designated "GreatPonds" (natural bodies whose water surface covers more than 10 ac (4 hectares) are scattered across the Acadia landscape.

Waters galore

More than 20 percent of Acadia's landscape is made up of a variety of wetlands. Marine aquatic beds, freshwater marshes, salt marshes and inter-tidal shellfish flats are all found here.

Got seasons?

The climate of Acadia is highly effected by its latitude and marine influences. Moisture falls in every form in Acadia. Fog is common during the summer months, rain falls every month and severe ice and snowstorms are common throughout the winter. All the climatic factors continue to erode and shape the beauty of Acadia. Here, a wintry view of Acadia is seen from the top of Cadillac Mountain.

Long-time inhabitants

The Wabanaki people have lived in the region of Acadia for the past 12,000 years. To this day, they consider the Mount Desert Island and the Gulf of Maine region as the center of their traditional homelands. Historically, the Wabanaki people are known for their superb birch bark canoes that became so important to early French Voyageurs and fur traders in North America.

Origin of a name

It was the year 1524 when Italian explorer Verranzamp first visited this northeastern coastline. He believed the land was similar to the pastoral region of ancient Greece — "Arcadie." Map makers soon began labeling this region "L'Arcadie." Later, the "r" was dropped and early European settlers of eastern Canada became known as "Acadians."

Natural wonders

The land of Acadia National Park is one ofAmerica's natural wonders. It is the product of a great period of geological time. Powerful forces from massive ice sheets to mountain-building and molten magma, in conjunction with the persistent forces of wind, water, waves and temperature all came together here to form the spectacular landscape that we see and can enjoy today at Acadia.

Uncommon area

On the western edge of the Colorado Plateau is a most unique place known today as Zion National Park. The geological story of Zion began more that 250 million years ago, when this now spectacular area was covered by a shallow, inland sea. At that time, the area was relatively flat and the elevation was near sea level.

Mother Nature moves

The forces of erosion began their work for thousands of years, bringing layers and layers of gravel, mud and sand to cover the Zion basin. The weight of these multiple layers of sediment caused the Zion basin to sink. Over the millennia, crustal forces caused the land to rise and fall as the environment alternated from shallow seas to coastal plains to vast areas of windblown sandy deserts.

An ancient story

Zion is the geological story of an accumulation of a 10,000-foot-thick (3,050 meters) layer of sedimentation followed by regional uplifting of the land. The oldest rocks exposed at Zion are Permian Kaibab limestone, which just happens to be the top and youngest layer of rock exposed at the nearby Grand Canyon. Thus, where the geological story ends at the Grand Canyon, it begins anew in the spectacular cliffs and canyons of Zion.

Geographically unique

This whole geographical region displays a unique geological story of five spectacular cliffs rising northward from the Grand Canyon through Zion and continuing north into the Bryce Canyon area. The region is known as the Grand Staircase. When viewing the whole Grand Staircase region, a spectacular 2-billion-year geological history of the Earth is exposed.

Layers of history

The water that fell and flowed upon the Zion basin filtered down through the thick sediments. It contained common cementing agents like silica, calcium carbonate and iron oxide that resulted in the ancient seabeds turning into mudstone, shale, limestone and sandstone. The many layers of sediment all had distinct characteristics of color and varying minerals resulting in the varied and unique landscape seen today.

Natural erosion

When the whole Colorado Plateau began to rise some 20 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch, the Zion basin rose in elevation from near sea level upward to nearly 10,000 feet (3,050 m). Ancient rivers immediately began flowing down, beginning the erosion of the land into the deep and narrow canyons found at Zion today. Today, the Virgin River is still carrying on the never-ending process of carving and carrying away the sedimentary rocks of Zion.

Change is the norm

Geologists suggest that the North Fork of the Virgin River that flows through a part of Zion moves almost 5,000 tons of rock fragments every day. Flash floods that crash through the canyons after a summer thunderstorm cause most of the erosion. Such a flash flood can send some 9,000 cubic feet (255 cubic meters) of water per second raging down the Zion Canyon. Geologists further estimate that these flash floods are resulting in the floor of Zion Canyon lowering at a rate of 600 feet (183 m) per million years.

Paradise found

Zion National Park was established on Nov. 19,1919, to protect this 229-square-mile (590 square kilometers) geological and natural paradise. It was the first national park established in Utah and is revered by visitors for its slot canyons, monoliths, natural arches, rivers and waterfalls. The desire of visitors to experience the grandeur of Zion led to the building between 1927 and 1930 of the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway, which follows the profile of Pine Creek Canyon and features a 1.1-mile-long (1.8 km) tunnel blasted and bored through the mountain of thick Navajo sandstone. Aseries of "gallery windows" were blasted through the cliff face, creating a source of natural light, ventilation and spectacular views.

Variety in abundance

The elevations of Zion vary from near 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above sea level on the Uinkaret Plateau to almost 10,000 feet (3,050 m) at the summit of the Markagunt Plateau. Such diverse elevations bring about varying amounts of sunlight, rainfall and temperature ranges and result in a wide variety of plant life covering the land. More than 900 species of plants are indigenous to Zion. Species native to riparian and aquatic habitats, arid grassland and desert shrub can be found on the park grounds. At the higher elevations, vast forests of pinyon-juniper, ponderosa pine, mixed-conifer and aspen can all be found. The Eastwood Indian Paintbrush, shown here, flourishes in the cracks of the canyon walls of Zion.

Diversity abounds

The wide range of habitats found within Zion leads to a great diversity and abundance of animal life. Since Zion is located at the meeting point of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin and Mojave Deserts, physio-geographic zones, animals from all those regions are commonly found here. More than 78 species of mammals, 291 species of birds, 44 species of reptiles and amphibians as well as 8 species of fish are found at Zion. A desert tortoise, Gopherus agassizii, shown here, slowly moves through an arid region of Zion.

Checkboard geology

The unique geology of Zion is no better illustrated than with the cliffs of checkerboard sandstone located in the eastern area of the national park. The horizontal lines seen here were created in the sandstone during the Jurassic period by blowing sands from the massive ancient dunes. Further weathering from thousands of years of freezing and thawing hasresulted in creating the vertical lines.

Calling Paradise home

Isaac Behunin, a Mormon settler who in 1861 became the first European to build a cabin and settle here, named his new home Zion. Many of the most spectacular features found within Zion National Park are names found within the Bible and the Book of Mormon. All accurately represent the magnificent nature and splendor found in this land known as Zion.

One of the quirks of government accounting is that our nation's most valuable assets – from aircraft carriers to interstate highways – don't appear on any national balance sheet. In part this is because it is hard to put a value on them. How can we calculate the worth of the Washington Monument? And yet, without such a yardstick, it is hard to calibrate just how much money we should spend to maintain and replenish these precious assets over long periods of time.

America's national parks – often called "America's best idea" – are a prime example. The National Park Service (NPS), which manages the park system, celebrates its 100th birthday this summer. From Yellowstone to Ellis Island, the 412 places that NPS protects tell America’s story.

But what are they worth?

Past attempts to answer this question have typically focused on how much money visitors spend in or around the parks. But that is only a small part of the story. In particular, it doesn’t account for people who don’t visit the parks, but who nevertheless treasure the iconic scenery and want America’s historic battlefields, wildlife habitats and finest seashores to be protected.

In a study released this month and conducted independently of the National Park Service, we sought to develop the first-ever comprehensive assessment of what the parks are worth to the public. We calculated that Americans put a total value of US$92 billion per year on our national parks, monuments, seashores and recreation areas. However, what we also concluded is that we are not funding the park system at a level that reflects its value.

Why calculate the parks' worth?

This project responds to the 2009 report of the Second Century Commission, a group of prominent scientists, historians, legislators and conservationists that considered how to ensure that the national parks thrive over the next century. The commission called for full government funding for NPS, but also recommended creating an endowment to help the agency survive flat or declining federal appropriations.

To lay the groundwork for new funding approaches, we needed to establish a baseline for the true economic value of the park system. This had never been done before.

Using methods similar to the way federal agencies analyze proposed regulations, we conducted a peer-reviewed economic study to estimate what the national parks are worth to Americans. We asked a representative sample of more than 700 households how much they would pay in increased taxes to preserve those assets for themselves and their grandchildren.

Our results showed that Americans put a total value of $92 billion per year on our national parks, monuments, seashores and recreation areas. This represents the amount respondents would pay to preserve the parks ($62 billion) and their programs ($30 billion) – whether they actually visit the parks or not. Ninety-five percent said that protecting national parks for future generations was important, and 81 percent were willing to pay higher federal taxes to ensure that the park system was protected and preserved.

Visitors at Mather Point, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. More than five million people visited the park in 2015. Michael Quinn, National Park Service/Flickr, CC BY

Our estimated value is actually a conservative figure, for several reasons. First, we calculated a value only for the percentage of U.S. households who returned the survey. Those who didn’t respond were assumed to place zero value on the parks – even though our post-survey test showed that most of the nonrespondents simply didn’t have time to fill out a long questionnaire. We chose the most conservative approach in terms of methodology, weighting of the sample and handling responses from people who opposed paying higher taxes on principle.

We also excluded some park benefits which fall into the category of “public goods.” For example, trees in the parks store large amounts of carbon and absorb pollutants from soil and water. We have studied these topics separately using different methodologies.

One surprising finding is that the public cares a lot about programs that the National Park Service runs, such as teaching kids about nature, developing teacher curriculum materials and interpreting historical events. In recent years NPS has devoted enormous time and resources to educational efforts, such as the “Every Kid in A Park” initiative, which aims to bring every fourth grader in the United States to a national park. NPS is also broadening its historical interpretation services to reflect the diversity of our population and experiences of groups such as African-Americans, Latinos/Latinas and women.

Learning about bugs at Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio. National Park Service/Flickr, CC BY

Some government officials contend that these efforts are low priorities compared to basic maintenance. But NPS officials see teaching young people about historical sites and conservation as a way to make sure that the next generation of Americans feel connected to the parks and to nature. Our study suggests that NPS is on the right track.

Protecting the parks

Our analysis provides a new perspective on funding for the national park system. The law that Congress passed when it created the NPS charges the agency with preserving the parks “unimpaired” forever. But NPS gets its funding from a combination of visitor fees and an annual congressional appropriation, which total some $3 billion yearly. That amount is inadequate to maintain and invest in an asset valued at over $90 billion.

Moreover, by our calculations, Congress has cut its funding for NPS by 15 percent over the past 15 years when inflation is factored in. Consequently, the agency is fighting an uphill battle to keep parks pristine and unspoiled as visitor numbers climb and climate change stresses natural resources in the parks.

NPS has a backlog of overdue maintenance projects that stands at $12 billion and rising. The list includes park infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, campgrounds, trails and utilities, along with preventing forest fires and repairing historical monuments and visitor facilities.

Volunteers help repair a damaged trail in Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington. National Park Service

The NPS has also been hurt by cuts to the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which provides money to purchase private properties within parks when they go up for sale in order to prevent development by private buyers. NPS is required to provide services such as utilities and road access to these properties, which are known as inholdings, so often the agency saves money by buying them and merging them into the surrounding park.

Our study reinforces the Second Century Commission’s conclusion that in order to thrive, the national park system needs a new funding model and a more flexible funding structure. Many universities, museums and other charitable institutions use endowments to achieve long-term financial stability that supports their long-term missions. The commission recommended creating an endowment for the park system to provide a steady income that could help NPS to thrive into the next century – for example, by enabling it to issue “green bonds” to pay for infrastructure repairs. We also believe that as a 100th birthday gift, Congress should also give NPS a one-time grant to pay off its maintenance backlog.

Congress is considering legislation that would establish a nonprofit national parks endowment to supplement federal dollars. Another pending bill would create a Centennial Challenge Fund that would match private dollars with federal money to support signature projects to enhance visitors' experiences. But other proposals would threaten NPS funding, either through direct cuts or indirectly – for example, by slashing budgets needed to enforce the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act.

As the National Park Service celebrates its 100th birthday, our study demonstrates that the American public benefits from just knowing that our national parks are protected for current and future generations. The continued uncertainty of living year to year on an annual budget is incompatible with NPS' responsibility to provide perpetual protection for the treasured public lands, monuments and ecosystems that make up our national parks.

Linda J. Bilmes, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Finance, Harvard University and John Loomis, Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The jaw-dropping canyon in Zion National Park was transformed in a flash 4,800 years ago, when the entire face of a mountain collapsed, new research suggests.

The gorgeous Utah canyon is famous for its sheer cliff walls and wide, flat valley bottom. New geological evidence reveals that the picturesque valley floor formed from an enormous avalanche that dammed the nearby Virgin River. The landslide also created a massive lake that remained for 700 years, according to a new study published in the June issue of journal GSA Today.

"The ancient Zion landslide would cover New York City's Central Park with 275 feet [83 meters] of debris," study senior author Jeff Moore, a geophysicist at the University of Utah, said in a statement. "And you would need 90 times the volume of concrete in Hoover Dam to re-create the mountainside that failed." [Photos: IMAX Showcases National Parks' Stunning Beauty]

Ancient landslide

Researchers had long known that a landslide helped shape the canyon floor in Zion National Park, but exactly when it occurred and how big it was had been matters of debate.

To get a better picture, Moore and his colleagues analyzed the different rock layers along the canyon carved by the Virgin River, as well as the topography in the region. The researchers then looked at sediments formed by the ancient landslide and tried to match them with exposed rock in the canyon to re-create the ancient topography prior to the landslide.

The team also used beryllium isotopes to date the sediments from the landslide. (Isotopes are atoms of an element with different numbers of neutrons.) The researchers concluded that the landslide occurred about 4,800 years ago.

The team also used computer simulations to re-create the dramatic event. The researchers found that a 2,952-foot-high (900 m) chunk of rock fell from the Sentinel rock formation, which stands 7,157 feet (2,180 m) high and overlooks Zion Canyon. The massive rockfall lasted just about a minute, with rocky debris reaching peak speeds of 180 to 200 mph (290 to 322 km/h). 

Formed in a flash

The Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains, the caldera in Yellowstone Park: Many of the world's most unique and striking geological features were carved by the movement of earth, wind, water and fire millions of years before humans set foot in the structures.   

In this way, this cataclysm in Zion Canyon is remarkable: The dramatic reshaping of the landscape occurred during recorded history. Around the same time in the Middle East, the ancient Sumerians were erecting some of the first ziggurats, or massive step pyramids. Archaic Native Americans inhabited the forbidding terrain around Zion Canyon as far back as 10,000 years ago, according to the National Park Service. In theory, then, it's possible that some people actually witnessed the terrifying event.

A similar landslide could spell disaster if it occurred today, the researchers said.

"This catastrophic landslide of massive proportions had two effects," Moore said. "One was constructive, creating paradise through cataclysm. More than 3.6 million people last year enjoyed the flat and tranquil valley floor of Zion Canyon, which owes its existence to this landslide. The other aspect is the extreme hazard that a similar event would pose if it happened today."

Original article on Live Science.

What began as a well-intentioned but ill-informed act ended with the death of a young wild animal recently at Yellowstone National Park. And the incident carries a sobering lesson for people tempted to "help" wildlife that they believe to be in distress.

During the week of May 9, visitors to Yellowstone came across a solitary bison calf. Thinking it was abandoned, they took the animal into their vehicle and transported it to a park station. Later, the newborn calf was released back into the wild, and the National Park Service (NPS) issued the visitors a citation, according to a statement from the NPS released May 16.

But after the calf was released into the wild, it was repeatedly rejected by its herd and was endangering itself by approaching people and cars on the road, according to Charissa Reid, a public affairs specialist with Yellowstone National Park. Reid told Live Science that park rangers made numerous attempts to reunite the calf with a nearby herd but were unsuccessful, and eventually had no option but to euthanize the calf. [7 Iconic American Animals]

Reid said that the park visitors who transported the calf found it in the middle of the road in an area where cell phone reception was poor and they were unable to contact park officials. When their efforts to move the calf off the road were unsuccessful, they placed the calf in their car — an illegal act — and drove it to a ranger station. Reid told Live Science that in spite of rangers' repeated attempts to return the calf to a herd close by, the calf kept coming back to the road, creating a hazard for itself and for people.

"It seemed to be very imprinted on people rather than on bison," Reid said.

On social media, many people expressed concerns that euthanizing the calf seemed like a drastic action, and in a Facebook comment, a Yellowstone National Park representative responded to numerous questions about why the calf had to be killed.

The NPS is not equipped to care for a calf that can't forage on its own, and sending the calf outside the park would require months of quarantine to observe it for signs of brucellosis, a highly contagious bacterial infection that affects domestic animals and people, the rep said. However, "no approved quarantine facilities exist at this time," the Yellowstone representative added.

Park regulations dictate that visitors refrain from contact with all wild animals as a safety measure. In the case of young animals, human contact also can lead mother animals to reject their babies. But even when humans are not involved, bison mothers — especially young ones — will sometimes abandon their calves, which then typically succumb to predators or to starvation, the Yellowstone representative noted.

And the NPS does not intervene in those circumstances either.

"Our goal is to maintain the ecological processes of Yellowstone," the representative said. And though it might be difficult for park visitors to accept, naturally occurring animal deaths are one of those processes, the rep added.

The bison was officially designated as the United States' national mammal on May 9, joining the bald eagle as both a symbol of the country and a representative of significant conservation achievements. Bison were hunted to near extinction during the 19th century, and by 1902, only two dozen free-ranging bison remained in Yellowstone, according to the NPS. Regulations and preservation initiatives were introduced to help the species recover, and their populations have rebounded: As of July 2015, there were approximately 30,000 bison in public and private herds in the U.S., with 4,900 wild bison in Yellowstone.

These shaggy bovines are unquestionably charismatic, but when they're encountered in a national park, they are best appreciated from a distance — at least 25 yards (23 meters) away, according to NPS guidelines. And that's not just for their own well-being — approaching wild animals can have deadly consequences for people as well, the NPS warned.

The bison is North America's largest land mammal. Adult males stand 6 feet (2 m) tall and weigh up to 2,000 lbs. (907 kilograms), and females can weigh up to 1,000 lbs. (454 kg). For animals that are so heavy, they can run surprisingly fast — up to 30 mph (48 km/h).

In 2015, five Yellowstone park visitors were seriously injured after approaching bison from unsafe distances. Three of those visitors were taking photos, and two of them reported having their backs to the animals at the time, according to a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on March 24.

In the NPS statement, officials called for park visitors to show respect for wildlife and park regulations, which were created to protect both animals and people. This is especially critical for visitors to remember when considering approaching wildlife that appears to need help, which could put them or the animal in jeopardy.

"The safety of these animals, as well as human safety, depends on everyone using good judgment," the NPS said.

Follow Mindy Weisberger on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Whether you're swimming in crystal-clear lakes, taking in the stunning panoramic views of mountains, or frolicking in fields of blooming wildflowers, camping in nature can be one of the best ways to get out and enjoy the summer months.

But how do you pick a campsite in a country overflowing with natural beauty? Nearly 1 million square miles (2.6 million square kilometers), or about 14 percent of the U.S.' total landmass, is under some form of protection, according to Protected Planet, an international database of nature reserves and protected spaces worldwide.

"One of the greatest gifts the United States gave the world is a national park system, or the idea of a national park system," said Marco Johnson, the field staffing director for the National Outdoor Leadership School in Wyoming. "We just have a ridiculous amount of terrain for people to visit."

That can be an intimidating starting point for would-be nature lovers. But by using a few simple rules, people can find stunning, relaxing and pristine spots to camp for every experience level.  [Visit Some of the Best Campsites in the Country]

1. Choose a comfort level.

Are you planning to ice-hike your way to the top of a snowy peak, harvest all of your water and food, and sleep on the frigid, rocky ground? Or is glamping (i.e., glamorous camping) with satellite TV more your style?

Picking a site that matches your camping experience level is key, Johnson said. For those who have never camped before, getting out with a group, such as the Sierra Club or a youth group, can be a good way to experience nature in a less intimidating way. [Hiking with Kids: 7 Tips for Getting Outside This Summer]

Car camping can also provide an easy introduction to nature, he said.

"People shouldn't pooh-pooh the idea of car camping," Johnson told Live Science.

In national parks, many "developed" campsites — which often have showers, coin-operated washers and dryers, general stores and drive-in camping spots — can be nestled atop gorgeous mountain peaks or next to bucolic lakes that are as beautiful as anything found in the rugged backcountry, Johnson said. 

2. Explore the nearby area.

While summiting Mount Everest may be on some adventurers' bucket lists, most people have natural wonders much closer to home, Johnson said.  

Johnson, for instance, grew up near the Adirondack Mountains in New York.

"I am as blown away by what I got to see and do back home in the Adirondacks as any of the places around the world that I've had the opportunity to go, both personally and professionally," Johnson said.

Other gorgeous spots near urban centers include Shenandoah National Park, just an hour drive from Washington, D.C.; Mount Rainier National Park, just a two-hour drive from Seattle; and Everglades National Park, an hour from Miami. [Photos: IMAX Showcases National Parks' Astounding Beauty]

Camping close to home requires less investment in time and planning, and it means people can get exposure to camping even when they haven't done it before. So if the tent is killing someone's back or your kid barfs in her sleeping bag, you can just head back home. Car camping also makes it easy to skip a hike and go to the ranger station to hear an interpretive talk if it's rainy or cold, Johnson said.

3. Reserve early.

The most popular spots, like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park and Yosemite National Park, often have popular campgrounds that are reserved months in advance, Johnson said.

Many camping spots can be booked through big sites such as ReserveAmerica or Recreation.gov. Reservations can be made up to six months in advance and can fill up in minutes, so setting a calendar reminder can be helpful to get the most coveted spots.

4. Go in the off-season.

The most visited destinations are popular for a reason: They're stunning, or have unique geological formations or one-of-a-kind attractions that simply can't be found anywhere else. But if you have your heart set on camping in Grand Teton National Park or backpacking in the Zion Narrows, there are still times when it's possible to do so, Johnson said.

"I would recommend visiting those in the shoulder season — before Memorial Day and after Labor Day," Johnson said. "You can be rewarded with a place you have much to yourself."

In many national parks, the weeks before May or after September may not have picture-perfect weather, but it isn't bone-chillingly cold, either, he said.

Campers willing to bring an extra layer or a rain jacket, a camping lantern for shorter daylight hours and a thicker sleeping bag may broaden their experience and see things the throngs miss.

For instance, wildlife may avoid crowds, so people visiting in the off-season may have a better chance to spot an elk or a moose, Johnson said.

However, check with the visitor center to determine what the off-season is. Death Valley National Park visits peak in early spring and fall, while Yosemite National Park may be blanketed in snow then. Meanwhile, summer is peak monsoon season in Zion National Park, which can lead to life-threatening flash floods, according to the National Park Service.   

5. Explore state, county or local parks.

While national parks and monuments get a lot of attention, state parks are also beautiful sites to visit, Johnson said.

For instance, throngs of tourists visit Muir Woods in California, a grove of majestic, old-growth trees, some of which were around when Charlemagne was conquering Europe. But the popular tourist attraction is often clogged with people, and there's no place to camp. Given that much of the California coast is dotted with old-growth redwood forests, people may have better luck visiting lesser-known parks, Johnson said. For example, Samuel P. Taylor State Park is just a short drive from Muir Woods. And those who want to visit Grand Teton National Park may have better luck finding cabins or campsites in Bridger-Teton National Forest. Google Maps or regional outdoor books can offer guidance on what is nearby, Johnson said.

6. Take an impromptu trip.

Even if you don't plan ahead and show up to a national park to find all of the campsites filled, all is not lost. Many national parks are close to national forests, state parks and other protected areas.

People can camp in national forests as long as their car is off the road, they are willing hike in a bit to the campsite, they are willing to heed nature's call without leaving waste uncovered and are willing to pack up all their things when they leave. (They are also supposed to avoid camping near waterways to avoid polluting them, according to the U.S. Forest Service.)

In addition, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management also run campgrounds that are first-come, first-serve.

7. Protect the wilderness.

People who are willing to hike with their food, water and housing — and poop in a hole or "pack it in and out" and leave no trace — have nearly limitless options. Almost every national park has ample backcountry camping options, as do many Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management areas.

When choosing a spot, it helps to remember that these wild spaces aren't just for campers; a whole ecosystem lives there. That means people should try to minimize their impact by avoiding camping too close to water or low, shrubby plants, Johnson said.  

People who find that perfect spot might be wise to keep quiet about it, Johnson said.

"I cringe every time I see an outsider article saying the 'five best parks that nobody knows about': Well, they do now," Johnson said.

Those who find a pristine spot should also look for a slightly different spot when they go camping again, "so that I'm not going back to the same spot I love over and over again and it becomes, rather than a pristine site, an 'Oh, it's definitely an impacted site,'" Johnson said.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitterand Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

It's National Park Week, but for anyone who is stuck indoors and can't hit the road, Google is making it easy to virtually visit many of America's treasures.

Google Street View and Google Cultural Institute have teamed up to showcase U.S. national parks and historic sites on one easy-to-navigate web page. Users can overlook the Merced River in Yosemite National Park in California, view volcanic cinder cones at Idaho's Craters of the Moon National Monument and take a virtual hike in the Everglades in Florida, among other virtual adventures.

The featured parks include at least one from every state, and aren't limited to surface streets. Views of Cedar Sink at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky take Street View underground. And at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah, Street View becomes "Boat View," featuring panoramas of Lake Powell and the Colorado River. [All Yours: 10 Least Visited National Parks]

Not feeling outdoorsy? Check out the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site in Greenville, Tennessee, home of the 17th U.S. president. You can even read the informational signs outside the visitor center. Or, take a stroll around the Statue of Liberty in New York City, and get an idea of what it's like to peer up at this landmark's iconic green visage.

Meanwhile, the Cultural Institute spotlights a collection of objects collected from national parks and historic sites, such as a portrait of naturalist John Muir by his sister, Mary Muir Hand; the desk upon which Theodore Roosevelt is thought to have written his first presidential proclamation; and a breathtaking Sioux or Cheyenne shirt embroidered with porcupine quills, deer bone and eagle feathers.

Other objects in the gallery include a rusty whiskey still from Congaree National Park in South Carolina, a copper ingot from Keweenaw National Historical Park in Michigan, and a fragment of a letter from Ulysses S. Grant to his wife beginning, "Dearest Julia, I have just –".

National Park Week is an annual celebration of the National Park System. Between April 16 and April 24, all national parks offer free admission, and individual parks host specialized programs. This year, the Park Service is embracing technology with Instameets, prearranged gatherings where smartphones and social media postings are encouraged.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

The better half

It has been said that the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is the "best side" to experience the grandeur and wilderness found in this most southern part of the massive Colorado Plateau.

Diversity abounds

At an elevation of 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) above sea level, the North Rim is 1,000 feet (305 m) higher than the more popular South Rim. This higher elevation results in heavy winter snows and a shorter summer growing season. Such climatic factors result in an environment still dominated by ponderosa pine trees (pinus ponderosa) but with a mixture of aspen, maple, birch and oak trees.

Varied fauna

Temperatures at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon average about 10 degrees cooler than found at the South Rim. These cooler temperatures also aid in a variety of animal life flourishing here that is not found at the drier and warmer South Rim. A North Rim Merriam’s turkey, Meleagris gallopavo merriami, is shown here walking among the white-barked aspen and fir trees.

Rare life makes its home

A unique species of mammal found at the North Rimis the Kaibab squirrel, Sciurus aberti kaibabensis. This tassel-eared squirrel is found nowhere else in the world than in this area of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Its white tail, tufted ears and chestnut brown back and head make a striking appearance in the large expanse of green ponderosa pine tree forests found here.

A unique name

The Kaibab squirrel takes its name from its home on the Kaibab Plateau. Kabab is a Paiute Indian word that means "mountain lying down." The Kaibab Plateau is approximately a 1,152-square-mile (2,984 square kilometers) section of the Colorado Plateau. The southern cliffs of the Kaibab Plateau form the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The highest elevation found on the Kaibab Plateau is a non-spectacular ridge at 9,200 feet (2,817 m).

Powerful forces

The geological forces that formed the North Rim of the Grand Canyon are the same forces that created then sculptured all the spectacular rock formations found in this region of North America. The flowing and ebbing of a series of ancient seas beginning during the Cretaceous Period laid down the great expanse and depth of sedimentary rock exposed here at the Grand Canyon.

Rich geology

Kaibab Limestone is the top layer of sedimentaryrock seen all across the Grand Canyon region. It contains fossils of creatures that lived in the ancient sea like mollusks, sea lilies, coral and brachiopods. The clues learned from these fossils suggest to geologist that this youngest layer of North Rim Grand Canyon rock was laid down by an ancient sea some 250 million years ago.

Natural forces

Some 60 million to 70 million years ago, the ancestral Colorado River became the major drainage system for the newly forming Rocky Mountains. Some geologists suggest that around 35 million years ago, the Kaibab Plateau began to uplift, helping to divert the Colorado River into its course similar to what we see today. The millions of years of uplifting, along with eroding forces of wind and water, sculpted the magnificent landscapes seen today at the North Rim.

A humbling perspective

The views from the North Rim of the Grand Canyonhighlight the width of this great chasm. The mighty Colorado River is only seen as a small sliver when viewed through the rock formation on the North Rim known as Angel's Window.

The road less travelled

Few roads lead to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, but for those willing to make the effort, the rewards are many. It is a calmer and quieter experience — more reminiscent of what visiting a national park was like in the early 20th century. Accommodations at the North Rim are fewer than those found at the South Rim, but the lack of crowds and the undisturbed wilderness offerings are most rewarding.

Poetic fame

Literary royalty is also represented at the NorthRim. The setting for Marguerite Henry’s famous 1953 children's novel, "Brighty of the Grand Canyon" (Aladdin, 1991), is on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. From 1892 until 1922, the lovable and gentle Brighty spent his summers carrying water from a spring below the North Rim to canyon visitors daily. A bronze statue honoring Brighty is located in the lobby of the North Rim’s Grand Canyon Lodge.

The natural world

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is another of the spectacular geological and natural wilderness wonders found all across the Colorado Plateau of North America. It continues to be a location where visitors can still discover what the undisturbed natural world of North America once had to offer.

Actor Robert Redford is throwing America's national parks a stunning 100th birthday party, with the premier of the new IMAX "National Parks Adventure," opening Friday (Feb. 12).

Redford, an Academy Award-winner, narrates the new film presents a sweeping bird's-eye view of the diverse and untamed national parks. Moviegoers will soar over red-rock canyons, dash down mountain peaks and explore spectacular parks across the country, or at least feel like they have after the show.

"This new film is a celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the National Park Service and a reflection on what wilderness means to us all," the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City said in a statement. [See Breathtaking Photos from the 'National Parks Adventure' Movie]

Thirty national parks grace the big screen in "National Parks Adventure," which follows the explorations of adventurers, including mountaineer Conrad Anker, photographer Max Lowe and artist Rachel Pohl. The movie, captured on IMAX 3D cameras, is produced by MacGillivray Freeman Films, a company that's made more than 35 IMAX films, including the 1998 blockbuster "Everest."

Though Yellowstone and Yosemite are some of the darlings when it comes to national parks, the country is home to nearly 84 million acres (339,936 square kilometers) of such parks — an area almost the size of Germany.

Yellowstone became the world's first true national park in 1872, according to the National Park Service. President Theodore Roosevelt expanded the nation's parks during his two terms (1901-1909), adding more than five national parks, four game preserves, 51 bird refuges, 18 national monuments and 150 national forests. But it wasn't until 1916 that President Woodrow Wilson officially created the National Park Service.

The effort to conserve continues today. In President Barack Obama's 2017 budget request to Congress, he includes $1.6 billion for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The service manages outdoor recreation programs and conserves wildlife and ecosystems across the country, including those in the national parks, according to the FWS. This figure is $54.5 million more than was appropriated for 2016, the FWS added.

The film will show through Sept. 1, 2016, at the AMNH's 2D and 3D theaters. Check your local science center or theater to see whether "National Parks Adventure" is playing in your city.

Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Get a riveting tour of 30 of the country's national parks in the new IMAX film "National Parks Adventure," which opens Friday (Feb. 12). Actor Robert Redford narrates the film, which follows a number of adventurers, including a mountaineer, photographer and artist. The film also coincides with the 100th anniversary of the U.S. National Parks Service. [Read the Full Story on the National Parks Film]

Half Dome in Yosemite National Park

Mist creates an eerie, yet captivating view of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Barbara MacGillivray. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Yosemite National Park

The sun showers El Capitan and Cathedral Rocks in Yosemite Valley with rays of light. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Barbara MacGillivray. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Ice Cave in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan offers scenic excursions, such as this ice cave, for cross-country teams. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Barbara MacGillivray. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon at sunrise. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Ron Goodman.Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Grand Teton National Park

The sunrise shines gently on Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: David Fortney. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Glacier National Park

At Glacier National Park, Montana, blue sky and statuesque mountains reflect on St. Mary’s Lake. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: David Fortney. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Devils Tower National Monument

In the Black Hills of Wyoming, the magnificent Devils Tower National Monument rises nearly 1,300 feet (396 meters) into the skies above. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Barbara MacGillivray. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Three Penguins in Arches National Park

Reaching the top of the Three Penguins in Arches National Park, Utah, is a feat to be proud of. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Barbara MacGillivray. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Bryce Canyon National Park

Sunrise creeps and crawls through the hoodoo rock formations at Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Barbara MacGillivray. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Brown Bears in Katmai National Park and Preserve

At Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, brown bears lazily (or ingeniously) wait for salmon. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Brad Ohlund. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Grand Canyon National Park

In Arizona, the Colorado River winds lazily through the Grand Canyon. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Barbara MacGillivray. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Prairie Dog

Around Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, prairie dogs thrive in a protected habitat. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Barbara MacGillivray. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Half Dome in Yosemite National Park

Rising 4,737 feet (1,443 m) above the Merced River on the floor of Yosemite Valley in California, Half Dome stands majestic and imposing. (Copyright Dmitri Fomin)

Blue Geyser in Yellowstone National Park

Steam rises from the Sapphire Pool in Yellowstone National Park's Biscuit Basin. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Brad Ohlund. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Bryce Canyon National Park

The red, steep slopes of this national park in Utah offer fantastic geometric scenery. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Barbara MacGillivray. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Sequoias in Yosemite National Park

At Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park, California, great sequoia trees grow tall and strong. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Barbara MacGillivray. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Geyser in Yellowstone National Park

The Great Fountain Geyser erupts in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Brad Ohlund)

Yellowstone National Park

The first established National Park, Yellowstone contains two-thirds of the world's geysers, including Clepsydra Geyser. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: Brad Ohlund. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Arches National Park

This national park, known as Arches National Park, in Utah contains over 2,000 arches. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: David Fortney. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park

Sunset at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park offers stunning views of the country. (Courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Photographer: David Fortney. Copyright VisitTheUSA.com)

In the northwestern part of New Mexico, a natural outcropping of sandstone has produced a spectacular landmark in this cold, high desert region.

History in the desert

Known as El Morro (which means "the heartland" or "the bluff" in Spanish), this massive promontory has been a beacon for travelers and a natural sketchbook for Native American, Spanish and American explorers for hundreds of years. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Towering history

El Morro rises some 200 feet (61 meters) above the surrounding landscape. It is a part of an ancient and massive sand dune system that some 150 million years ago stretched from northeastern Arizona across northwestern New Mexico and on into southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Out of place

The sandstone bluff known as El Morro was laid down in the ancient shallow seas that again covered this land during the Jurassic Period, some 200 million to 145 million years ago. Its fine sand particles are yellowish-white in color and is known as Zuni Sandstone. The fine grains of quartz that compose most of the sandstone are similar in size, which is a common characteristic of wind-blown dunes in an arid land. (Credit: NPS)

Holding on for dear life

Since the ancient dunes of this land were never buried deep under the Earth's surface, the sand particles that make up El Morro were never pressed tightly together. This results in a massive bluff that can be cracked and broken, allowing for the roots of plants to grow down through it. Here, a tall Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa) grows majestically near the summit of El Morro. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Organic adornment

Seasonal rains result in the staining of the sandstone bluff, as the water flows toward the surface. This dark patina is composed of manganese, iron and other minerals that give the sandstone surface an artistic appearance. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Nature's sketchbook

The softness of the sandstone of El Morro has provided a perfect natural historic sketchbook for humans who have found themselves gazing upward from the base of the giant bluff. Ancestral Puebloans and European/American soldiers and explorers have left more than 2,000 petroglyphs and inscriptions on the walls of this magnificent bluff. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Notable landmark

In the late 1500s, Spanish conquistadors came upon El Morro and began to record their presence at the base of the bluff. Rising so high above the surrounding landscape, El Morro became a guiding beacon for these early Spanish soldiers as they crisscrossed what is the American Southwest today. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Outside influence

American soldiers also used the sandstone of El Morro as a sketchbook. Lt. J. H. Simpson and R. H. Kearn scratched a message into the sandstone in 1849, referring to the bluff as an "inscription" rock. This picture shows an 1866 inscription made by Captain R. H. Orton of the 1st U.S. Calvary. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Beauty and sustenance

El Morro was not only a traveling landmark but also a source of reliable water for all the people who came to its base. This large pool of water stands year-round and was a valuable resource in this high desert land. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Uncomplicated charm

One of the attractions of El Morro is its simple yet breathtaking natural beauty. Here, a photographer captured its unique beauty after a blanketing winter snowfall. (Credit: NPS)

Preservation

El Morro became a part of the U.S. National Parks system when it was declared a national monument on Dec. 8, 1906. All carvings on the "Inscription Rock" were stopped in 1906 when this 1,039 acre (421 hectare) monument was established. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Paths to the past

Many trails lead through the national monument, including one that leads to the bluff's summit. There, visitors will find Atsinna, the remains of an ancient Puebloan village. Atsinna is a modern Zuni Indian word that translates to mean "place of writing on the rock." (Credit: NPS)

Bird-lovers' choice

El Morro is a favorite spot for those who enjoy birdwatching. More than 180 species of birds have been documented at the National Monument and its ever-present watering hole. One of the most common birds is the White Throated Swift which make their nests among the sandstone cliff. The legs of the White Throated Swift are so small and weak that the bird cannot alight on the ground or on a branch. Instead, it must always search for a place on the face of the bluff where its claws can grasp the rough rock surface. What the bird lacks in leg strength it makes up for with flying speed, though. Some suggest that this swift is one of the fastest flying birds in the world. (Credit: blm.gov)

Photo-opp

El Morro is one of many picturesque geological structures found throughout the American West. In a hostile, high desert environment, this promontory of sandstone has been a safe haven for man and animals alike, who happen to find themselves in this corner of today's northwestern New Mexico. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

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Southwest of Moab, Utah, is an area of the American Southwest that is truly a showcase of geology. Check out these stunning images of one of the most geologically and biologically rich environments in North America.

A unique geological display

Here in amazing rock splendor are the spectacular results of millions of years of gravity and erosion on a landscape composed of thick layers of sedimentary rock. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

A strange and fluctuating history

Over millions of years, the movement of the Earth's crust helped in the shaping of this beautiful land. Ancient oceans flowed and then receded multiple times, resulting in layer after layer of sediments being laid down. The local landscape has been covered over time with tropical flora and then again with dry desert vegetation. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Stunning settings

Prehistoric rivers crisscrossed these vast, ancient mudflats, cementing the various sediments with precipitates found in the flowing water. Traces of iron carried along in the flowing water from nearby ancient mountains colored the sandstone red, adding to the spectacular views seen there today. (Credit: NPS)

The power of pressure

Here too, a geological phenomena know as the Paradox Formation played a major role in the shaping of the local landscape. Under specific conditions, the weight of overlying rocks cause the strata of the Paradox Formation, sediments deposited down during the Pennsylvania Period, to liquify and flow beneath the surface. This movement of liquified rock causes surface rocks to bend, sink and fracture under the stress and result in such surface formation as fins, arches, grabens and needles. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Awe-inspiring environment

This magnificent landscape is a part of the larger Colorado Plateau, found throughout the Four Corner Region of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Once, this land's elevation was near sea level, but today the whole Colorado Plateau has risen to an average elevation of some 5,000 feet (1,524 meters). Average rain and snowfall brings 9.5 inches (24 centimeters) of annual precipitation, resulting in an environment of high desert flora and fauna. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Powerful liquid

Two mighty rivers, the Colorado and the Green, converge here, carving the land into countless canyons, some of which are more than 2,000 feet (610 m) deep. The erosive work of these two great rivers also created some of the most spectacular views found anywhere on Earth. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Nature's power

The power of flowing water moving through these two magnificent river channels over millions of years have cut through 22 layers of different rock strata. Today, water flows over the upper layers of the Paradox Formation, which is composed of dolomite, limestone, gypsum, shale, potash and salt. Shown here, the Colorado River meanders as it carves gooseneck canyons in Dead Horse Point State Park. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Geological playground

Nearly 527 square miles (1,365 square kilometers) of this geological wonderland is now preserved within the boundaries of Canyonlands National Park. First established in 1964, this national park has become a favorite playground for those seeking adventure in what is still one of the most rugged environments found anywhere in North America. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

An array of scenery

The two great river canyons have divided the national park into three distinct areas: Islands In The Sky to the north, The Maze to the west and The Needles to the east. Each share a common rugged wilderness but offer different environments as well as strenuous recreational activities. Shown here is a series of deep canyons plunging from a mesa in the Island In The Sky region. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Diversity in life

The high desert flora and fauna of Canyonland National Park are diverse and surprisedly abundant. With elevations that range from 3,700 to 7,200 feet (1,128 to 2,195 m) above sea level, some 628 species of vascular plants make their home here. This photo shows a small fishhook cactus in spring bloom. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Home sweet home

Some 10 species of amphibians, 25 species of reptiles, 81 species of mammals and 218 species of birds are also considered native to the national park. A Desert or Nelson bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) is shown here. (Credit: NPS)

Unique ground coverings

Biological soil crusts are also commonly found here. Created by living organisms and their by-products, these soil crusts can cover a large area of the landscape, binding together valuable soil particles by their organic materials. (Credit: NPS)

A majestic destination

The grandeur of Canyonlands National Park and its surrounding region offers a treasure trove of activities for hikers, rafters, mountain bikers, photographers — anyone wanting to experience one of the most geologically and biologically spectacular environments found anywhere in North America. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

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North America's tallest mountain peak just got a new name. Or, more accurately, the mountain formerly known as Mount McKinley just got its old name back.

On Sunday (Aug. 30), during a trip to Alaska, President Obama said the name of the state's 20,237-foot (6,168 meters) mountain would officially be changed to Denali, which is what many Alaskans have called the peak all along.

The word "Denali" is derived from Koyukon, one of the 11 Athabascan languages traditionally spoken in Alaska. In the Koyukon language, the word for the mountain is "Deenaalee," and at least five other Athabascan languages have similar names for the Alaska Range's highest peak (though these names are pronounced differently), said James Kari, professor emeritus of linguistics at University of Alaska Fairbanks and a specialist in Athabascan languages. [Photos: The World's Tallest Mountains]

"Then you have 'Denali', which is the Anglicization of the Koyukon name," Kari told Live Science. The name translates to "the tall one," and is derived from the Koyukon verb that means, "to be long or tall," he added.

But the Denali name isn't just descriptive; it's also ancient. Like many of the original place names derived from Athabascan languages, derivatives of "Deenaalee" may have been used by native Alaskans as early as 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, Kari said. Variations of the name also appear on the earliest known maps of Alaska and were recorded (though often misspelled) by the first American geologists to explore the region, in the 19th century, he added.

In the grand scheme of history, the peak's once-official name of Mount McKinley was fairly short lived. In 1896, an ardent political supporter of then-presidential candidate William McKinley started calling the mountain Mount McKinley. The name was formally recognized by an act of Congress in 1917, long after McKinley's assassination in 1901. But in 1980, Congress named the area surrounding the peak Denali National Park and Preserve.

For nearly 100 years, the name Mount McKinley appeared on federal maps and official documents. But many people never called the mountain by this name, said Kari, who added that the name Denali has long been used by both native and non-native Alaskans.

In 1975, the Alaska State Legislature filed a request with the United States Board on Geographic Names to officially rename the mountain Denali, but congressmen from McKinley's home state of Ohio blocked the measure. This same scenario has played out on an almost yearly basis in Washington, D.C., with Alaska legislators requesting a name change and Ohio legislators refuting the request.

This week's renaming of the mountain came about because U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, with the approval of President Obama, signed a secretarial order that bypassed the legislative filibuster and granted the name change requested by Alaska's state representatives.

"[The name change] is interesting and important on many levels," said Kari, who noted that the legislative fight over the name of the mountain was just a "low-stakes political cat fight," whereas restoring the mountain's native name was an issue that many Alaskans were truly passionate about.

But Kari said, as an academic, he's most excited that the public may now learn more about the Athabascan system of naming places and geographical structures. The rule-driven naming system is highly functional, he said, designed to make travel in the region more intuitive. For instance, a river, its tributaries and the river mouth will all have part of their names in common, so that people know the different bodies are related to one another.

The renaming of Denali is a sign that Alaskans continue to claim this system as their own, said Kari, who added that Alaskans are also preserving native names in new ways. For example, the Anchorage convention hall in which President Obama announced Denali's name change is called the Dena'ina Center and is named for an Athabascan ethno-linguistic group from the Anchorage area. The five largest rooms in the building aren't named for former presidents or anyone else — they're named for Dena'ina villages.  

Follow Elizabeth Palermo @techEpalermo. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Michael Sainato is a freelance writer who focuses on environmental and race issues. His work has been published in the Miami Herald, The Huffington Post and The Hill. Follow him on Twitter at @msainat1. Chelsea Skojec is a Natural Resources Conservation student in Gainesville, Fl. Sainato contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Throughout human history, most societies have believed that people and their environment should coexist and that decisions should be in tune with nature. Today, however, industrialized societies' belief systems assert humanity's dominion over nature — an attitude manifested in extensive land development and increasing urbanization that have led to widespread destruction of the natural environment. 

Humans are biological animals living in a biological world, one we are deeply connected with and dependent on — and one we are destabilizing. Connections with the natural world are weakening as younger generations increasingly depend on urban life and technology. Children ages 2 to 5 spend, on average, 32 hours each week watching TV, and children ages 6 to 11 average 28 hours of TV time each week. Teens spend more than 7 hours a day consuming media in some sort of capacity. The younger generations are losing their connections with nature, with potentially adverse effects on the conservation efforts that have protected parts of the natural world from destruction. And without their participation, the livelihood of the U.S. National Park Service — the largest U.S. conservation system, with more than 84 million acres of protected land — is in jeopardy. 

U.S. conservation is a global concern

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, as of Jan. 31, 2008, the United States had a total of 6,770 terrestrial, nationally designated (federal) protected areas.& These protected areas cover approximately 1 million square miles (2.6 million square kilometers), representing 12 percent of the nation's land area. These lands are vital for protecting America's biodiversity and natural resources. 

Future generations must continue to fight to protect and expand these lands for the sake of our planet. Many ecologists subscribe to the half-Earth concept, believing that in order to protect the environment and our planet sufficiently, we must set aside half of the Earth's land surface for wildlife and natural resources to thrive. [Top 10 Most Visited National Parks]

According to the Wild Foundation, the concept is "both a commonsense vision and a practical approach to developing a reciprocal, balanced relationship between people and nature, based on state-of-the-art scientific analysis and time-tested traditional knowledge and wisdom."

Sustaining Grand Teton National Park

As the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) approaches its centennial next year, it recently launched the Find Your Park campaign to remind young Americans of the natural connection they have always had but now are at risk of losing.

"The National Park System provides over 400 opportunities for people to enter a world of exploration," said Grand Teton National Park Superintendent David Vela. Grand Teton National Park was established following decades of advocacy from environmentalists and philanthropists. "Crucible for Conservation" (Grand Teton, 1982) author Robert Righter called these efforts "perhaps the most notable conservation victory of the twentieth century." 

Today, the park is a significant portion of the Yellowstone to Yukon wildlife corridor, a nearly 2,000-mile (3,200 km) superhighway, in progress, connecting several national parks and other protected lands for wildlife to flourish. 

"We want to expose our nation to their birthright, the national parks, which many people don't even know exist right in their backyard or within a day's drive away," Vela said. With support from the Grand Teton National Park Foundation and Grand Teton Association, the park has been able to raise the bar on offerings to young audiences that simply would not exist without public-private partnerships. Since 2011, Grand Teton National Park has been the home of the National Park Service Academy, producing the next generation of conservation stewards through internship and training programs. The academy specializes in recruiting students from diverse colleges across the country. 

"For many of the students, the academy is often their first experience in a national park," Vela said. "Even if they don't use it as a pathway to employment with the National Park Service, we are sending out the next generation of conservation stewards to neighborhoods and communities across the nation." 

Recently, through a grant from AT&T through the Grand Teton National Park Foundation, park staff enlisted the support of University of Maryland professors to facilitate workshops for elementary school children to design an app to connect the park with other kids all over the country. In this way, kids are designing technology for kids to connect them back with nature and their cultural heritage.

Restoring the global stature of Everglades National Park

Florida is one of the most biodiverse states within the United States, but it has also seen an increase in population from fewer than 5 million people in 1960 to currently more than 20 million, with a steady increase of 1,000 new Florida residents added per day. This significant population increase has led to widespread land development and encroachment into Florida's fragile ecosystems. 

The gem of Florida's natural world, Everglades National Park, has faced threats from humans for more than 100 years, from the 1904 campaign of then-Gov. Napoleon Broward, who promised to drain them, to the mass hunting of birds in the park for the plume trade — a fashion trend that decimated bird populations for their feathers in the early 20th century. [All Yours: 10 Least Visited National Parks ]

The park was largely saved from development due to the efforts of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, whose 1947 book, "The Everglades: River of Grass," (Pineapple Press, 1997) widely changed the misconception that the Everglades was a worthless swamp. 

Everglades National Park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and only one of three places in the world that can claim listing as an International Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site and a Wetlands of International Importance. 

Today, the park remains under threat from human impacts. However, the largest environmental restoration project the world has ever seen, a nearly $8 billion undertaking, is in progress to ensure South Florida's water sources, its wildlife and its protective buffer are safe from tropical storms, hurricanes and rising sea levels. 

"I want people to feel proud of what they have in their backyard and develop a personal sense of ownership and responsibility over it," said Everglades National Park Superintendent Pedro Ramos. "The national parks are part of the story of who we are as a people and as a country. These are places of international significance, and the world is watching to see how well we respond to our responsibility to care for these special natural and historical wonders."

Keeping the Great Smoky Mountains at peak popularity

At Great Smoky Mountains National Park, one of the most visited parks in the country, with more than 10 million visitors in 2014, as well as one of the largest protected areas in the eastern United States, Superintendent Cassius Cash is taking what he learned when helping double attendance at Boston National Historical Park and Boston African American National Historic site to focus efforts on connecting the Great Smoky Mountains with young and diverse audiences. 

The Great Smoky Mountains region was ravaged by timber harvesting in the early 20th century, but was saved, in large part, to the efforts of journalist Horace Kephart and Japanese immigrant George Masa. The men led a crusade to turn the area into a national park. Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, inspired by their efforts and those of other ordinary area residents, issued the necessary funds to purchase the lands for the park, officially established June 15, 1934. 

"As the National Park Service heads into its 100th year in 2016, it is vital for the future of the parks to deepen our support by connecting with younger generations and groups that traditionally haven't been coming out to the parks," said Cash. He has pledged to hike 100 miles next summer for the park's centennial, getting groups of people to join him on the adventure who represent demographics that haven't traditionally frequented the park. Cash aims to serve as a role model and example to younger generations. "The legacy and success of our work at the National Park Service is not what we've done today, but about how much further it's going to move forward — and that can't happen without younger generations."

One of the National Parks' leading advocates is the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America's National Parks. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell serves as chairwoman of the foundation, and National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis serves as its secretary. 

"It is so important that people understand how the parks are relevant to their lives. Parks are an expression of who we are as a people and a country," said National Park Foundation President and CEO Will Shafroth. 

Shafroth is the great-grandson of Colorado Gov. John Shafroth, who helped author the U.S. Antiquities Act that has been used by U.S. presidents since Theodore Roosevelt to set aside lands for conservation purposes. 

"They connect us to our history and culture, they share our proudest moments and our struggles, and they provide space for recreation, relaxation and rejuvenation," he added. "In order for our parks to survive and thrive in their second century, people must feel connected to them and support them."

Humans are drastically changing the world. Populations continue to grow, sea levels are rising, the climate is changing and ecosystems across the globe are constantly threatened by human actions. And yet, humanity is not just defined by wealth, technological progress, architectural development and the resources we need to sustain them; rather, humanity is rooted in nature. 

Without protecting and preserving those roots, we lose the context for all that we value. In an age where wilderness is vastly disappearing, it is imperative to the future of our planet that the National Parks are successful in engaging future generations, and in representing the diversity of our country, so the penchant for conservation that has saved our existing National Parks continues to be shared to expand and reaffirm the protection of nature. 

Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.

Michael Sainato is a freelancer with credits including the Miami Herald, Huffington Post and The Hill. Follow him on Twitter at @msainat1. Sainato contributed this article to. He contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

There is no place on Earth like Everglades National Park. Fresh water and Earth converge into one of the richest and most diverse ecosystems on the planet. It is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and only one of three places in the world that can claim listing as an International Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site and a Wetlands of International Importance. 

The Everglades has also been a battleground of controversy, as environmentalists and developers continuously struggle over its uses and resources. Early Florida politicians used to campaign on the idea of dredging and clearing the Everglades to stimulate economic growth and prosperity. Even today, the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration plan passed by the U.S. Congress years ago — the biggest environmental restoration undertaking the world has ever seen — still sputters through bureaucracy toward full implementation. [Why 'Protected Lands' Too Often Lose Protection (Op-Ed)]

A complex history

This past Earth Day, U.S. president Barack Obama used the Everglades as his stage to address the stark realities of climate change in the face of Florida politicians, such as Governor Rick Scott, who still uphold policies that fail to fully account for the environmental impacts of unchecked development and growth throughout the state. 

"Climate change is threatening this treasure and the communities that depend on it, which includes almost all of south Florida. And if we don't act, there may not be an Everglades as we know it," president Obama said.

The livelihood of Florida depends on the Everglades. One out of every four Floridians depends on it for their drinking water. It generates more than a quarter billion dollars in tourism revenue annually: For every $1 invested in the park, it yields $10 in return, attracting more than a million visitors just last year. 

And, the Everglades provides one of the best support systems Florida has against climate change and rising sea levels by mitigating saltwater intrusion to south Florida’s freshwater supplies and creating a natural protective barrier for Florida from tropical storms and hurricanes.

Early this year, a new caretaker of the park, superintendent Pedro Ramos, took office. 

"I'm going to show you what the Everglades had to do with the Cuban Missile Crisis," Ramos said when we met. He grabbed the keys to his government issued white Ford Taurus just yards away from where president Obama held a photo op, and we left to meander through some Everglades back roads to a gated fence inundated with faded U.S. Army warning placards. 

The Nike missile site in Everglades National Park maintained several nuclear missiles during the 1960 crisis. After the tensions with Cuba dissipated, the site was abandoned, nuclear warheads removed, and the hangars and bunkers were slowly reclaimed by nature — until a few years ago when a grant and restoration work by the Baker Aviation School put forth the efforts to tell this long forgotten Everglades story. 

"If they were ever utilized, the nukes from this site would have altered the course of history forever," Ramos added as he unveiled a restored 40-foot missile behind the original rusted hangar doors.

A personal path to preservation

Ramos caught the National Park bug at a young age. His mother, widowed when he was seven years old, could not afford vacations or excursions to the fancy resorts on Puerto Rico's coastlines. Their bouts of leisure were spent at San Juan National Historic Site, what he calls "the most special place on the island." 

After high school, he left the small island to attend college at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. "To this day, it is one of the most frigid places I have ever been. I thought then it was inhuman to expect a Puerto Rican kid to live in that cold environment."

In Florida, things are a bit different. "People complain about the lack of seasons here in South Florida, but they are as marked here as anywhere else. Every one of them is special, but my favorite is the wet season, from October to December, when this place really comes alive. When it's flooded, going into a Cypress Dome is the only way to get intimate with this place. Every single time you go in one you see something different. The perpetual mystery of what's around every corner in such a foreign environment really helps you get to know this place well," said Ramos. 

His degree in agricultural resource economics landed him a position at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and he worked there for more than a decade while applying — every year — for an opportunity in the U.S. National Park Service. In 2001, he was finally hired as Administrative Officer of Big Cypress National Park, just north of the Everglades.

Big Cypress was first conceived with a dual mission of conservation and private use, two priorities typically seen as incompatible. When Ramos took office, off-road vehicles were tearing the park apart, rupturing through the delicate soil that would take decades to recover from the abuse. 

With the support of environmental, traditional hunting, and the off-road vehicle communities, Ramos downsized the 26,000 miles of off-road vehicle trails to fewer than 500. 

"It was a compromise of conservation and traditional uses that people thought could never be accomplished," he said. His tenure and pragmatic successes at Big Cypress made him a shoe-in when the position of superintendent at Everglades National Park opened up.

Preserving the Everglades

The Everglades also shares many of the same issues faced in Big Cypress, on even greater magnitudes. South Florida has more exotic species of fish, reptiles, birds, mammals and plants than in any other part of the United States. 

More recently, invasive pythons have been one of the most prevalent and damaging species in the park, decimating prey and out-competing other predators. The park enlists the help of Iraqi-war veteran volunteers to catch the snakes in targeted park areas, protecting the endangered species the pythons threaten. Ramos cites going out with the volunteers as one of the highlights in his first few months as superintendent of the park.

Funding issues and budget concerns have forced Ramos and Everglades National Park to consider significant fee increases for park admission. If enacted, the changes would mark the first fee increase evaluation the park has seen in 20 years. State and federal agencies are also entangled in bureaucracy over funding the for Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan which calls for the state of Florida to purchase land with matched federal funds, while the Army Corps of Engineers would build the necessary projects. 

Flamingo Bay, the southernmost tip of the park, a 45-minute drive from the entrance gate, may also soon solicit bids for private entities to improve the current campground and visitor center infrastructure, with the possible addition of a restaurant to add more amenities for visitors.

"This site is a lens to climate change and the projections for the next 50 years. We want to revitalize the area to attract more visitors and build infrastructure designed to sustain strong storms, occasional flooding and higher sea levels," Ramos said.

Late in our tour, Ramos pulled up to another locked gate with the sign Hidden Lake. "People have the misconception that all the water here is murky and swampy," he said while pointing to the crystal clear water, as fish dart away to safety from our shadows. 

"We do a lot of environmental location programs for youth here. Whether kids that come here for the first time fall in love with nature or not, the sense of values instilled by the exposure to the Everglades forges a sense of commitment to support conservation efforts for the rest of their lives. The park means different things to different people and we try to speak all of those languages." 

We drove back toward the park headquarters as the sun began to set over the river of grass. I asked Ramos what his hope was for the future of the park and he responded, “In my coming years as superintendent, I hope to see a much more meaningful connection between the park and the communities around us. I want people to feel proud of what they have in their backyard and develop a personal sense of ownership and responsibility over it. The Everglades is part of the story of who we are as a people and as a country. It is a place of international significance and the world is watching to see how well we respond to our responsibility to care for this special natural wonder."

Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.

In the south-central part of Utah, a 100-mile-long (161 kilometers) formation, dubbed Waterpocket Fold, has created a landscape that is not only spectacular to view but is also a geological treasure for research and study.

A treasure

Seventeen unique geological formations are found along this long and warped portion of the Earth's surface. Each has its own special types of soil, minerals and land slopes. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

A step up

As a classic monocline, Waterpocket Fold is a regional fold whose western lands have risen more than 7,000 feet (2,134 meters) above the lands to the east. The underlying faults that resulted in this region of more than 390 square miles (1,010 square kilometers) became active some 50 million to 70 million years ago, during a mountain-building era in North America known as the Laramide orogeny. (Credit: NPS)

A beautiful effect

The name Waterpocket Fold comes from the continuous erosion of the sedimentary rock layers found here. "Waterpockets" are depressions found in the sandstone layers that have been eroded by water. These hollows are common throughout this region and give rise to the name. Millions of years of water erosion have created a landscape of meandering canyons, high-rising spires, massive domes, radiant cliffs and elegant arches. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

A dividing line

In this cold, high desert region of Utah, the sedimentary rock is nearly 10,000 feet (3,048 m) thick, created over time by the ebb and flow of the shallow Western Interior Seaway. The oldest strata found here were laid down in the Permian Period, some 270 million years ago. The younger Cretaceous Period strata settled to the sea bottom some 80 million years ago. The bending caused by the Waterpocket Fold has resulted in the youngest rocks being found in the eastern part of the region, while the oldest rocks are found in the western part. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

A unique name

The most scenic lands of this southern Utah region have been set aside for preservation and are known today as the Capitol Reef National Park. The name "capitol" comes from the many white domes of Navajo sandstone found here; the name "reef" was given for the many spectacular rocky cliffs found here that were a barrier to travel for early American settlers, similar to a "coral reef" found in the ocean. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Distinct geography

The Fremont River is one of the few rivers that flows year round in this part of Utah. Geologist think the river established its course shortly after the Laramide orogeny, when the land was a level plain and when the Waterpocket Fold was buried under hundreds of feet of sediment. Over time, and during the gradual uplifting of the Colorado Plateau, the Fremont River eroded downward through the sediment, creating the unique geological landscape seen today. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Diversified ecology

The ever-present source of flowing water from the Fremont River has created wide valleys with lush green riparian areas that are rare in this generally high-desert region. These riparian areas create a diverse community of flora and fauna and have been a refuge for both prehistoric and historic human cultures. The Fremont River flows west to east, cutting completely across the Waterpocket Fold, and eventually joining the Colorado River near Lake Powell. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

A shrine in the wilderness

Huge cliffs of sedimentary stone are common throughout the Capitol Reef region. This structure, known as the Egyptian Temple, is found at the end of an escarpment that is nearly 2 miles (3.2 km) long, and is at the base of the Waterpocket Fold. The Egyptian Temple is composed of soft Moenkopi Sandstone covered by a thick layer of harder Shinarump Sandstone. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

High and low

Domes composed of white and yellow Navajo Sandstone are common throughout the region. These folded rock pinnacles, along with the massive buttressed cliffs, rise some 1,000 feet (300 m) above the canyon floors. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

A recurring pattern

Soft rock covered by harder rock is a common theme when explaining the many beautiful formations found in and around Capitol Reef. This structure, known as Chimney Rock, is a spire created by the forces of wind and rain and is another example of Moenkopi/Shinarump Sandstone strata commonly found in the area. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Eroding effects of nature

Evidence of the power of erosion can be seen everywhere throughout the Capitol Reef region. Here, small wind caves have been carved in a soft sandstone cliff by blowing wind and rain. Such wind caves are created over a long period of time and can often resemble the artistic work of a master stone sculptor. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Evidence of cultures

Man has long made this region his home. Archaic hunters and gatherers crisscrossed the land, following the abundant riparian areas. The Fremont Culture is known to have farmed corn, squash and beans along the river bank as early as 500 A.D. These individuals left behind not only the remains of their pottery, stone homes and tools, but also an incredible display of petroglyphs and pictographs for modern man to see and ponder. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Home to the rare and endangered

Capitol Reef is an arid region ranging in elevation from 6,000 feet (1,829 m) to 9,000 feet (2,743 m), with an average annual precipitation of 7.2 inches (18 cm). Amazingly, more than 887 species of plants have been documented within the boundaries of the national park. The park is also home to more than 40 endemic and rare plant species that are found on federal threatened or endangered lists. During the spring, wildflowers are profuse in the area. Shown here is the Indian paintbrush, Castilleja chromosa. Indian Paintbrush is a "root parasitic," meaning the plants intertwine their roots to the roots of nearby plants, taking lifesaving nutrients from their new host. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Mountains high

Along the Fremont River, groves of indigenous cottonwoods and willow trees flourish. So, too, does the invasive tamarisk (commonly known as salt cedar), which came to this land with early American settlers in the 19th century. Away from the river and below an elevation of 8,000 feet (2538 m), pinion and juniper trees are found scattered across the landscape. At higher elevations, on the highest mountaintops of the Capitol Reef region, large stands of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) grow. Shown here is the Utah juniper, Juniperus osteosperma. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Diversity abounds

The animals of Capitol Reef are as diverse as the many different habitats found here. Dry, rocky cliffs cut with dry washes give way to the environments found alongside a perennial running stream. Nearly 60 species of mammals have been documented in the national park, as well as 230 species of birds. Multiple species of reptiles, amphibians, insects and fish make this dry, high desert an area that is teeming with life. Shown here is the Desert Bighorn Sheep, Ovis canadensis nelson, whose species once disappeared from Capitol Reef. Reintroduced in the mid-1990s, big horn sheep are once again a common sight along the high cliffs of Capitol Reef National Park. (Credit: NPS)

Abundant life

The geological forces of nature that came together in the Capitol Reef region have created an area of tremendous rock beauty and diverse biological habitats. Within those habitats, a wide variety of plant and animal species thrive in the high desert climate, making this region of southern Utah a special laboratory for anyone who enjoys viewing and studying the wonders of nature's creations. (Credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

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It may be time to break out the mittens, the sturdy boots and a fancy camera: A series of gorgeous ice caves could finally be open to the public this weekend.

During the winter, sea caves nestled along the shoreline at Wisconsin's remote Apostle Islands National Lakeshore turn into icy wonderlands, with several-story-tall icicles, frozen waterfalls and honeycombed walkways.

The chain of 22 islands that make up the Apostle Islands boast some of the most finely wrought sea caves, full of delicate archways and vaulted chambers that have been worked away into the cliffsides of the islands. Normally, hundreds of kayakers a day visit the ethereal caves. But during the winter months, the surface of Lake Superior freezes over and sea caves on the islands become inaccessible.

However, there are caves along the shoreline that can be accessed — provided the frozen surface of Lake Superior is stable enough to support troops of visitors trekking across it. In order for visitors to come, a solid 10-inch-thick (25.4 centimeter) layer of ice (with no slush or water in between) needs to extend for several miles out from the shoreline in multiple directions. In addition, the ice has to be stable, and have been in place for at least two weeks, said Neil Howk, the assistant chief of interpretations at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. [Winter Wonderland: See Images of Stunning Apostle Islands Ice Caves]

"We've seen multiple times that when we have a large wind event the ice shelf can break up and blow away in a matter of hours. It's already happened twice this year," Howk told Live Science.

Until today (Feb. 24), conditions looked very promising: About 95 percent of the Great Lake was frozen over, and the ice was very thick. But a strong wind has been scouring the frozen lake's surface all afternoon, and now only about 80 percent of the lake is icebound, Howk said.

"If the ice blows away this week, we won't have an ice cave season this year," Howk told Live Science.

Because of the difficulty of getting those conditions, the ice caves are often closed all winter. Last year, thousands of visitors flocked to the site, trekking several miles along the road before hiking a few miles along a frozen beach and the frozen surface of the lake to view the frozen formations.

But there's still hope for winter lovers everywhere: The forecast has the wind dying down tonight, and the next few days should be extra cold. If the ice shelf around the shoreline caves survives, that should stabilize the area, Howk said.

This year, the wind has blown what little snow is there off the ice, so the ice will be very slippery and rough in spots. The NPS provides current information on the ice conditions via the agency's Ice Line, which can be reached at (715) 779-3397 extension 3.

If the Apostle Islands caves open, those who visit should dress warmly, bring ski poles to walk, and sturdy shoes with traction devices such as Yaktrax or Stabiicers on them, Howk said.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter and Google+. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

If conditions hold, a series of breathaking ice caves off the coastline of Lake Superior could open for visitors this weekend. The wintry wonderland, part of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, can be tricky to visit. Visitors must trek across the frozen surface of Lake Superior, and the ice has to be thick and stable before visitors are allowed to come. [Read the full story on the stunning ice caves.]

Remote islands

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Northern Wisconsin includes a chain of 22 islands in Lake Superior. During the summer, sea kayakers can explore the vaulted chambers and honeycombed tunnels of myriad sea caves around the islands. But in the winter, these surface of Lake Superior freezes and these ice caves become inaccessible.

Shoreline wonders

However, there are a few ice caves off the shoreline that visitors can still occasionally visit. These caves require trekking across the frozen surface of Lake Superior. Some of the sites include stunning frozen waterfalls, ice spires that are several stories tall and ceilings studded with shimmering iciles.

Icy crack

Here, visitors walk across the snowy surface of the lake through a crack in the cliffsides. The ice needs to be at least 10 inches (25.4 cm) thick and in place for at least two weeks before the National Park Service will allow visitors to make the hike.

Visitors increasing

Last year, a stunning photo released by the Department of the Interior spurred thousands to visit the site. Some visitors parked miles down the road in order to get to the start of the hike. They then had to traverse a few miles of frozen beach and lake surface before viewing the breathtaking spectacle.

Precarious conditions

Right now, a strong wind is scouring the surface of Lake Superior, which could break up the ice. If the iceshelf blows away near the sea caves, visitors may not get a chance to visit this year. 

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter and Google+. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

The National Park Service set a new visitor record in 2014, attracting more than 290 million people to the nation's 405 national parks, monuments and historic sites. Yet a few parks in Alaska recorded no visitors at all last year. Others in California and Texas only saw a few thousand visitors. So if you want to explore without fighting the crowds, check out these 10 least visited parks. [Read more about the most popular national parks]

1. Salt River Bay National Historical Park & Ecological Preserve, Virgin Islands

This is the only site in U.S. territory where members of the 1492 Columbus expedition set foot on land. (Photo credit: NOAA/NPS)

2. Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Texas

The flint quarries here provided sharp stone for prehistoric people for more than 13,000 years. (Photo credit: NPS)

3. Nicodemus National Historic Site, Kansas

Tom Wellington and Robert Brogden are two of Nicodemus' veterans honored at a recent ceremony. It is the oldest remaining Black settlement west of the Mississippi, founded after the Civil War. (Photo credit: NPS) 

4. Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, California

The historic home and grounds of playwright Eugene O'Neill. (Photo credit: NPS)

5. Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska

The Bering Land Bridge was the primary pathway for people, animals and plants from the Old World to the New World. (Photo credit: NPS)

6. Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska

This roadless region protects the mighty Yukon River, home to critical habitat for Alaska's wildlife. (Photo credit: NPS)

7. Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Pennsylvania

Thaddeus Kosciuszko was a Polish freedom fighter whose defenses and fortifications helped protect Saratoga and West Point during the American Revolution. (Image credit: NPS)

8. Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Monument, California

The memorial commemorates 320 men who died in the Port Chicago disaster on July 17, 1944, when ships being loaded with munitions exploded. The mutiny afterward, and subsequent trial, were catalysts for the desegration of the U.S. Navy. (Photo credit: NPS)

9. Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River, Texas

The free-flowing Rio Grande attracts canoers and kayakers to this remote section of the scenic river. (Photo credit: Jennette Jurado/NPS)

10. Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, Alaska

This volcanic park is one of the least visited national places every year because of its remote location in the Aleutian Range. (Photo credit: NPS)

Follow Becky Oskin @beckyoskin. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

America's national parks offer breathtaking scenery and affordable vacations — two of the reasons why record numbers of people enjoyed the parks in 2014, according to the U.S National Park Service (NPS).

A staggering 292.8 million visitors toured a national park, seashore or historic site last year, topping the previous record of 287.2 million visits set in 1987, the NPS announced yesterday (Feb. 17). Attendance in 2014 rocketed upward by 19 million people from 2013, which was a low year for visitors because of the 16-day government shutdown and many park closures due to lingering damage from Superstorm Sandy and the 2011 Virginia earthquake.

For the second year in a row, the most visited place in the national park system was California's Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco. More than 15 million tourists and locals flocked to this group of historic sites and parks, which includes Alcatraz, Ocean Beach and the Presidio. [See Photos of the Most Loved National Parks]

There are 405 recreational areas within the National Park Service system, and 59 are national parks. The most popular national park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, was a repeat winner from 2013. But Grand Canyon National Park bumped Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area out of the top 10 most visited areas in the national park system, and Joshua Tree, Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton and Glacier national parks all set attendance records in 2014.

"With this record visitation, we should see something on the order of $15 billion in visitor spending; 250,000 or more jobs; and a $28 billion effect on the U.S. economy when our annual economics of national parks report comes out in April," National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis said in a statement.

Today, President Barack Obama is expected to expand the number of sites by designating three new national monuments. The three sites are Pullman Historic Site in Illinois, the birthplace of the nation's first African American labor union; Honouliuli Internment Camp in Hawaii, the site of a World War II internment camp for Japanese Americans; and Browns Canyon in central Colorado, a stretch of the Arkansas River popular for whitewater rafting and trout fishing.

Although 2014 had the most visitors ever, a few national parks recorded no visitors at all last year. The three parks are all in remote Arctic Alaska, so anyone who braved the backcountry trek to Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Kobuk Valley National Park or the Noatak National Preserve may have simply missed a check-in with park officials, according to the Alaska Dispatch News. Overall, Alaska parks set a new record in 2014, with just under 2.7 million visitors. [See Photos of the Least Visited National Parks ]

Here are the top 10 most visited places in the National Park System in 2014:

• Golden Gate National Recreation Area: 15,004,420 visitors
• Blue Ridge Parkway: 13,941,749
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park: 10,099,276
• George Washington Memorial Parkway: 7,472,150
• Lincoln Memorial: 7,139,072
• Lake Mead National Recreation Area: 6,942,873
• Gateway National Recreation Area: 6,021,713
• Natchez Trace Parkway: 5,846,474
• Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park: 5,066,219
• Grand Canyon National Park: 4,756,771

Here are the top 10 most visited sites with the "national park" designation in 2014:

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park: 10,099,276 visitors
• Grand Canyon National Park: 4,756,771
• Yosemite National Park: 3,882,642
• Yellowstone National Park: 3,513,484
• Rocky Mountain National Park: 3,434,751
• Olympic National Park: 3,243,872
• Zion National Park: 3,189,696
• Grand Teton National Park: 2,791,392
• Acadia National Park: 2,563,129
• Glacier National Park: 2,338,528

Follow Becky Oskin @beckyoskin. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science .

The National Park Service set a new visitor record in 2014, attracting more than 290 million people to the nation's 405 national parks, monuments and historic sites. Here are the 10 most popular places in the national park system in 2014. [Read more about the most popular national parks]

1. Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California

In 2014, the most visited place in the national park system was California's Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco. More than 15 million tourists and locals flocked to this group of historic sites and parks, which includes Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the Presidio. (Photo credit: NPS/Chee Tung)

2. Blue Ridge Parkway

Spectacular fall color along the Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the many reasons that nearly 14 million people visited the meandering 469 mile park (755 kilometers) in 2014. (Photo credit: Blue Ridge Parkway)

3. Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains was also the most visited national park in 2014, of the 59 national parks. (Photo credit: Great Smoky Mountains National Park)

4. George Washington Memorial Parkway

George Washington Memorial Parkway in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia encompasses a scenic road, trails and historic monuments. (Photo credit: GWMP)

5. Lincoln Memorial

A supermoon rises near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on March 19, 2011. (Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

6. Lake Mead National Recreation Area 

Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Arizona and Nevada is popular with boaters and swimmers, though lake levels are low because of an ongoing drought. (Photo credit: Lake Mead NRA Public Affairs)

7. Gateway National Recreation Area

Gateway National Recreation Area includes 26,000 acres of beaches, historic buildings and marshes near New York City. Here, autumn colors are seen at a saltmarsh landscape in Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. (Photo credit: GNRA)

8. Natchez Trace Parkway

The Natchez Trace preserves the historic trading route that connected towns and villages in the southeast. (Photo credit: Natchez Trace Parkway)

9. Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal delivered Appalachian coal to coastal ports. Now a national park, it received more than 5 million visitors in 2014. (Photo credit: C&O Canal NPS)

10. Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona claimed the final spot with more than 4.7 million visitors in 2014. (Photo credit: National Park Service)

Follow Becky Oskin @beckyoskin. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+.

John Weaver, senior conservation scientist for the Wildlife Conservation Society, has conducted field research in many wild areas across western North America over the past 45 years. This article was originally published on NationalGeographic.com. He contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

The grizzly bear turned quickly, and I stopped.

Her hair shone silver in the sun as she turned back to her cub. They were savoring sweet huckleberries sprouted in soils enriched by the ashes of a wildfire half a century ago. A necklace of beaver ponds graced the valley below, supporting a diverse community of plants and animals while storing precious water vital to human communities downstream. I felt in the presence of something wild in a landscape that glowed with natural integrity of its living things.

I was young and on a high peak in the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana, not far from Glacier National Park. It’s one of many wilderness areas across America protected by the Wilderness Act, enacted 50 years ago today by Congress with broad bi-partisan support. In terms of America’s best ideas, wilderness ranks alongside National Parks.

Recently, some neo-conservationists have argued that the Wilderness Act is facing a mid-life crisis, that somehow the notion of Wilderness is an anachronism in the ‘Anthropocene’ era of human domination of the planet. They argue that we should focus on domesticating landscapes to serve economic growth of the human juggernaut rather than protecting remaining wild lands and preventing human-caused extinction of species. Other conservationists – myself included – disagree.

The debate begs the question: What is wilderness? The Wilderness Act states that a “wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man.” The word “untrammeled” denoted places “not subjected to human controls and manipulations that hamper the free play of natural forces.” It was predicated on the humble notion that we humans should respect the wild, defined as self-willed and autonomous.

Over the past 50 years, citizens all across America and Congressional leaders have worked hard to protect the splendid diversity and beauty of our wild lands. And there is much to celebrate! Today, there are 758 separate wilderness areas spread across 44 states totaling about 110 million acres (only 5 percent of America). This meager estate of wild land comprises a remarkable legacy and great gift.

Now many neo-conservationists believe we should intervene as technocratic managers to “help Nature” by developing hybrid tree species to withstand hotter temperatures and carting animals from habitat degraded by climate change to new sites. Yet where is the evidence that more of the same “we-humans-know-best” kind of thinking that led to extinction of species, massive habitat destruction, hundreds of non-native species, and now global warming will provide more resiliency? An environment engineered by humans sounds depressingly dull and astonishingly arrogant to many of us.

Rather than divert our efforts on desperate treatment of symptoms, we should take another, more fundamental option going forward. Nature has been innovating with considerable talent for millions of years with repeated and marvelous success, producing species and ecosystems that are diverse, complex, and beautiful.

We should keep ecological options open by protecting and connecting large natural areas that contain a variety of landscapes. Placing ecologically-diverse roadless areas in legislated Wilderness comprises one investment in a larger portfolio of prudent responses to climate change. The Wilderness Act already provides for the rare exception where intervention seems absolutely necessary (e.g., restoration of vanquished species).

Remarkably, there are still 58.5 million acres on National Forests and another 12.8 million acres on Bureau of Land Management lands across America that are roadless yet not protected as Wilderness. According to the US Forest Service, these lands provide critical habitat for more than 1,600 endangered, threatened, or sensitive species of plants and animals. Many of these roadless areas are adjacent to existing Wildernesses and National Parks. For example, there are nearly a half-million acres of roadless areas on the Flathead National Forest next to Glacier National Park.

Protecting these wild places will help secure habitat for vulnerable wildlife, safeguard their genetic integrity, enhance connectivity, and provide options for movement in response to changing climate – all key to resiliency in a changing world. Wilderness designation will also help conserve vital sources of water that will become ever more precious in a warmer future. Finally, such protected areas will serve as valuable benchmarks for assessing our effect on developed lands.

No, it’s not the Wilderness Act that is in crisis but rather the natural world – the grand community of which we humans are the most influential. Over the next fifty years, the world will become ever more crowded, industrialized, and fragmented. We have neither the scientific understanding nor the moral authority to re-assemble ecosystems. We should respect and honor that dynamic process tested through the ages that gave birth to all life by protecting the last of the wild.

This article was originally published on NationalGeographic.com. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.

Yosemite National Park

The National Park Service celebrated its 98th birthday on Aug. 25, 2012. To mark the occasion, NASA released satellite images of 10 of these national treasures.

To start, see the tall granite peaks and forests of Yosemite National Park in California, as captured by this true-color image from NASA's Landsat 7 satellite in 2001. Glaciers shaped the park's landscape in the Pleistocene Ice Age and left behind canyons, waterfalls and granite domes, according to NASA.

Colorado National Monument

Fossilized tracks left by ancient dinosaur, lizard and turtles litter the Colorado National Monument. Hikers will also see natural potholes, or sandstone basins filled with rainwater, sediment, plants and animals, according to NASA.

Hot Springs National Park

Arkansas' national park has an urban center in its middle, but it still sports 8.7 square miles (22.5 square kilometers) of wilderness, including part of the Ouachita Mountains. The park is famous for the 700,000 gallons (2.6 million liters) of hot water that bubble up near Hot Springs Mountain every day. NASA's Landsat 8 snapped this photo in June 2013.

Redwood National Park

Grey rock, green vegetation, eye-catching redwoods and a wispy white beach can be seen in this image taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus instrument on NASA's Landsat 7 satellite in 2003. Redwood National Park is one of the most seismically active in the U.S., leading to landslides and erosion along the coast, NASA said.

White Sands National Monument

When bodies of water evaporate, gypsum is left behind. It is gypsum that forms the white sands of this monument in America's Southwest, now in the form of tiny grains after having been broken down from its crystal form by various weather events. The Advanced Land Imager on NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite took this image in 2009, the agency said.

Shenandoah National Park

The reddish patches in this satellite photo are autumn foliage turning color, as captured by the Thematic Mapper NASA's Landsat satellite on Oct. 10, 2010. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated this national park in Virginia in 1936, and today hikers still enjoy the 280-square-mile (725 square kilometers) park in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Old Rag Mountain draws outdoor enthusiasts, but its rock scrambles make it a challenge for many to climb.

Grant Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Some of the land in this park once sat on the Earth's equator during the Permian Period, but tectonic forces moved it to its current location in south-central Utah. Researchers found two new herbivorous dinosaur species in this park in 2010. The Advanced Land Imager on NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite snapped this image over the Kaiparowits Basin in 2005.

Joshua Tree National Park

It's hard to see the diversity of Joshua Tree from space, but the park is home to 700 plant species. Cacti, wildflowers, 25 types of snakes, various mammals including bighorn sheep and coyotes, hundreds of migratory birds and thousands of insect and arthropod species, such as tarantulas and scorpions, all live in the region. These diverse plant and animal species make use of the Mojave Desert and Colorado deserts, the Little San Bernardino Mountains and five desert palm oases. However, the park may be most famous for its Joshua trees, which hold precious water in times of drought.

Hells Canyon National Recreation Area

The Snake River in the Pacific Northwest carved out Hells Canyon about 6 million years ago. The enormous flood from Glacial Lake Bonneville in Utah shaped the area further about 15,000 years ago. Today, Hells Canyon is 8,043 feet (2,451 meters) above river level, which makes it deeper than the Grand Canyon.

Big Bend National Park

Once covered by the Cretaceous Sea about 135 million years ago, Big Bend National Park is now home to fossils of oysters, giant clams, turtles, rhinos and a nearly 50-foot-long (15 meters) crocodile, NASA reports. This large flying creature, with a wingspan the size of a small airplane, also lived in the region about 220 million to 65 million years ago. NASA's Landsat 7 satellite snapped this image of the park in southwestern Texas in 2002.

The U.S. National Park Service has an important message for visitors: Leave your drones at home!

Unmanned aircraft were officially banned from U.S. national parks in June 2014. But just last week, on Aug. 2, an unidentified tourist crashed a drone straight into the famous rainbow-colored Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Park officials have yet to recover the drone, and have not determined if the crash caused any damage to the site, but an investigation into the matter is ongoing, Amy Bartlett, a park spokesperson, told Live Science. [See photos of Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic hot spring]

Grand Prismatic is named for its colorful algae mat, which circles the spring in shades of red, orange, yellow and green.

"It's a hugely popular, photographic hot spring in Yellowstone," said Bartlett, who also noted that, while park officials aren't yet certain, the tourist was likely flying the drone over the hot spring to capture an image or video. 

Park officials haven't yet recovered the downed drone from Grand Prismatic, partly because they have not determined where the vehicles landed in the spring, Bartlett said. Measuring more than 300 feet (91 meters) across and reaching depths of 160 feet (49 m), the hot spring is the largest in the United States, and the third largest in the world.

"We'll probably have to fly a real, piloted helicopter over it to get the exact location," Bartlett said. She also said that, because of the spring's large algae mat, the ground surrounding the site is soft, making it impossible for park officials to assess the situation on foot.

Once the officials figure out exactly where the rogue drone is located, they can determine what, if anything, they're going to do with it.

"We don't know what damage may have been caused when it entered the hot spring, but we also don't know what kind of damage could be caused either by leaving it there or by taking it out," Bartlett said.

Park officials have not identified the person responsible for the downed drone, but Bartlett said that other park visitors did witness a tourist on a nearby boardwalk controlling a drone that later fell into Grand Prismatic.

The drone pilot did report the incident to officials at the park's visitor center, but it wasn't clear to Yellowstone employees at the time that the drone was still in the hot spring, Bartlett said. As such, the pilot was not apprehended nor identified by park officials. Bartlett said an investigation into the matter is ongoing.

Earlier this summer, park officials recovered a drone that had crashed near a marina in Yellowstone Lake, Bartlett said. Other national parks have also reported recent disturbances caused by drones. In April, visitors to Grand Canyon National Park, in Arizona, complained to park officials that a noisy drone flying overhead ruined their evening sunset. Earlier in April, drone handlers in Zion National Park, in Utah, were caught harassing a herd of bighorn sheep with a robotic flyer.

These and other events prompted the National Park Service to issue a formal ban on drones in June. The order, which went into affect on June 20, cites noise, harassment of wildlife and visitor safety as a few of the reasons for prohibiting these flying robots over federally administered lands and waters.

Unfortunately, Bartlett said that drones aren't the only items that find their way into the hot springs at Yellowstone. Visitors often confuse these environmental landmarks with wishing wells or even garbage cans, throwing coins and trash into the springs, she said.

Follow Elizabeth Palermo @techEpalermo. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Drones have been banned from all national parks in the United States, according to new regulations established by U.S. government officials.

The National Park Service (NPS), the government agency that manages the nation's national parks, monuments and other historical sites, has outlawed launching, landing or operating drones over all federally administered lands and waters. Jonathan Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, signed the policy memo into effect on June 27.

"We embrace many activities in national parks because they enhance visitor experience with the iconic natural, historic and cultural landscapes in our care," Jarvis said in a statement. "However, we have serious concerns about the negative impact that flying unmanned aircraft is having in parks, so we are prohibiting their use until we can determine the most appropriate policy that will protect park resources and provide all visitors with a rich experience." [8 Amazing National Park Structures]

In May, Yosemite National Park in California banned the use of drones anywhere within the park's boundaries. NPS superintendents had reported that these flying bots were frequently being used to film above Yosemite's treetops to capture stunning aerial views of the landscape.

Park officials hope the drone ban will cut down on the number of noise and nuisance complaints filed by visitors, and will help ensure the safety of those on NPS grounds.

Last September, park rangers confiscated a drone that caused a disturbance when it flew over the Mount Rushmore National Memorial amphitheater in South Dakota. In April, visitors to Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona complained about a drone that loudly flew over the area and eventually crashed into the canyon.

Similarly, volunteers at Zion National Park in Utah reported an incident where a robotic flyer flew near a herd of bighorn sheep, causing a commotion that scattered and separated some young sheep from the adults.

Despite the prohibition, the NPS may use drones for search-and-rescue operations, fire safety and scientific study, according to Jarvis, but these uses will require special approval.

Jarvis said the ban is a temporary measure until government officials can assess how people can safely operate these flying bots over densely populated areas, in urban settings, and in the same airspace as manned aircraft.

The NPS rules also do not infringe on the jurisdiction of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which oversees all aspects of the country's civil aviation. The FAA is currently developing official rules for the use of commercial drones. Regulations for small commercial drones that weigh less than 55 lbs. (25 kilograms) are expected to be released in 2015.

Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Parallel valleys called grabens stand out in a new satellite image of Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the park, which was created in 1964. The Colorado River, seen on the left in this image, and the Green River divide the park into four districts. The region seen here is called the Needles District, which is one of the more remote areas of the park. Here, colorful sandstone spires define the landscape.

The spires may not be visible from space, but another intriguing feature of Canyonlands is: The long, parallel valleys seen alongside the Colorado River here are grabens. Each is as deep as 246 feet (75 meters) and extends about 16 miles (25 kilometers), according to NASA's Earth Observatory. The Operational Land Imager instrument on the Landsat 8 satellite took this snapshot of the grabens on May 13.

Grabens, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, are blocks of rock that have dropped down as the Earth's crust pulls apart. The ridges along the valleys are called horsts. [Photos of the 10 Least Visited National Parks]

The layer-cake look of Canyonlands originated millions of years ago, when rivers and wind brought eroded sediment from the ancestral Rockies and Appalachians to the region, according to the National Park Service (NPS). Meanwhile, about 20 million years ago, the entire region began to lift above its surroundings, a phenomenon that created the modern-day Colorado Plateau. Rivers and rain have since sculpted the soft sedimentary rocks of Canyonlands into the bizarre and amazing formations seen today.

The grabens of Canyonlands began to form about 300 million years ago, according to the NPS. During this time, the region was under a shallow inland sea, which deposited a layer of evaporated salt. When sea levels dropped, sediment continued to accrue over this layer, which is known as the Paradox Formation.

These overlying layers squeeze the Paradox Formation westward. The Colorado River has cut down through the sediments, creating a low-pressure spot that acts like a drain, drawing the salt sediments. These factors, among others, cause the land to pull apart and drop down, creating the alternating graben-horst landscape. Cracks that formed during the uplift of the Colorado Plateau define the edges of the grabens.

The Paradox Formation also plays a role in the sandstone spires that give The Needles region its name. The stretching surface caused by the movement of the Paradox Formation creates north-to-south fractures. (A regional warping called the Monument Uplift creates east-to-west fractures in the area.) Water worms its way into these fractures, eroding away the softest rock and leaving impressive, and colorful, spires behind.

Editor's Note: If you have an amazing weather or general science photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Jeanna Bryner at LSphotos@livescience.com.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Memorial Day is just around the corner, marking the start of tourism season at many National Parks and heritage sites. Last year, nearly 275 million people grabbed their sunscreen and cameras on their way to visit one of the 370 sites managed by the National Park Service. Millions more visited historically-important places managed by NASA or state and local governments.

Those visits provide a substantial influx of tourism revenue to local communities and also give visitors insight into key moments in U.S. history, serving as powerful reminders about where we've come from. Yet there are growing concerns about how to preserve these sites for futures generation in the face of climate change. The National Park Service estimates that at least 85 sites have already felt the impacts of climate change. 

Sea Level Rise Threatens World’s Cultural Treasures Increase in Western Wildfires Fuels Obama’s Budget Move Breathtaking Coral Reef Panoramas Help Scientists

On Tuesday, a new report released by the Union of Concerned Scientists provided case studies of 25 parks and other sites threatened by climate change, particularly rising seas, increased risk of wildfires, and melting permafrost. Some efforts are already underway at these and other tourist spots around the country to prepare for the impacts of climate change and ensure that sites that reveal our past continue to be part of our future. Check out the images below to see a handful of the sites included in the new report. 

Boston Historic District

Downtown Boston contains the largest intact network of colonial streets in the U.S. At the center of the area is Faneuil Hall, a meeting house where the Sons of Liberty planned the Boston Tea Party. The Sons of Liberty had to travel about half a mile from Faneuil Hall to the harbor for their famous party, but sea level rise could make that walk a little shorter. A report released last year showed 5 feet of sea level rise would bring water right to the steps of Faneuil Hall. And the National Climate Assessment released earlier this month projects that up to 6 feet of sea level rise is possible by 2100. The city of Boston is conscious of the risks and requires all new municipal construction to take into account climate risks in the present as well as by 2050.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island National Monuments

Roughly 12 million immigrants to the U.S. laid eyes on the Statue of Liberty and then passed through the halls of Ellis Island from 1892-1954. Now millions of tourists visit them each year. Sea levels in New York Harbor have risen roughly a foot since Ellis Island opened its gates. That rise has helped increase the odds of storm surge overtopping the city's flood defenses from once every 100-400 years to once every 4-5 years according to a recent study. Managers at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are planning for future floods by raising electrical infrastructure 20 feet above sea level. Ellis Island is also still under repair a year and a half after Sandy.

Seven NASA Sites Around the U.S.

The agency that sends astronauts to space and whose satellites monitor our planet also faces threats from sea level rise. Two-thirds of its facilities sit within 16 feet of sea level including launch sites at Johnson Space Center in Texas, and the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, and Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the first flight to the moon was launched. NASA has recognized the threat sea level rise poses to these and other sites and has installed sea walls and fortified beaches and dunes at some facilities, including Wallops, so rockets (and the occasional frog) can still take off.

Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde was first set aside as a National Park Service site in 1906 and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. The park has 4,500 archeological sites that date back to 400 A.D. and 600 ancient cliff dwellings dating to the 1100s. While its location in southwest Colorado ensures that Mesa Verde won't face the threat of rising seas, it does put the park in wildfire territory. A combination of rising temperatures and decreasing winter snowpack that also melts earlier in the spring have contributed to a rise in large wildfires across the West since the 1970s. In Mesa Verde, two large fires in 2000 burned nearly 25,000 acres or roughly half the park. A 2011 report indicates that for every additional 1.8°F of temperature rise, the area burned in the West could increase fourfold.

Bering Land Bridge National Preserve

If Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings are old, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve has artifacts that are absolutely ancient. The first human migrants to North America crossed the land bridge 15,000 years ago, and artifacts there have been dated back to 12,000 years ago. There are many important archeological sites that contain the history of the first people to settle North America, but warming in Alaska, which has been roughly 3°F since the 1950s, is causing widespread permafrost melt. That has resulted in melting permafrost and sinking landscapes. Winter warming has also reduced sea ice, allowing strong storms that were once blocked by ice to reach land and cause widespread coastal erosion.

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Follow the author on Twitter @blkahn or @ClimateCentral. We're also on Facebook & other social networks. Original article on Climate Central.

Climate change could put some of the country's most iconic landmarks and national parks at risk from flooding, sea level rise and wildfires, according to a new report.

The study published this month by the Union of Concerned Scientists focused on 30 sites — including Ellis Island in New York, the Florida Everglades and Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado — that are imperiled by rising sea levels, coastal flooding, erosion and wildfires. Authorities at some parks, such as Ellis Island, have already taken steps to ward off such damage. For instance, the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, which was the tallest brick building in the world when it was built in 1870, was moved inland in 1999 to protect it from rising sea levels.

But other stunning or historic sites are completely unprepared for future disasters, according to the report.

This isn't the first report to warn of climate change's threat to national parks. Another study released in January by the National Park Service found that sea level rise and storm surges put at least 100 national parks at risk. 

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