National Parks Feel Misunderstood

Ulysses S. Grant made national parks a thing, all the way back in 1872 when he signed the Yellowstone Act. With the stroke of that fountain pen, he created Yellowstone National Park, which spans three states. Situated primarily in northwestern Wyoming, Yellowstone is insanely large: At just under 3,500 square miles, it’s nearly three times the area of Rhode Island. And while this park is popular with the crowds, many are unaware that Yellowstone sits atop a supervolcano.

Two large, partially molten magma chambers are fairly close to the surface in Yellowstone — so close that they superheat the groundwater. According to the National Park Service, which is not known for hyperbole, Yellowstone has “the most extraordinary collection of hot springs, geysers, mudpots, and fumaroles on Earth.” Indeed, more than half of the geysers in the world are in Yellowstone.

My very first visit to Yellowstone was on a month-long, 11-state, multi-thousand-photograph road trip. There’s an otherworldly feeling in seeing geysers and volcanoes juxtaposed with the “regular” flora and fauna, like lodgepole pines, Douglas firs, elk and bison.

Especially near lodges and around Old Faithful, the most famous geyser, Yellowstone can get congested with all the tourist traffic. But there are also other reasons why traffic in the park sometimes grinds to a halt…

I took this picture on my second trip to Yellowstone, when the bison slowed me down and prevented me from visiting areas of the park I’d never seen. The bison didn’t care.

Did you know there’s a national park that’s a gigantic puddle? Crater Lake National Park in southeastern Oregon is about 50 miles north-northeast of Klamath Falls. It’s one of the most beautiful places my two eyes have ever beheld, and one where photographs, however picture-perfect, fail to convey the awe felt by visitors.

Crater Lake is a closed lake, meaning no rivers or creeks flow to it, or from it; all of its approximately 4.9 trillion gallons of water have accumulated from precipitation. This means little sediment is carried into the lake, keeping the waters clear. In fact, Crater Lake’s stunning blue clarity was a breathtaking surprise for this first-time visitor, even as I supposedly knew what to expect.

Crater Lake is an astonishing 1,943 feet deep, which means its bottom is more than a third of a mile below the water’s surface. It’s the deepest lake in the U.S., and the deepest volcanic lake in the world. It formed around 7,700 years ago, when Mount Mazama blew its top. The remaining mountain was severely weakened and eventually collapsed, leaving a vast caldera (volcanic crater) that was more than five miles deep; another eruption inside the caldera created the picturesque Wizard Island, near the lake’s western shore.

One by one by one, drops of water and grains of sand, plus a cool 5 to 6 million years, formed the mind-bending beauty that is the Grand Canyon. As the Colorado River flowed and flooded over the Colorado Plateau, it eroded the underlying rock. Water and each grain of sand, pebble and boulder carried by the water worked like chisels to create this natural wonder. Yet it’s so stunning that, somehow, it doesn’t look natural. The first time I stood at the South Rim, 60 miles north of Williams, Arizona, I couldn’t help but think it was simply unreal — like a massive sand art installation.

on The Carlos Watson Show!

I visited Acadia National Park one fall and was rewarded with leaves of every color plus a chilly, New England crispness in the air. It was like stepping into a postcard. Located in Down East Maine on Mount Desert Island, about a half-mile off the coast, this park is home to Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the eastern coastline. Cadillac Mountain and Acadia’s other stunning features are the fortunate result of glaciers receding over the last several ice ages.

Jordan Pond is one such feature, a glacially-created tarn whose shores I visited for the very first time exactly two decades ago. There I stood, shooting pictures in a gentle breeze that moved over the surface of the pond, making small waves that lapped happily at the shore.

What near or far-flung travel destinations would you like to read about on OZY?