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Granite headlands meet the Atlantic along Maine's rugged coast.

Rainforest-cloaked volcanic islands and coral reefs in the South Pacific.

Over 2,000 sandstone arches glow rust-red against a desert sky.

Striped buttes and grasslands roam with bison and bighorn sheep.

Where the Rio Grande carves the Chihuahuan Desert beneath the Chisos.

A turquoise marine park of mangroves, keys, and living coral reefs.

A sheer, narrow chasm so deep that sunlight rarely touches the river.

Amphitheaters of pink hoodoos blaze at sunrise above pine forests.

The Green and Colorado rivers split the desert into four wild districts.

A 100-mile wrinkle in the earth hides orchards, petroglyphs, and slot canyons.

An underworld of cathedral-sized chambers and twilight bat flights.

Five wind-swept islands off the California coast — the 'Galápagos of North America.'

One of the tallest old-growth hardwood forests left in North America.

The deepest, bluest lake in America fills a sleeping volcano's crown.

A meandering river, towpath trail, and waterfalls minutes from Cleveland.

The hottest, lowest, driest park — a moonscape of salt flats and dunes.

Six million acres of subarctic wilderness crowned by North America's tallest peak.

A 19th-century brick fort marooned on a coral atoll 70 miles from Key West.

A river of grass sliding south through mangroves and cypress to the Gulf.

Roadless, trailless Arctic wilderness north of the Brooks Range.

Eero Saarinen's stainless arch frames the gateway to the American West.

Sharpened peaks, turquoise lakes, and the last glaciers of the Northern Rockies.

Tidewater glaciers calve into a fjord shaped by 250 years of ice retreat.

A mile-deep gorge of layered time carved by the Colorado River.

Jagged peaks rise straight from the valley floor with no foothills.

Ancient bristlecone pines and limestone caves under Nevada's darkest skies.

North America's tallest dunes pile against the Sangre de Cristo range.

Blue-misted ridges hide synchronous fireflies, log cabins, and 1,500 black bears.

A fossil reef rises from the West Texas desert to Texas's highest summit.

Watch sunrise above the clouds in a dormant volcano's red cinder crater.

Two of the world's most active volcanoes — Kīlauea and Mauna Loa — at work.

Historic bathhouses line a steamy promenade in the Ouachita foothills.

Fifteen miles of Lake Michigan beach back into singing dunes and oak savannas.

A wolf-and-moose island wilderness adrift in Lake Superior.

Twisted yuccas and granite piles where the Mojave meets the Colorado Desert.

Brown bears fish for salmon at Brooks Falls in the heart of the Alaskan bush.

The Harding Icefield spills 38 glaciers into a fjord-cut Pacific coast.

A granite gorge deeper than Grand Canyon, home to General Grant's giant sequoia.

Arctic sand dunes and the great caribou crossing of the Kobuk River.

Volcanoes, salmon rivers, and turquoise lakes a short flight from Anchorage.

Bubbling mudpots, fumaroles, and a plug-dome volcano in California's north.

The world's longest known cave system threads beneath Kentucky's wooded hills.

Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings tucked beneath sandstone alcoves.

An ice-clad stratovolcano rises 14,410 feet above wildflower meadows.

An ancient river carves a thousand-foot gorge spanned by a steel arch bridge.

More than 300 glaciers crown the 'American Alps' along the Canadian border.

Glaciered peaks, temperate rainforest, and wild Pacific coast in one park.

Rainbow logs of fossilized wood scattered across the Painted Desert.

Volcanic spires and talus caves shelter California condors and chaparral.

The tallest trees on earth stand in coastal fog north of the Lost Coast.

Alpine tundra, elk-grazed meadows, and the Continental Divide along Trail Ridge Road.

Forests of giant saguaro cacti fringe Tucson under desert sunsets.

Home to General Sherman, the largest living tree on the planet by volume.

A long ridge in the Blue Ridge Mountains laced by Skyline Drive.

Badlands and grasslands where a young Roosevelt found his conservation calling.

Two-thirds of St. John is protected coral reef, mangrove, and Taíno history.

A water-based park of interconnected lakes once paddled by French fur traders.

The world's largest gypsum dunefield, blinding white against the Tularosa Basin.

Boxwork-laced caverns below a prairie roamed by bison, elk, and pronghorn.

The largest U.S. national park — nine of the sixteen highest peaks in America.

The world's first national park — a wonderland of geysers, hot springs, and wildlife.

Granite cliffs, towering waterfalls, and giant sequoias in the Sierra Nevada.

Crimson canyon walls tower over a slot-cut river in southwestern Utah.

Sixteen turquoise lakes spill into one another over travertine cascades.

Switzerland's only national park — strict wilderness in the Engadin Alps.

Europe's largest ice cap, calving into black-sand lagoons and ice caves.

Five cliff-clinging fishing villages strung along Liguria's blue coast.

Pale limestone spires above emerald larch forests — a UNESCO mountain dream.

A storybook island church on a glacial lake under a cliff-top castle.

Slovenia's only national park, anchored by the Julian Alps' highest summit.

Twin UNESCO fjords carved by glaciers, framed by waterfalls and farm hamlets.

Razor-edged Arctic peaks rise straight from white-sand beaches above the Circle.

Europe's wildest national park — no trails, no huts, just Sami country and glaciers.

Lakes, oak woods, and red deer below the Magillycuddy's Reeks.

Glacier-carved peaks, slate villages, and the highest summit in Wales.

Sixteen English lakes and the literary fells of Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter.

The UK's largest national park — Arctic plateau, ancient pine, and Scotch whisky.

Sheer limestone massifs above blue lakes a few miles from the Cantabrian Sea.

Europe's most important wetland — flamingos, Iberian lynx, and migrating birds.

The highest peaks of the Carpathians, shared by Poland and Slovakia.

A glacial canyon in the Pyrenees crowned by the third-highest peak in the range.

A flooded volcanic caldera ringed by white-washed cliff villages above the Aegean.

Byzantine monasteries balanced atop sandstone pinnacles in central Thessaly.

Mt. Fuji, hot-spring hamlets, and the Izu peninsula in one sprawling park.

Roadless Hokkaido wilderness where brown bears fish along a UNESCO coast.

Moss-drenched cedar forest island that inspired Princess Mononoke.

Quartz-sandstone pillars that inspired Avatar's floating Hallelujah Mountains.

Multi-hued travertine lakes and waterfalls in the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

Granite peaks above a sea of clouds — the most-painted mountain in China.

Nearly two thousand limestone karsts rise from emerald water in the Gulf of Tonkin.

World's largest cave (Son Doong) and a vast karst wilderness in central Vietnam.

Older than the Amazon — limestone karsts, emerald lake, and the last wild elephants.

Pink-sand beaches, manta-filled reefs, and the world's largest lizard.

The richest marine biodiversity on Earth — 1,500 islands scattered across West Papua.

Nepal's largest protected area, ringed by the world's tenth-highest peak.

Home of Mt. Everest, Sherpa villages, and the Khumbu glacier.

Trans-Himalayan high-desert kingdom of monasteries, snow leopards, and turquoise lakes.

Bengal tigers stalk the ruins of a 10th-century fort in dry Rajasthan jungle.

Primary lowland rainforest where wild orangutans swing through 130-million-year-old canopy.

The Great Migration — two million wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle in motion.

An intact volcanic caldera holding the densest wildlife population on the continent.

Africa's highest peak — a free-standing equatorial volcano you can walk up.

Kenya's stretch of the migration plains — predator-rich and unfenced.

South Africa's flagship reserve, home to all Big Five and a self-drive safari grid.

A river that never reaches the sea — a Kalahari delta brimming with life.

The largest curtain of falling water on Earth — Mosi-oa-Tunya, the 'smoke that thunders.'

The world's oldest desert — rust-red dunes and the skeleton trees of Deadvlei.

A salt pan visible from space, ringed by waterholes alive with game in dry season.

A flat-topped sandstone giant looming a kilometre above Cape Town and two oceans.

North Africa's highest peak rises above Berber villages and walnut valleys.

Apricot-coloured dunes 150 m tall — the classic Saharan desert experience.

Granite towers, hanging glaciers, and Patagonian winds at the edge of the world.

Perito Moreno's calving wall and Mt. Fitz Roy's needles in Argentine Patagonia.

275 cascades plunge through subtropical rainforest on the Argentina-Brazil border.

An Inca royal estate hidden on a cloud-wrapped Andean ridge above the Urubamba.

A compact range of 6,000 m peaks and turquoise lakes north of Lima.

The world's largest salt flat — a perfect mirror after the rains, white desert when dry.

The volcanic islands that taught Darwin evolution — and still feel that pristine.

Macaw clay licks, oxbow lakes, and primary rainforest off the headwaters of the Amazon.

An ocean of white dunes hides thousands of rain-fed turquoise lagoons.

The driest desert on Earth — geysers, salt flats, and the clearest skies for stargazing.

The largest living structure on Earth — 2,300 km of coral visible from space.

A sacred Anangu monolith and 36 domes rising from Australia's red centre.

Wetlands, sandstone escarpments, and 65,000 years of unbroken Aboriginal culture.

Eucalyptus haze gives the cliffs their blue tint two hours west of Sydney.

Rain-drenched fjords where waterfalls plunge from sheer green walls into the Tasman.

New Zealand's oldest national park — volcanoes, emerald lakes, and the Mt. Doom of Mordor.

New Zealand's tallest peak above the icebergs of Tasman Lake under dark skies.

Canada's first national park — glacial lakes, hot springs, and the spine of the Rockies.

Canada's largest Rocky Mountain park — Columbia Icefield, dark skies, and elk in town.

Earth's mantle exposed in a UNESCO fjord-and-tundra wilderness on Newfoundland's west coast.

The most accessible continent of ice — penguin colonies, calving glaciers, and the Drake Passage.

Polar bear country 1,000 km from the North Pole — fjords, glaciers, and 24-hour summer light.

Light beams pour through wave-carved slot canyons on Navajo land near Page.

The Colorado River carves a 270° meander 1,000 feet below a sandstone overlook.

The largest alpine lake in North America — cobalt water ringed by Sierra granite.

Three thundering waterfalls on the U.S.–Canada border — the oldest state park in America.

Cinnabar-red sandstone buttes and vortex trails in Coconino National Forest.

The iconic red sandstone mittens of the Navajo Nation — the cinematic American West.

An 80-mile canyon of basalt cliffs and waterfalls cut by the Columbia through the Cascades.

A million acres of glacial lakes and pine wilderness on the Canadian border — paddle-only.

Ninety miles of cliffs where redwoods spill into the Pacific along Highway 1.

A 113-mile chain of coral islands trailing south to Key West and the only living reef in the U.S.

America's first national monument — an 867-foot igneous monolith sacred to Plains tribes.

Turquoise travertine pools deep in the Grand Canyon on the Havasupai reservation.

Oregon's tallest waterfall — 620 feet of plunge in two tiers, half an hour from Portland.

Six million acres of lakes, peaks, and birch forest — the largest park in the lower 48.

Oregon's 11,239-foot stratovolcano with year-round snow and wildflower meadows below.

Hemlock-shaded gorges, recess caves, and waterfalls in southeast Ohio's sandstone country.

Crimson sandstone fins erupt from prairie at the foot of Pikes Peak.

Rolling Appalachian peaks two hours north of NYC — Hudson River School landscapes in real life.

America's longest linear park — 469 miles of ridgeline driving through the southern Appalachians.

Forty miles of dunes, salt marshes, and lighthouses curling into the Atlantic.

Massive perched dunes plunge 450 feet to Lake Michigan along Michigan's northwest coast.

Eleven glacial lakes laced with vineyards, gorges, and waterfalls in upstate New York.

Nineteen waterfalls stacked in a two-mile shale gorge at the south end of Seneca Lake.

The 'Grand Canyon of the East' — three waterfalls thunder through a 600-foot gorge.

A 200-foot waterfall plunges into a basalt amphitheater carved by Ice Age megafloods.

A still-recovering blast zone 45 years after the most catastrophic eruption in U.S. history.

Twenty-one Lake Superior islands fringed with sea caves, lighthouses, and old-growth forest.

Forty miles of mineral-streaked sandstone cliffs above Lake Superior on Michigan's UP.

The Northeast's highest peak in a wilderness famed for hut-to-hut hiking and Yankee weather.

Long Beach, the West Coast Trail, and old-growth rainforest along Vancouver Island's wild edge.

Towering Takakkaw Falls, Lake O'Hara, and the Burgess Shale fossils on the BC side of the Rockies.

Glacier's Canadian sibling — where prairie meets peaks in an international peace park.

Two thousand lakes and pine-rimmed shorelines just north of the Great Lakes — Tom Thomson country.

Fairy-chimney valleys, rock-cut churches, and a sky filled with hot-air balloons at dawn.

Mars-red sandstone monoliths over orange desert — Lawrence of Arabia's 'vast, echoing, and god-like' valley.

A Nabataean city carved into rose-red sandstone, hidden in a desert canyon for centuries.

Cotton-white travertine terraces filled with turquoise thermal pools above ancient Hierapolis.

Eighteen North Atlantic islands of sea cliffs, grass-roofed villages, and puffin colonies.

Black Cuillin peaks, fairy pools, and basalt sea stacks on Scotland's most cinematic island.

Mid-Atlantic volcanic island of crater lakes, hot springs, and whale-rich waters.

Atlantic island of laurel forests, levada canal walks, and cliffs that drop straight to sea.

Lemon-terraced cliffs and pastel fishing villages strung along the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Limestone ridges, brown bears, and Saxon villages in the heart of Transylvania.

Cliff-clinging monasteries, dzongs, and a kingdom that measures Gross National Happiness.

Bamboo groves, temple gardens, and forested hills ringing Japan's ancient capital.

Karst peaks rising from rice terraces and the Li River — the postcard of southern China.

Sunrise volcano hikes above caldera lakes and emerald rice terraces in central Bali.

Razor-sharp limestone pinnacles, baobab forests, and lemurs found nowhere else on Earth.

Mist-shrouded montane rainforest home to nearly half the world's mountain gorillas.

An Afro-alpine 'roof of Africa' of jagged escarpments, gelada baboons, and Ras Dashen.

Table-top mesas, cobalt swimming caves, and waterfalls in Brazil's Bahia interior.

The world's largest tropical wetland — the best place on Earth to see wild jaguars.

Glacier-carved peaks, button grass plains, and the Overland Track in Tasmania's heart.

Golden-sand coves, granite headlands, and turquoise water at the top of New Zealand's South Island.

Emerald cathedral cliffs plunging into the Pacific on Kauai's wild northwest shore.

Orca-frequented Salish Sea archipelago of madrone-fringed coves and ferry-hopping villages.

Wind-sculpted boulder arches with Mount Whitney as their backdrop in the Owens Valley.

Cowboy town, raft-worthy whitewater, and a back-door perch under the Teton range.

Pine-forested high country with trout lakes and the southern terminus of the Mogollon Rim.

Barrier islands of wild horses, towering lighthouses, and the dunes where flight was born.

Bald cypress strands, gators, and panther country just north of the Everglades.

Sandstone towers above the Elbe — Caspar David Friedrich's painting in real life.

The Carpathians' alpine crown — glacial tarns, knife-edge ridges, and chamois.

Volcanic crater lakes, hot-spring pools, and emerald pastures mid-Atlantic.

Lochs, single-track roads, and the saw-tooth Cuillin ridge of the Isle of Skye.

Eighteen basalt islands in the North Atlantic — sea cliffs, sheep, and turf-roof villages.

Sub-arctic wilderness on Lake Torneträsk and the Kungsleden's northern terminus.

Dinaric Alps glacial lakes and the deepest canyon in Europe.

Western Europe's highest summit, ringed by the legendary Tour du Mont Blanc.

High-altitude moonscape of monasteries, snow leopards, and a 134-km cobalt lake.

Pine valleys, fortress-monasteries, and a cliffside temple in the last Himalayan kingdom.

Alpine lake at 3,000m where nomads still summer in white yurts.

Singing dunes, dinosaur cliffs, and ger camps under the world's emptiest sky.

Karst islands, hidden lagoons, and the underground river of the western Philippines.

UNESCO rainforest of pinnacles, the world's largest cave chamber, and 3-million-bat exodus.

Tea estates, misty peaks, and the train ride from Kandy to Ella.

Hottest inhabited place on Earth — sulfur springs, salt flats, and a lava lake.

Africa's largest canyon — a Grand-Canyon-scale gash in southern Namibia.

Virunga volcanoes where Dian Fossey studied mountain gorillas.

Spice-island beaches, Stone Town alleys, and snorkel reefs off the Swahili coast.

150-meter golden dunes at the edge of the Moroccan Sahara.

The world's largest salt flat — a perfect mirror in the wet season, a hexagonal moonscape when dry.

Driest desert on Earth — geysers, lagoons, and the clearest night sky anywhere.

Indigenous Andean villages strung around a turquoise volcanic crater lake.

Striped mineral peaks above llama herders, a day from Cusco.

Sheer fjord cliffs and Mitre Peak rising 1,600m from the Tasman Sea.

Active volcanoes, emerald crater lakes, and the Lord of the Rings' Mount Doom.

The world's largest reef system — 2,300km of coral visible from space.

Aboriginal rock-art galleries, monsoonal wetlands, and saltwater crocodiles.

The sacred red monolith at the heart of the Australian outback.

Volcanic island chain of white-sand beaches and manta ray channels.

Turquoise travertine falls deep in the Havasupai reservation below the Grand Canyon rim.

Slot-canyon light beams in Navajo Nation sandstone near Page.

Sandstone buttes on Navajo land — the cinematic American West.

275 square miles of gypsum dunes that stay cool to the touch.

Wolf-and-moose wilderness island in Lake Superior — only reachable by boat or float plane.

Interconnected lakes paddled by 18th-century fur traders — and one of the lower-48's best aurora spots.

Mineral-streaked sandstone cliffs and emerald coves on Lake Superior's southern shore.

A million acres of lakes-and-portage canoe country on the Canadian border.

Twenty-one Lake Superior islands with sea caves and historic lighthouses.

Canada's first national park — glacial lakes, the Icefields Parkway, and ski-town charm.

Wilder, quieter sibling to Banff — a dark-sky preserve with elk wandering town.

West-coast Vancouver Island — old-growth, surf breaks, and storm-watching season.

Six canyons together larger and deeper than the Grand — Rarámuri country in Chihuahua.

Crystal sinkhole pools, Mayan ruins above turquoise sea, and jungle cave systems.

Conical volcano above thermal rivers and cloud-forest hanging bridges.

Caribbean archipelago of stilt villages, surf reefs, and starfish beaches.

A 2,000-foot mesa-edge overlook of the Colorado's gooseneck just outside Canyonlands.

Nevada's oldest state park — flame-red Aztec sandstone an hour from Las Vegas.

Spanish-moss squares, Lowcountry marshes, and a wide Atlantic beach 20 minutes east.

Mountain town basecamp for Blue Ridge waterfalls, breweries, and the Biltmore.

Car-free Victorian island in the Straits of Mackinac — fudge, ferries, and horse-drawn carriages.

Adobe city above 7,000 ft with cliff-dwelling ruins and the Rio Grande gorge nearby.

The mainland half of Acadia — surf-pounded pink granite without the Bar Harbor crowds.

America's first national river — limestone bluffs and clear paddling in the Ozark highlands.

Wildflower back roads, swimming holes, and small-town BBQ between Austin and San Antonio.

Drive-able Alaska — fjords, glaciers, salmon rivers, and bears within a day of Anchorage.

Cathedral-shaped sandstone, vortex hikes, and pink-Jeep desert outside Flagstaff.

Granite presidentials, notches, and the highest wind on the planet at the Mount Washington summit.

Recessed sandstone caves, waterfalls, and hemlock gorges an hour from Columbus.

Three waterfalls in a 17-mile gorge — the 'Grand Canyon of the East' in Western NY.

A 200-ft basalt-rimmed waterfall carved by the Ice Age Missoula floods.

Cherokee heritage, elk herds in Cataloochee, and the quiet southern side of the Smokies.

Highway 1 above Pacific cliffs, sea-otter coves, and the bridges that defined a coast.

Hatteras lighthouses, wild Spanish mustangs, and 200 miles of barrier-island Atlantic.

Houseboat country: 2,000 miles of red-rock shoreline behind Glen Canyon Dam.

A million acres of lakes and portage trails on the Canadian border — paddle-only wilderness.

Cutler sandstone spires along the Colorado River outside Moab — climbers' cathedral.

Chihuahuan desert art town next to Texas' largest state park along the Rio Grande.

Striped sandstone spires and the wildest backcountry in Canyonlands.

One of the largest temperate rainforests in the U.S. — moss-draped Sitka spruce on the Olympic Peninsula.

77 waterfalls in 80 miles, basalt cliffs, and Lewis & Clark's path to the Pacific.

105 miles of ridge-top parkway with 75 overlooks across the Blue Ridge.

America's newest national park — sandstone walls above one of the oldest rivers on the continent.

Orca-rich archipelago in the Salish Sea, reached only by ferry or float plane.

The 'Galápagos of North America' — five islands of endemic species an hour off Ventura.

The tallest dunes in North America piled against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

All four volcano types in one park — boiling mud pots, alpine lakes, and a 10,000-ft plug dome.

The deepest alpine lake in North America — granite coves, ski resorts, and turquoise bays.

Cathedral cliffs plunging into the Pacific along Kauai's roadless north shore.

Mangrove labyrinth where Florida ends — alligators, manatees, and roseate spoonbills.

Overseas Highway to Key West, then a ferry to a 19th-century fort on a reef.

Covered bridges, peak fall color, and Vermont's tallest summit at Mt. Mansfield.

Slot canyons, slickrock, and Lower 48's last-mapped wilderness.

Wyoming's quiet alpine range — wildflower basins, the Medicine Wheel, and Cloud Peak.

Highway 61 along Superior — agate beaches, river gorges, and the Sawtooth Mountains.

Eroded sandstone spires, bison herds, and the granite faces of Mount Rushmore.

Sandstone arches and one of the densest concentrations of natural bridges east of the Rockies.

Largest U.S. park outside Alaska — 46 high peaks, mirror lakes, and Lake Placid charm.

Sugar-white quartz beaches and a coastal wildlife refuge on the Alabama Gulf.