It's Earth Month! What better way to appreciate our planet than to take a look at some of the unique and beautiful places in America's very own backyard?
1.These sandy dunes remind me of watching Zendaya and Timotheé in Dune, but this scene is actually straight out of Colorado! What you're looking at is a shot from the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
2.And speaking of sand dunes, the ones in Death Valley, California are unmatched.
3.The point where the mountains meet the sea in Washington's Olympic National Park is just beautiful on a sunny day.
4.Arizona's Saguaro National Park is filled with rocks, hills, and cacti...
5....and this group of cacti whose flowers make them look like they could be wearing flower crowns. Midsommar is this way, ladies!
6.Chesler Park, a part of Canyonlands National Park in Utah, is filled with a colorful reddish-orange terrain of extremely tall rock formations.
7.🎶 The hills are alive with the sound of music! 🎶 Oh wait, no, that's just Montana's own Glacier National Park being absolutely scenic as heck.
8.Cliff Palace, located inside of Mesa Verde National Park, features an incredible dwelling of over 150 rooms built into the side of a cliff by the Ancestral Puebloans.
9.Mangroves are generally something you'd find in the tropics, but the Everglades National Park in Floria have many of them. This picture that captures a view of them from the water was taken on an air boat.
10.And speaking of the Everglades, this aerial view is stunning. It reminds me of how the Amazon basin looks in Brazil.
11.Oregon's Crater Lake National Park is a sight to behold, especially in the winter. The lake is actually a volcanic crater, and the mountain you're looking at is a dormant volcano.
12.But if you want to see a volcano that erupted a lot more recently that's in America, check out Haleakalā National Park in Maui.
13.The park features beautiful, sweeping views that are almost dreamlike...
14....and an actual bamboo forest you can hike through!
15.I know the geyser in Yellowstone National Park is something we all learned about in school as a kid, but nobody told me it looked so vivid like this:
16.And when it steams? Forget it. What planet am I on, Mars?
17.Nevada's Great Basin National Park features all sorts of interesting flora and fauna, but the Bristlecone pine (as seen below) is definitely a one-of-a-kind tree. To me it looks like it's been either struck by lightening or it's from another universe, but maybe if you're from there, it looks just like all the other trees.
18.The rocks in Arches National Park are an absolutely massive sight to behold. Paired with the sky above, the look is just other-worldy.
19.Just outside of Los Angeles is Arch Rock, a gorgeous view on Anacapa Island, part of the Channel Islands National Park. I could totally see mermaids chilling around these parts if they were real.
20.Blue Mesa Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona is filled with gigantic mounds of bentonite clay, each with cascading rings of colors.
21.Due to its interesting shape and the way the light hits it, "The Subway" is a canyon that you can hike five miles to in Zion National Park.
22.Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida features seven different islands and coral reefs. This one is Garden Key, which is home to Fort Jefferson (and at least one lovely seagull, it seems).
23.Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota is particularly pretty at sunset. It's full of interesting rock formations, including the one below that kind of looks like a mushroom:
24.This scenic look at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia gives me European vibes.
25.Bryce Canyon National Park is filled with tall, sedimented rocks that look almost like they've been dripped down from above. It reminds me of "drip sandcastles" we made at the beach as a kid.
26.Colorado's Gunnison National Park has deep canyons with interesting striations on the rocks.
27.Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico features an underground walk through limestone caves. If you look closely, you can see the 20-foot stalactite on the left that's called "Sword of Damocles."
28.Joshua Tree National Park is filled with many gorgeous sights, but none quite as unique as the Joshua Tree itself. Their odd-looking branches and leaves are definitely a sight to behold.
29.This landscape looks like it could be on another planet to me, but it's actually a picture taken at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley.
30.And finally, Horseshoe Bend — a glorious point just below Grand Canyon National Park — is nature at its peak beauty.
