标签美国下的文章

涅迪克角灯塔上的节日彩灯，缅因州 Holiday lights on Cape Neddick Light in York, Maine (© Walter Bibikow/Alamy)

A holiday beacon of light

This classic New England scene is Cape Neddick Light, one of Maine's most iconic lighthouses, all lit up for the holiday season. Every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, hundreds gather on the mainland across from tiny Nubble Island to count down to the lighting. It is quite the holiday tradition, complete with Santa, live reindeer, and thousands of cookies baked by locals.

'Nubble Light,' or 'the Nub,' is arguably the most iconic of Maine's 65 lighthouses. Built on more than two acres of granite island, the Nub has been protecting sailors since 1879. There's no better time to visit than when it's all dressed up for the holidays. And if you miss the winter display, you can come back in July, when it's relit for summer visitors.

节日的灯塔

这个经典的新英格兰场景是涅迪克角灯塔，缅因州最具标志性的灯塔之一，在节日期间灯火通明。每年感恩节后的星期六，数百人聚集在努布尔岛对面的大陆上，为灯光倒数。这是一个相当传统的节日，有圣诞老人，驯鹿和当地人烤的成千上万的饼干。

“纽伯灯”或“纽伯”可以说是缅因州65座灯塔中最具标志性的。 Nub建于2英亩以上的花岗岩岛上，自1879年以来就一直为水手们提供保护。没有比盛装过节更好的时间了。如果你错过了冬季的展览，你可以在7月回来，那时灯塔会为夏季游客重新点亮。

Andy Goldsworthy's 'Wood Line' installation along Lovers' Lane in the Presidio of San Francisco, California (© Chris LaBasco/Alamy)

Take a hike near Lovers' Lane

For those of you who love getting outside, you're in luck! Today is Take a Hike Day, an activity the American Hiking Society says will make you happier as you enjoy the great outdoors. And what better way to take a hike than a walk down Lovers' Lane in San Francisco's Presidio? The sinewy trail we see in today's photo is called 'Wood Line' and was designed by the environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy. By using felled eucalyptus trees, Goldsworthy intended this land art to eventually biodegrade and fade back into the forest floor. It's one of four of his works within this national park that once served as a US military outpost.

No matter where you are, we hope you'll find the closest trail to explore. The US National Trail System maintains more than 55,000 miles of National Scenic, Historic, or Recreational trails through some of the most beautiful, interesting parts of the country, so you have plenty of hikes to choose from.

位于科罗拉多南部圣胡安山脉的美国盆地 American Basin in southern Colorado's San Juan Mountains (© Blaine Harrington III/Alamy)

High alpine color in Colorado

Songstress Dolly Parton once sang 'wildflowers don't care where they grow,' but we gotta believe the wildflowers growing in Colorado's American Basin, shown here, are pretty delighted with their surroundings. American Basin is in the San Juan Mountains in the southern part of the state, about a 5-hour drive from Denver. Visitors here will find rocky cliffs, streams, unique rock formations, and some spectacular wildflowers. July and August are the best time to see the blooms—it's the time of year when you'll reliably spot the Rocky Mountain columbine (Colorado's state flower), elephant's head, Parry's primrose, and marsh marigold. Bring us back a bouquet, all right?

红宝石海滩的日落，华盛顿州奥林匹克国家公园 Sunset at Ruby Beach in Olympic National Park, Washington state (© Adam Mowery/Tandem Stills + Motion)

Red skies at Ruby Beach

Reddish crystals in the sand inspired the name of Ruby Beach, one of the coastal stops within Olympic National Park in Washington state. A few miles from the shore is Destruction Island, where birds such as rhinoceros auklets may stop and rest after a day of gobbling up krill and squid in the cold Pacific waters. While the park includes miles of colorful Pacific coastline, it's also famous for the Hoh Rainforest, an inland temperate forest notable for its towering old-growth hemlock and spruce trees.

优胜美地国家公园中的春季瀑布 Vernal Fall in Yosemite National Park, California (© elvistudio/Shutterstock)

National Parks Week begins

To kick off National Park Week, which starts today, we're turning our lens on Vernal Fall in California's Yosemite National Park. This time of year, the waterfall flows in a torrent, but by late summer it can be reduced to a trickle of small streams slipping over the edge. Most years, Vernal Fall is at full power by May, as the spring thaw in the mountains melts the snowpack, turning the falls into a raging tumble of water spilling to the valley floor where the Merced River flows.

阿卡迪亚国家公园，缅因州 Acadia National Park in Maine (© emptyclouds/Getty Images)

'The Crown Jewel of the North Atlantic'

Welcome to Acadia National Park on Maine's rocky, scenic coast. The 49,075-acre park covers about half of Mount Desert Island, smaller nearby islands, and a section on the mainland. The oldest national park east of the Mississippi River and the only one in Maine, Acadia packs a lot of geographical variety into its relatively small size. You'll find miles of craggy coastline like the shore in our homepage image, woodlands, wetlands, and mountains. The park's Cadillac Mountain is the highest point along the North Atlantic seaboard and a great spot to take in the sunrise.

人们在布雷纳德的加尔湖上冰钓，明尼苏达州 People ice fishing on Gull Lake in Brainerd, Minnesota (© Robert Benson/Cavan)

An icy extravaganza

We’re just outside of Brainerd, Minnesota, for the Ice Fishing Extravaganza on Gull Lake. Each year in late January, more than 10,000 people will come out to catch as many fish as they can—mostly walleye and northern pike, but all fish species are eligible. The contest is organized and run by volunteers exclusively, and 100 percent of the proceeds—around $150,000—goes to local charities.

The practice of ice fishing started years ago when Native American tribes in the Upper Midwest would use it to gather food for the long, harsh winters. But today, ice fishing is a popular winter activity in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Some anglers even trick out modern-day ice shanties with big-screen TVs, underwater cameras, sonar fish-finders, and bathrooms with hot showers, making it easy to spend entire weekends out on the lake, warm and dry.

一只勃兰特鸬鹚在洛杉矶海岸石油钻塔下的一群太平洋鲭鱼中觅食，加利福尼亚 A Brandt's cormorant hunts for a meal in a school of Pacific mackerel beneath an oil rig off the coast of Los Angeles, California (© Alex Mustard/Minden Pictures)

A seabird gets 'schooled'

This deep-diving Brandt's cormorant appears to be on the hunt for a meal, and there's plenty of Pacific mackerel to choose from here off the coast of Los Angeles, California. While seabirds like the cormorant are a threat to these fish, the mackerel aren't exactly defenseless. Fish have many unique means of defense, such as traveling in dense schools like this one. It's a technique that not only allows for speedy travel (because it reduces friction on most of the fish in the school)—schooling also makes it more difficult for predators to pick out an individual victim. For these fish, there's safety in numbers. But when all else fails, they can take some advice from Dory in 'Finding Nemo'—'Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.'

Into the woods

On this day in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt declared 554 acres in Marin County, California, a national monument. William and Elizabeth Kent, who donated the land, insisted the monument be named after naturalist John Muir, the environmentalist known as the 'father of the national parks.' Part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Muir Woods is best known for its old-growth coastal redwood forests, which make up more than half its land. The redwoods in the monument are 600-800 years old, on average, with the oldest being at least 1,200. The tallest tree is about 258 feet, though further north redwoods grow as high as 379 feet. Redwoods are an important part of the forest ecosystem. They absorb and 'strip' moisture from fog, which then drips into the ground, supporting the trees as well as other forest life.

'Field of Light at Sensorio' by Bruce Munro

Artist Bruce Munro was camping at Ayers Rock in Australia with his family in 1992 when he envisioned the art installation on today's homepage. Titled 'Field of Light,' it's currently on display at a venue called Sensorio in Paso Robles, California, the latest stop in a tour of sites around the world. At Sensorio, a new arts center that bills itself as representing 'the intersection of art, technology and nature,' visitors will find 58,800 solar-powered spheres, lit by optical fibers, that change color. When the sun sets, the fibers illuminate, creating a shimmering, interactive landscape in the meadow. The art installation changes a bit at each destination, but Munro tells reporters, 'the one constant is that it does make people smile.'

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