标签 美国 下的文章

夏威夷火山国家公园，夏威夷 Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii (© Grant Ordelheide/Tandem Stills + Motion)

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park turns 103

Let's light some candles today—103 of them—for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the island of Hawaii. On this day in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill to establish the park in what was then the US Territory of Hawaii. (Hawaii wouldn't become a state until 1959.) The park contains a rich array of biodiversity, important historic sites of Native Hawaiians, and the glowing stars of the show—two of the world's most active volcanos, Mauna Loa and Kīlauea.

The massive Mauna Loa rises 56,000 feet from the sea floor, which means it's more than 27,000 feet taller than Everest. Kīlauea made headlines in 2018 for oozing lava for four months straight. This eruption destroyed over 700 homes and damaged roadways, park trails, buildings, and other infrastructure. Why did we call this place the land of laze and vog? You'll have to take today's quiz to find out.

胡德山国家森林里的延龄草湖，俄勒冈州 Trillium Lake in Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon (© Frank Krahmer/Getty Images)

A picture-perfect day on Trillium

Today we're out on Trillium Lake, a manmade lake in the shadow of Mount Hood, Oregon's tallest peak. Formed in 1960 by damming a tributary of the Salmon River, Trillium Lake's a popular spot for fishing, camping, and boating. In springtime, the surrounding woods are filled with trilliums, the native flowering plants the lake's named for. Take the flat, 1.9-mile loop trail around the lakeshore for stunning views of Mount Hood. But don't stop there. Mount Hood National Forest has more than 1,200 miles of hiking trails, not to mention year-round skiing at higher elevations. Wrap up your day at the Timberline Lodge, built during the Great Depression by the WPA and now a US National Historic Landmark. Bonus fact: Timberline Lodge was used for exterior shots of the Overlook Hotel in the horror movie 'The Shining.' But don't let that scare you off visiting.

科罗拉多斯普林斯的上帝公园，科罗拉多州 Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs, Colorado (© lightphoto/iStock/Getty Images)

A place fit for the gods

Perhaps it was inevitable that the European settlers who established Colorado Springs decided to name this park the Garden of the Gods—the creation myth of the native Ute people cites this location as the spot where all life began. Today, it's a popular public park and National Natural Landmark. The Garden of the Gods is on the western edge of the city—an easy way for locals and visitors alike to get a heaping dose of nature without having to travel far from civilization. If you stroll past any of the rock formations here, you're likely to see a climber scaling the red and pink sandstone fins that give the park its distinct look.

The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC © Cvandyke/Shutterstock

DC is the place to be

The building in our photo today is the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington DC. It's part of the large network of the Smithsonian Institution, and has branches in New York and Maryland. All three share one of the world's largest collection of Western Hemisphere Native artifacts, ‘from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.' Architect Douglas Cardinal drew on his Blackfoot cultural history to create the soft, curved lines of the building in the nation's capital. It's meant to evoke limestone cliffs, with rock walls smoothed by the elements. The landscape around the building simulates a wetland environment.

Sailors begin their journey from Chicago to Mackinac Island, Michigan during the Race to Mackinac © Karen I. Hirsch/Alamy

Batten down the hatches

The athletes on these boats are jockeying for position at the start of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac (pronounced ‘Mack-i-naw'). The ‘Mac,' at 333 miles long, is the world's oldest and longest annual freshwater boat race. It's an amateur event, but make no mistake, these sailors know their stuff. Many go on to race in the America's Cup. This year's race is held today, and the boats set sail, smallest to largest, just off Chicago's Navy Pier passing by the city skyline as we see in our image. When crews pass under the span of the mighty Mackinac Bridge—connecting the Lower Peninsula to the Upper Peninsula—Lake Michigan becomes Lake Huron, and the island appears.

The official finish line is Mackinac Island's Yacht Club, but many say the race ends at the Pink Pony Patio Bar, where an armada of sailors gather to boast and toast each other. It's about then that locals prepare for the merrymaking by locking up their bikes. On Mackinac Island, bicycles are a hot commodity because motorized vehicles are outlawed (even police pedal around). The few motorized vehicles on Mackinac are for emergency use, such as ambulances and firetrucks.

加利福尼亚州雷斯岬国家海岸上的柏树隧道 The cypress tunnel at Point Reyes National Seashore in California (© Rachid Dahnoun/Tandem Stills + Motion)

The ‘Night of Nights'

This is the cypress tunnel at Point Reyes National Seashore, a nature preserve on the California coast north of San Francisco. The tunnel leads to KPH, a ship-to-shore radio station that once broadcast and received messages with marine craft in the Pacific. KPH stopped operations in 1997, as more sophisticated radio equipment and satellite communications made radio stations like it obsolete. Now it's one of the unusual features of Point Reyes, open to visitors interested in a glimpse of the past.

Tonight, the radio station will be full of Morse code and maritime radio enthusiasts, celebrating the anniversary of the ‘Night of Nights.' It was on July 12, 1999 that nearby station KFS sent what is thought to be the last commercial transmission of Morse code in the United States.

从上布法罗荒野地区的惠特克顶小道向东看，阿肯色州奥沙克国家森林 (© Jens Lambert Photography/Getty Images Plus)

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas © Eddie Brady/Getty Images

World-class art comes to Arkansas

Bentonville, Arkansas is probably not the first place that comes to mind when you think about visiting a world-class art museum. But Crystal Bridges is a new must-see in the art world. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, photography, drawing, and installation art from colonial times to today and features American artists such as Maya Lin, Andrew Wyeth, Jacob Lawrence, Jackson Pollock, and Georgia O'Keeffe. But perhaps the biggest piece of art is the museum itself. Designed by Moshe Safdie, the building blends seamlessly and beautifully into the surrounding Ozark landscape. In addition to the art and architecture collections, there are eight nature trails on the grounds. And admission to the museum is always free.

位于大本德国家公园的格兰德河和卡门山脉，得克萨斯州 Rio Grande and Sierra del Carmen Mountains in Big Bend National Park, Texas (© Grant Ordelheide/Tandem Stills + Motion)

A big birthday for Big Bend

Seventy-five years ago today, on June 12, 1944, Big Bend officially became a US national park. The park, which covers 801,163 acres in West Texas, along the Mexico border, contains mountain, river, and desert ecosystems, including the largest protected area of the Chihuahuan Desert in the United States. But the ‘big’ doesn't stop there. Big Bend is home 1,200 species of plants, over 450 species of birds, 75 species of mammals, and 56 species of reptiles. (We're not sure how many of those are snakes, if you're wondering.) Because of its remote location, Big Bend also has among the darkest skies ever measured in the contiguous US. So tonight, the only light you'll likely see is the glow from 75 birthday candles—and a few million stars.

爱荷华州中部的高架栈桥 The High Trestle Trail Bridge in central Iowa (© Kelly van Dellen/Getty Images Plus)

Hiking the High Trestle Trail

The unique 130-foot-tall bridge you see here is just a small part of a longer, 25-mile trail that connects five small towns in central Iowa. The High Trestle Trail is a rail trail—a decommissioned railroad track that’s been turned into a multiuse trail—and it follows the path of an old Union Pacific Railroad freight line. The rail-to-trail movement began in the 1960s when many railroad tracks began to be removed and people noted that the relatively flat rail corridors were perfect for hiking and biking trails. We can now enjoy thousands of miles of rail trails throughout the US. So today, on National Trails Day, find a trail near you and get outside to celebrate.