Trona Pinnacles
Calcium-carbonate towers formed underwater in Pleistocene Searles Lake and now stand across a dry basin used for science fiction, geology, camping, and night-sky viewing.
United States: places and wildlife — page 21
Browse the published Explore collection for United States. Open a discovery for its field guide, practical details, and background.
Alabama Hills
Weathered boulders, desert scrub, Mount Whitney views, Paiute-Shoshone homeland, mining routes, and movie locations overlap west of Lone Pine.
Mount Whitney
Whitney’s east face gains more than 10,000 feet above Owens Valley, while the standard trail approaches through pine, lakes, granite switchbacks, and thin air.
Emerald Bay
Emerald Bay holds Fannette Island, Eagle Falls, submerged maritime heritage, steep granite walls, and Vikingsholm at the edge of Lake Tahoe.
Lava Beds National Monument
Basalt flows, collapsed tubes, ice caves, fumaroles, cinder cones, Petroglyph Point, and the Modoc War landscape make Lava Beds both geological maze and cultural homeland.
Burney Falls
Burney Creek drops over a basalt rim while groundwater emerges through the porous wall, keeping flow unusually steady through dry months.
Mist Trail
The route moves from river forest to the Merced’s powerful falls, wet stone stairs, and high granite.
Upper Yosemite Fall Trail
Dozens of switchbacks rise from oak and pine to Columbia Rock, exposed upper slopes, and granite near the fall’s brink.
Mount Whitney Trail
The standard route passes Lone Pine Lake, Trail Camp, ninety-nine switchbacks, Trail Crest, and high granite before reaching 14,505 feet.
Lost Coast Trail
Remote beaches, steep headlands, creeks, sea lions, ranch remains, and tectonic mountains create a route where the ocean controls forward progress.
Dipsea Trail
The trail’s old race route climbs hundreds of steps, drops into Muir Woods watershed, crosses ridges, and descends toward the Pacific.
Fern Canyon Trail
Five-finger ferns, moss, fallen logs, water, and sediment turn a short canyon into a close study of coastal moisture.
Bumpass Hell Trail
The trail crosses volcanic slopes and snow-prone ridges before descending to boiling pools, steam vents, sulfur, and acidic ground.
Alamere Falls Trail
The authorized route uses Coast Trail and Wildcat Camp before continuing along beach at a safe tide.
Moro Rock Trail
Nearly four hundred steps thread ledges and railings to a narrow summit with views across Giant Forest, foothills, and high Sierra ridges.
Tomales Point Trail
Historic ranch buildings give way to coastal grassland, elk herds, wildflowers, cliffs, and the narrowing point.
The Huntington Botanical Gardens
More than a dozen themed gardens join global plant collections with architecture, water, art, and Southern California horticultural history.
Descanso Gardens
Descanso grows from remnant coast live-oak woodland into camellia forest, rose garden, Japanese garden, edible landscape, and native planting.
Filoli
Georgian Revival rooms open into walled gardens, terraces, woodland, and a working orchard shaped by two wealthy families and generations of staff.
Ganna Walska Lotusland
Cycads, cacti, aloes, bromeliads, topiary, lotus, blue garden, and sculptural reuse reflect Ganna Walska’s eccentric eye and expert horticultural collaboration.
San Francisco Botanical Garden
Magnolias, Andean cloud-forest plants, redwoods, succulents, ancient lineages, and California natives occupy fifty-five acres shaped by the city’s cool summers.
Ruth Bancroft Garden
Agaves, aloes, yuccas, cacti, Australian plants, and drought-adapted trees form dense compositions begun by Ruth Bancroft on former orchard land.
UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley
Nine geographic collections, rare cycads, redwoods, cacti, carnivorous plants, and conservation work occupy a steep Strawberry Canyon site.
Monterey Bay Aquarium
A towering kelp tank, sea otters, jellies, deep-sea animals, shorebirds, and the open-ocean gallery connect Monterey Bay ecosystems to fisheries, climate, plastics, and field research.
San Diego Zoo
Habitats for elephants, apes, big cats, birds, reptiles, and Australian wildlife spread across a lush hundred-acre site with major conservation programs behind the scenes.
San Diego Zoo Safari Park
African and Asian savanna species occupy large multi-species landscapes across a hot inland valley, alongside condor, rhino, and reproductive-science programs.
Aquarium of the Pacific
Galleries move from Southern California and Baja to tropical Pacific and northern waters, with sharks, sea otters, seabirds, coral, touch habitats, and conservation programs.
Los Angeles Zoo
Elephants, gorillas, reptiles, birds, hoofstock, and native-species recovery programs occupy a sloping campus near the Los Angeles River watershed.
Oakland Zoo
The zoo combines African and tropical species with the California Trail, where bears, wolves, condors, bison, and human land-use stories frame local conservation.
Birch Aquarium at Scripps
Kelp, seahorses, coral, intertidal animals, little blue penguins, and climate research connect public tanks to an active oceanographic institution.
Santa Barbara Zoo
Giraffes, gorillas, lions, condors, reptiles, and smaller species occupy thirty acres of former estate grounds overlooking the Pacific.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park — South Unit
A scenic loop enters a dense concentration of badlands geology, prairie wildlife, and Roosevelt-era conservation history.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park — North Unit
Quieter roads reach deeper-cut badlands, long views, and one of the park’s strongest canyon hikes.
Painted Canyon Overlook
A highway-accessible rim reveals miles of banded badlands almost immediately after leaving the interstate.
Maah Daah Hey Trail
A 144-mile nonmotorized route threads badlands, grassland, river crossings, and working ranch country.
Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park
Mandan earthlodge history and a reconstructed cavalry post share one Missouri River terrace.
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site
Village depressions, an earthlodge, and river trails interpret centuries of Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara life.
North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum
North Dakota’s state museum makes geology refuse to stay in the distant past: ancient seas, glaciation, grasslands, Indigenous homelands, agriculture, settlement, and energy remain causally connected across four galleries.
Plains Art Museum
A renovated warehouse presents contemporary art with particular strength in the northern Plains.
North Dakota Museum of Art
A university museum pairs ambitious contemporary exhibitions with a focused permanent collection and sculpture garden.
Fargo Air Museum
Two hangars of restored and sometimes airworthy aircraft bring northern aviation history to full scale, with volunteers and visible mechanical detail making the collection far more than a row of polished machines.
Dickinson Museum Center
A compact western North Dakota campus pairs dinosaur fossils and regional history with seasonal machinery halls and guided pioneer buildings.
North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame
More than 40 exhibits connect Plains horse culture, homesteading, ranch work, and rodeo achievement.
Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site
A preserved missile alert facility and nearby silo expose the routine infrastructure of nuclear deterrence.
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
A reconstructed Upper Missouri trade post makes commerce, diplomacy, labor, and cultural negotiation visible where the Yellowstone meets the Missouri.
Fort Buford State Historic Site
Surviving military buildings interpret an Upper Missouri post active from 1866 to 1895.
Chateau de Morès State Historic Site
An 1883 summer home anchors the story of an ambitious meatpacking venture and the town built around it.
Double Ditch Indian Village State Historic Site
A Mandan city survives as negative space above the Missouri: lodge depressions, refuse mounds, and four successive fortification ditches reveal three centuries of growth, contraction, trade, and loss.