Virtually visit 32 US national parks

Posted by Imogen Searra on 19 March 2020

With the need to practice social distancing and avoid public places, you can explore 32 American national parks using Google Earth and Google Arts & Culture virtual tours from the comfort of your couch. If Yellowstone, Yosemite the Grand Canyon or Joshua Tree have been on your bucket list, it’s time to tick them off.

Alaska

1. Denali National Park

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Maine

2. Acadia National Park

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Utah

3. Arches National Park

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4. Bryce Canyon National Park

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5. Canyonlands

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6. Zion National Park

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What is your favorite time of year to go hiking? Whether you enjoy a temperate spring stroll or a chilly winter trek, it is important to prepare for the season and stick to the trail. Over the course of a year a trail can be covered in mud, water, snow, and more. While it may be tempting to go around a muddy or inconvenient area of the trail, it can damage vegetation, widen the trail, and cause increased erosion. Protect the trail and the surrounding area by staying in the center of the path and walking through mud, snow, and other obstacles. This will help keep our trails and wild areas beautiful for every season. This photo is from the Kayenta Trail, which is one of many trails in Zion that will be muddy in the spring. If you would rather avoid the mud, choose a trail that is paved. Trail descriptions are available on our park info sheet: https://www.nps.gov/zion/learn/news/newspaper.htm NPS Photo / Brian Whitehead

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Hawaii

7. Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park

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California

8. Death Valley National Park

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9. Channel Islands National Park

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10. Joshua Tree National Park

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Joshua Tree is a dark night sky park, but how do we keep these skies dark for future generations? By practicing Leave No Trace stewardship with the night sky! Follows these simple steps to reduce your light pollution impacts:⠀ ⠀ 🌌Turn off all the lights in and outside your house when going to bed. This will not only conserve energy, but it will help keep skies dark.⠀ ⠀ 🌠 Make sure your energy-saving lightbulbs are shielded down and not pointing up towards the sky. ⠀ ⠀ 🌟 Continue the conversation: talk to friends, family, and your social media followers to encourage your network to take steps in reducing their impacts. One conversation could go a long way!⠀ ⠀ What are other ways you are reducing your light pollution impacts? ⠀ ⠀ Photo: NPS / Kelsey Graczyk

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11. Redwood National and State Parks

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The Redwoods 🌲 Which pic is your favourite? By @alberthbyang

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12. Sequoia National Park

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13. Yosemite National Park

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Virginia

14. Shenandoah National Park

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Hey, remember me? The star of the show? Just because I’m hibernating doesn’t mean I’m not still large and in charge! Sleeping is how animals like black bears adapt to the scarcity of their natural food sources that occur in the winter. Usually in Shenandoah, a black bear’s food source, like berries and nuts, begins to dwindle in late October and November. But if there is plenty of food available, bears may not den up at all and could continue to forage for food all winter. Some bears might even mosey around when winter temps run mild. Bears really begin to emerge from dens, hollow trees, brush piles—you name it—in March and April. 🐻 And the black bear year will start all over again.

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Ohio

15. Cuyahoga Valley National Park

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Colorado

16. Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park

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17. Mesa Verde National Park

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Mesa Verde National Park is focusing on the health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers and partners and is implementing the latest guidance from the White House, Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and local and state authorities to promote social distancing. As of today, we are suspending all public services in the park through the end of April. Though the park will remain open, we will suspend fee collections, and the Visitor and Research Center and Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum will be closed. Tours scheduled for the month of April have been cancelled. Weather permitting, the Mesa Top and Cliff Palace Loops will remain open. Park Point, Cedar Tree Tower and the Far View Sites will also be available. The park urges visitors to do their part when visiting to follow CDC guidance to prevent the spread of infectious diseases by maintaining a safe distance between yourself and other groups; washing your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds; avoiding touching your eyes, nose, and mouth; covering your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze; and most importantly, staying home if you feel sick. We will be updating information on this situation as it becomes available. Thank you for your understanding and flexibility.

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18. Rocky Mountain National Park

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Washington

19. Mount Rainier National Park

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Happy 121st Birthday, Mount Rainier National Park! “To foresee the beauty of Mount Rainier one must know many things —rivers, tumbling from boulder to boulder…a tiny fawn nestling under a shrub… flower fields that stretch unending distances… glaciers grinding and tearing at the high mound of rock… All of these things are separate, but all are a part of the story of Mount Rainier.” -John Barnett, former park naturalist, 1978 On March 2, 1899, Mount Rainier National Park was established as the 5th national park. Since time immemorial, the timeless presence of the mountain has inspired people to explore, to recreate, to connect with their heritage, and to fight for the preservation of this iconic mountain. How does Mount Rainier inspire you? ________ #findyourpark #mountrainiernps #mrnp #mountrainier #pnw #nps #encuentratuparque #happybirthday JD Hascup photo of Mount Rainier and a colorful sunset taken in July 2015 from Silver Forest near Sunrise ~pw/kl

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20. Olympic National Park

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South Dakota

21. Badlands National Park, South Dakota

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22. Wind Cave National Park

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Texas

23. Big Bend National Park

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24. Guadalupe Mountains National Park

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For a brief moment at approximately 1:32 PM MT on March 17th, 2020 the highest point in Texas was us

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Florida

25. Dry Tortugas National Park

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26. Everglades National Park

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“Hey! Get out of the way, I’m trying to fish here!” We’re not sure if Green Herons are clever enough to recognize their own reflection, but there’s no doubt that they are indeed clever birds. Did you know that Green Herons are one of the world’s few tool-using bird species? They often drop twigs, insects, feathers, and other items on the surface of the water to create fishing lures and entice small fish. Photo by @plantmeat #WildlifeWednesday #GreenHeron #Birding #Birds #Birder #Ornothology #AmericasEverglades #EvergladesNationalPark #Everglades #USInterior #NationalParkService #NPS #NationalPark #Florida #VisitFlorida #SouthFlorida #Miami #Travel #Outdoors #Wildlife #BirdPhotography

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Wyoming

27. Grand Teton National Park

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#sunset 🌄

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28. Yellowstone National Park

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Tennessee

29. Great Smoky Mountain National Park

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Montana

30. Glacier National Park

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Climate and weather are often confused as the same thing, but they are different on a very large scale. Climate is the pattern of variation in temperature, humidity, wind, precipitation, and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods. In contrast, weather describes the present condition of these variables over short time periods. ⛈ . Warmer and more variable winter and spring air temperatures have caused more precipitation to fall as rain rather than snow and has led to earlier snowmelt. As this trend continues, loss of winter snowpack and glacial loss could greatly reduce the major source of groundwater recharge and summer runoff, resulting in a lowering of water levels in streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands during the growing season. As water levels are lowered, the amount of habitat in streams for invertebrates and fish will be reduced. Without glacial melt water, summer water temperatures will rise and may cause the local extinction of temperature sensitive aquatic species. 🐟 . #glaciernps #glaciernationalpark #weathervsclimate #climatechange #glacierlove #protectglacier

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Arizona

31. Grand Canyon National Park

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Caribbean

32. Virgin Islands National Park

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Image: Instagram/ @janicesu

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