In the Southeast corner of Lassen Volcanic National Park, there are entire square miles of lava beds. They are so perfect and so beautiful in their starkness that they were literally called the “Fantastic Lava Beds”. There’s no hiking across them, but there are several excellent trail around and through them. In fact, the original California Trail goes around it.
One aspect about Mount Rainier National Park that I think gets taken for granted is that, because it is in such a remote, rugged area that the natural resources did not really get exploited by European settlers before it was named a national park.
On my visit to Crater Lake National Park, I got to explore some of the Park outside of the rim & the eponymous Lake. It had never really occurred to me that…the water in Crater Lake goes somewhere. Like, it never fills up and it also never sinks down. However, it maintains its level via rain / snowfall, evaporation and some seepage into the porous rock at the top.
However, even though no water leaves the caldera, the rim is incredibly steep, incredibly high, and incredibly snowbound. So it’s the source for a lot of creeks. And these creeks all run through volcanic soil, which creates some beautiful, complex canyons all around the Park.
Waterfalls in the Southern Appalachians are rarely grand and tall. They are mostly stair-stepped and draped rhododendron. But they have a human scale and plant diversity around them that makes them so lovely.
Chicago is one of my favorite cities. And wow, does Chicago know how to do a skyline. It’s really impressive.
This photo is from June, and it’s amazing to me that there is still snow on mountains in Washington and around Mount Rainier at that time of year. The landscape is just the perfect stereotype of mountains, sky, trees. It’s all so epic with big sky and big views.
The Cohutta Wilderness protects some of the oldest land in North America as part of the Ocoee Supergroup.
*like, sometimes I publish…a lot :O – though you can pick what categories you want.
Ahh…I see you’re up for some extra inconvenience. Some Type 2 Internet Fun, if you will. Well then! Follow me with your favorite Fediverse app or server (e.g., Threads, Mastodon, Pixelfed, etc).
I’m Nate Shivar from Atlanta, Georgia, USA. I love nature, public lands, books, and the old-school Internet.
