National Parks Panoramas

This panoramic photograph of Canyonlands National Park was taken by James Blakeway. It features a view of Canyonlands as seen looking through Mesa Arch. Authorized as a national park in 1964, the park contains a maze of deep canyons, mesas, spires, arches, and other geological features carved by wind and water. The air quality in this area is reputed as some of the clearest in the country. The snow-capped La Sal Mountains, visible through Mesa Arch, is approximately thirty-five miles in the distance. To a large degree, Canyonlands remains untrammeled. Its roads are mostly unpaved, its trails primitive, its rivers free-flowing. This is wild America.

Crater Lake National Park

This panorama of Crater Lake was taken by James Blakeway. Perched at the crest of the Cascade Mountain Range in the state of Oregon, Crater Lake National Park is one of the snowiest inhabited places in America, receiving an average of 44 feet of snow per year. Open year-round, the park protects the deepest lake in the United States, Crater Lake, known for the purest water on earth and depths up to 1,943 feet. The lake rests inside a caldera formed about 7,700 years ago, when a 12,000-foot-tall volcano collapsed following a major eruption. Today, the volcano’s outer slopes are blanketed with old-growth forests and harbour a variety of plants and animals, including several rare species

This panoramic photograph of Grand Canyon National Park was taken by Christopher Gjevre featuring a view from the South Rim, facing towards the North Rim. Grand Canyon National Park encompasses 1,218,375 acres in Arizona. First protected as Grand Canyon Forest Reserve in 1893, it became Grand Canyon National Park in 1919. The canyon was formed due to erosion and the down cutting nature of the river. The river also sweeps away sediment that is eroded into the river. The floor of the canyon is approximately 4,500 feet below the South Rim and more than a mile below the North Rim. The bottom of the canyon averages 15º to 30º warmer than the temperature on the rims.

This panoramic photograph of Grand Teton National Park was taken by James Blakeway. It features the Teton Range as seen looking across Jackson Lake. The jagged peaks of the Teton Range can be easily seen as they rise from the valley floor. The tallest peak on the left is Grand Teton, a 13,770-foot mountain. Centered in the panorama is Mount Moran at 12,605 feet. Meadows abloom in early July are prevalent in the park. The dark green forests of lodgepole pines occur in the lower elevations throughout the Teton Range. Elk, moose, pronghorn, mule deer, bison, black bear, and occasionally grizzlies can be observed in the park.

This panoramic photograph of Monument Valley was taken by James Blakeway. It features Totem Pole, the tall slender formation standing alone. Monument Valley is located on the Utah/Arizona border and is protected as a Navajo Tribal Park by the Navajo Nation. The area was once covered completely in sandstone layers, which have been worn away over millions of years to reveal the stone formations, mesas and buttes we associate with Monument Valley today. Images of these formations seem to epitomize the American Southwest, as they have appeared in countless films and television commercials over the years. The area was first brought to the attention of the film and tourist industries by John Ford’s 1938 film, “Stagecoach,” starring John Wayne.

Yellowstone National Park – Lower Falls

This panorama of Yellowstone National Park features the popular park vista known as Lower Falls, one of two famous waterfalls on the Yellowstone River. As the Yellowstone River flows north from Yellowstone Lake, it leaves the Hayden Valley and plunges first over Upper Falls and then a quarter mile downstream over Lower Falls. Lower Falls is 308 feet high, or almost twice as high as Niagara Falls although the volume of water is not comparable to Niagara. The Lower Falls of the Yellowstone is still the largest volume major waterfall in the Rocky Mountains of the United States. The Yellowstone River is the longest undammed river in the continental United States.

This panoramic photograph of Zion National Park was taken by James Blakeway and features the finger canyons of Kolob Canyons. Located in the northwest corner of Zion National Park, Kolob Canyons is a unique and stunningly beautiful section of Zion that is overlooked by most park visitors, making it a great getaway off the beaten path. Zion National Park is located in the southwestern corner of Utah and is a masterpiece of towering cliffs, deep red canyons, mesas, buttes, and massive monoliths, often said to be the most beautiful place in America.