Writing — Page 19

Exploring Yellowstone in October, when the crowds thin and the elk rut fills the valleys with bugling, and the geysers and hot springs feel all the more surreal against the cool autumn air.

Exploring Kings Canyon National Park in California's Sierra Nevada, where one of the deepest canyons in North America meets towering sequoias and pristine granite wilderness.

A trip through North Cascades National Park in Washington, where jagged alpine peaks, the highest concentration of glaciers in the lower 48 states, and jade-green lakes make for some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in North America.

A November drive through Badlands National Park in South Dakota, where sharply eroded spires and layered clay formations rise abruptly from the prairie in a landscape that looks like it belongs on Mars.

A trip through Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California, where active hydrothermal features, steaming fumaroles, and a still-recovering volcanic landscape make for an otherworldly experience.

Exploring Olympic National Park on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, where temperate rainforest, rugged Pacific coastline, and alpine wilderness coexist in one extraordinary park.

A visit to Yosemite Valley, where Half Dome and El Capitan frame a landscape so dramatic it almost feels engineered, and the waterfalls are at their thunderous peak in late June.

A trip to Death Valley, the hottest and driest national park in the United States, where the alien beauty of salt flats, sand dunes, and painted badlands stretches in every direction.

Exploring Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, where Trail Ridge Road cuts through alpine tundra above 12,000 feet and elk wander through meadows at dusk.