Writing — Page 25

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.

Oregon's tallest waterfall drops 620 feet in two tiers along the Historic Columbia River Highway — the most visited natural site in the Pacific Northwest…

A 176-foot waterfall right next to the Historic Columbia River Highway, with a short trail to Ponytail Falls where you walk directly behind the cascade.

Idaho's Niagara — a 212-foot waterfall on the Snake River that's wider than Niagara Falls, hidden in plain sight in the middle of southern Idaho's high desert.

A roadside pull-off at 7,562 feet on Nevada Highway 431 with one of the best panoramic views of Lake Tahoe — two dozen parking spots, zero admission…

A trip to the Great Smoky Mountains, the most visited national park in the country, where layers of blue-hazed ridgelines stretch to the horizon and…

A perfectly flat expanse of salt stretching to the horizon in every direction — one of the most surreal landscapes in North America, where the ground looks…

A 32-story steel pyramid on the Memphis riverfront that now holds a Bass Pro megastore, a cypress swamp, a bowling alley, live alligators, and a hotel…

On the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, Sand Harbor is a boulder-strewn beach with water so clear you can see the bottom at 20 feet — the kind of lake view that…