["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"]
America's greatest treasure, its national parks.
["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"]
From the great grass seas of Florida to the mountains of Washington,
from the coast of California to the coast of Maine,
across the nation, those areas of the United States which are important
for historical, geological, scenic, and scientific reasons
have been preserved in the national park system.
The range and diversity is tremendous.
The challenge of preserving these areas is a continuing one.
The parks were set up early in the nation's history.
It was the work of farsighted men and women who saw how rapidly change can occur
and the need to hold on to certain areas for the future generations.
National parks can only be created by Congress,
and when the first national park, Yellowstone, was created in 1872,
Congress decreed that it was a public park or pleasuring ground
for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.
It would have been hard to foresee that by the end of the 20th century,
over 300 million people would visit national park lands each year,
and the forecast for the beginning of the 21st century would be 450 million a year.
National parks personnel have a deserved reputation for helpfulness and enthusiasm
from assisting a disabled driver to presenting an interpretive program.
They administer less than 1% of the land area of the United States,
but perhaps the most important lands, for these lands are part of the soul of the nation.
They provide the breathing space, the escape from the normal,
and a chance to reestablish values of the past in a contemporary world.
The parks also preserve the natural world for its own inherent value.
This exploration of 17 of the major parks of the United States,
representing most areas of the country, begins in the south of Florida,
where Everglades National Park is located.
It's a wilderness park that's very close to the major metropolitan areas of Florida.
A sea of sawgrass, along with 100 other varieties of grass,
covers much of the Everglades National Park.
The Seminole Indians call the area Pahayoke, which means river of grass.
It's the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in the United States.
This is a flat land where small changes in elevation can mean substantial changes in vegetation.
The slowly moving outflow of Lake Okeechobee moves southward to the park and the ocean.
This water sustains and nourishes the land and inhabitants.
The region is not a true tropical area, for frosts to occur.
It represents the southernmost range for some animals, such as the rare panther,
and the northernmost for others, such as the manatee.
It's a rich land, and while it doesn't offer the tremendous vistas,
the beautiful formations, or the classic scenic photography,
it has its own beauty.
For the careful visitor who cares to listen and watch,
this is an unparalleled area to observe nature.
The climate is uniform the year round, although normally the summers are wet and the winters dry.
In the warm shallows flourish an abundance of life, plankton, tadpoles, insects.
They are food to larger creatures, such as fish,
which again are food to even larger creatures, such as the loggerhead turtle,
which is a rare and endangered reptile.
In the chain of life, the turtle may be food for Florida's most famous resident, the alligator.
At one time, the alligator population was declining at a rapid pace,
as it faced the double threat of hunting for purses and shoes and the loss of habitat.
A concentrated effort has checked that problem, and today the alligator is staging a recovery.
Normally, the alligator is rarely seen in the southeastern part of the United States,
but in the Everglades it's often seen.
The same waters that feed the other life in the Everglades
also ensure the survival of the Everglades' best known inhabitants, the birds.
James Audubon came here to record the bird life, and while the flocks remain impressive,
they're a mere remnant of the millions that once called the park home.
Concern for protecting herons, ibis, and other birds from commercial plume hunting
was a major reason for establishing the park.
Visitors thrill at the sight of so many different kinds of birds,
and each has a role to play in the complex interplay of this unique environment.
Preserving the wildlife was a major task confronting the park in its early years.
Today, it faces other challenges.
The delicate ecosystem requires water to function, and it cannot survive on local rainfall.
It competes for water with the city of Miami and other southeastern coastal communities,
and with agricultural interests.
The channeling and diversion of the fresh water sources of the Everglades has created intense problems.
The park is the size of the state of Delaware, but this does not protect it from outside problems.
While the dangers of competing resources are most evident in the Everglades,
it's a potential problem in other park areas and a source of concern
for the planners and administrators of the park service.
A stride the border of North Carolina and Tennessee stand the Great Smoky Mountains,
the distilled essence of the Appalachian Highland.
The perpetually clinging mists and fog give a smoky appearance to this region.
Constant rains have made this one of the luscious regions of the eastern United States.
The slopes of these low but ancient mountains are covered with more different types of trees than all of Europe.
Over three-fourths of the park is wilderness with over 800 miles of trails
leading through the dense, almost primeval deciduous forest.
The survival of this wilderness land is remarkable.
There are two stories here, one the story of the land and the other the story of the people who lived here.
Within the park are open fields, pioneer homesteads, and little-framed churches
where the mountain people lived and worshiped.
When they died, they were laid to rest in the church graveyards.
They were a persistent people and through determination carved out a way of life that continues for many hill people in Appalachia.
They belonged to the oldest white pioneer stock in America, the English, Scots-Irish, and Irish.
They carried with them to the new land a love of song and freedom.
During the Revolutionary War, they came out of the hills and helped to win freedom for their new home.
Although the Indians had little impact on the land, the newcomers changed it.
In the early 19th century, the forest was vanishing as agriculture, logging, and mining all but ruined the land.
Remarkably, over 40 percent of the original forest in the park is uncut and pristine,
much as the Cherokee Indians knew the land.
Today, the pioneers are gone, the wagon trains silent,
and they've been replaced by modern-day travelers in search of a wilderness experience.
Each year, they come in increasing numbers, over 10 million of them.
Every car must cross the two-lane mountain road between Gatlinburg and Cherokee.
The private sector can expand to meet the needs of people flooding to visit the parks
by building more motels, parking lots, and restaurants.
However, the parks can't.
They have a moral and ecological commitment to the land,
so the building of superhighways through the parks to handle the increased traffic
is not compatible with the reasons for establishing the parks.
Balancing the needs of the public to see and the needs of the land to be preserved
is the difficult task of the Park Service.
The gray, misty mountains of the east have been here, according to geologists,
for 500 million years.
They are some of the oldest highlands on earth.
They will remain and survive the onslaught of 20th-century man.
In 1919, Acadia was created as the first park east of the Mississippi River.
Compared to western parks, it's 4,000 acres, preserving a little of the celebrated main shoreline.
The forces of the sea have carved the glacial rocks into sharp, jagged cliff formations.
Microclimates abound where the sea and shore meet.
As the water drops away twice a day, it exposes a tidal zone
filled with small creatures that flourish in the tide pools and hidden cracks along the rocks.
Birdwatchers love the Acadia Park, for the diverse environments allow a concentration of sea and land birds.
The park is spread out over numerous small islands and a small peninsula on the mainland,
but most of Acadia is set on Mount Desert Island.
The rounded granite hills boast the highest elevation on the east coast shoreline.
Behind the seashore are the fern-filled forests of Acadia,
and over 40 miles of carriage paths for exploring.
The beautiful old New England homes and churches are reminders
that man has played an important role in developing this region.
It was settled by a resilient group that sold timber and fished in the sea.
About the middle of the 19th century, it was discovered as a vacation area
for the city dwellers of the east coast who acquired land to build summer homes.
Unlike western parks, which were largely created out of federal lands,
this park was acquired piecemeal, resulting in a quilt of public and private lands.
Shipbuilding and fishing were long a major business in the area,
but today at Bar Harbor, one of the gateways to the park, tourism is a major business.
However, the fishing tradition remains, and on the borders of the park,
the lobsterman still sets out his pots along the rugged coastline,
often precariously close to the rocks.
The waters of Acadia are filled with colorful bobbing floats.
Each fisherman must register his float colors,
and the color-coded rings on each float indicate which traps belong to which fishermen.
The traps are checked every 48 hours.
The Acadia Park is a monument to the land and the people who have lived in it.
In the northwest corner of Wyoming is one of the crown jewels of the national park system,
Yellowstone. On a high plateau stands the largest geothermal area of the world.
The trademark of this park, Old Faithful, lives up to its name with a spectacular show,
which is reasonably faithful, erupting approximately every 30 to 90 minutes
for four minutes before subsiding.
In the 19th century, trappers went east with stories of spouting columns of water
60 feet high, bubbling hot springs of iridescent green and gold.
Their stories were regarded as tall tales until a series of expeditions around 1870
brought understanding of the natural wonders of the land.
Eventually, after much legislative wrangling,
the area became the United States' first national park in 1872.
Over 10,000 geothermal features can be found in the park.
No other place on earth offers such diversity of hot springs activity.
Deep underground, about a mile below the surface,
the magma chamber of this volcanic system is hot enough to melt rock.
Thermal activity is the result of rainwater seeping down into the fractured volcanic crust
of the plateau until it reaches depths where temperatures exceed the boiling point.
Under extreme pressure, the steam seeks a way out and reaches the surface as steam vents,
geysers, mud volcanoes, or bubbling hot springs.
But all of Yellowstone is not a bubbling cauldron.
Nature has provided a panorama of variety.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is one of the park's most impressive features.
Golden limestone carved by time has given the park its colorful and descriptive name.
Two great waterfalls add to the majesty of the canyon region.
The upper falls sends the Yellowstone River into a short narrow channel of a mile or so.
And then the cold waters of the Yellowstone cascade over the lower falls
in a thundering drop twice the height of Niagara.
On the high plateau, man is a visitor.
The land belongs to the wild animals.
The buffalo is a plains animal that has adapted to the park environment.
It winters in lower elevations, then moves to the high country in summer.
However, a few bison remain in Hayden Valley throughout the year.
Although moose can be found throughout the park, they also find the Hayden Valley prime habitat.
The largest member of the deer family, they favor marshy meadows where they feed on aquatic plants.
Yellowstone National Park is the greatest wildlife sanctuary in the United States outside of Alaska.
But compared to the past, the numbers of animals such as the elk, mountain sheep, and grizzlies
are a reflection of the great numbers that once roamed the West.
Yellowstone is celebrated for its trout fishing from Yellowstone Lake
with its 100 miles of shoreline to the many pristine streams.
Fishing is regulated as some waters are closed, some are open to fly fishing,
and on some streams fish must be released, although one or two may be kept for the frying pan.
The Old Faithful Inn, the largest log hotel in the world, has beckoned visitors since 1904.
Each year, some two and a half million visitors pass through the gates
and travel on the well-maintained roads and trails of the park.
One of the park's most impressive features is mammoth hot springs,
where water trickles down row after row of delicately colored rimstone pools.
Limestone dissolved in the water evaporates, leaving terraces of travertine.
The terraces grow upward, eventually breaking, and the waters flow down and out to form new terraces.
The colors in the pools come from algae.
Yellowstone is more than scenic wonders.
It's a monument to the far-sighted conservationists that preserved a primitive bit of America
and then went on to develop a philosophy that spread to other parks of the world.
Today, the United States has the most well-developed park system in the world.
Almost a sister park to Yellowstone is Grand Teton, for the two are located close together in the northwest of Wyoming,
dramatically rising 7,000 feet from the valley floor on the Jackson side of the Teton Mountains.
This is a complete mountain range compressed into less than 40 miles.
The jagged outline, cirques and horns, and knife-edge ridges reach their highest point
at the 13,770-foot summit of the Grand Teton.
Their dramatic nature is enhanced by the lack of foothills.
These ancient rocks, once a seabed, are very old, but in geologic terms, the mountain range is very young.
It's very similar to the Sierra Nevada range in California.
Both are fault-block mountains with sloping west sides and steep east sides.
Today's glaciers are remnants of the great glaciers during the ice ages.
Now the dominant force is water, but in the absence of the glacier,
the visitor can observe how ice has shaped the land, for what was once hidden is now revealed.
In 1807, John Coulter left the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore on his own,
and was probably the first white man to view the range.
The ecological diversity of the land has impressed visitors since the early mountain men.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was so taken with the beauty of the range
that he purchased 30,000 acres of the Jackson Hole Basin
and presented them to the government as a wildlife sanctuary.
The park was established in 1929, but the Jackson Hole area was not added until 1950, after much political bickering.
Geology and wildlife are the strengths of this park,
and while wilderness travelers have the best opportunity to see wildlife,
traveling through the park on roads also offers glimpses of moose and other species.
Driving the Rockefeller Parkway offers classic views of the mountains and the Snake River
from many different vantage points that have become favorites with photographers from around the world.
Each passing hour offers light changes from somber to joyful.
The range is one of the premier mountaineering centers in the United States.
The last two peaks in this range were not climbed until 1930.
Climbing the Tetons is not for the novice, as many climbers consider them the rivals of the Alps.
Climbing is increasing in activity, and while no previous experience is required
for a commercial trip down the Snake River, which meanders through the park, it is not without danger.
For the more adventurous outside the park in the Snake River Canyon,
the river enters rapids and provides an exciting thrill.
If any one park is a symbol of the great American outdoors, it must be the Rocky Mountain National Park.
Sitting astride the Continental Divide, this is a high land with many areas above timberline.
The minimum elevation is 7,620 feet. There are 18 peaks over 13,000 feet.
The most lofty is Long's Peak, whose summit rises to 14,256 feet.
Below it are quiet lakes, bubbling streams, flower-laden meadows, and rocky canyons.
The park is only two hours from Denver, and each year is visited by three million people.
Its ruggedness prevents it from being overrun with people, but much of its greatness can be viewed from roads.
Trail Ridge Road reaches an altitude of 12,183 feet and is above timberline for 11 miles.
At its peak, 700 cars an hour travel along the highest through road in North America,
where normally only the strongest of hikers and climbers could explore this alpine environment, it's accessible to all.
The Alpine Tundra provides a dense carpet of miniature plants.
Wildlife is occasionally seen, although many visitors are rewarded only with sightings of marmints and squirrels, there are also bull elk.
There are only a few small glaciers in the park, but they are reminders that glaciation formed this park.
There are U-shaped valleys and great rock amphitheaters and moraines.
Cool mountain lakes and streams provide a place for wildlife to drink and visitors to enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
In the southwestern corner of the country are a collection of America's most intriguing parks,
ones which reveal the story of the earth in their landforms. The premier park in this story is the Grand Canyon.
The statistics don't do justice to this national park located in Arizona.
A mile deep, between a quarter mile and 18 miles wide and 277 miles long,
it's acknowledged as the most impressive of the United States natural beauties and considered one of the seven wonders of the world.
The Grand Canyon is nature's spectacular geology lesson.
It inspires awe in the visitors from around the world who stand on its rim.
Deep in the canyon, the Colorado River continues to cut into the layers of rock.
The scouring action began only 65 million years ago when the land through which the Colorado ran began to rise.
And as it rose, the river cut the channel which became the Grand Canyon.
Thus, two opposing forces have been at work here for millions of years, mountain building and gravity.
As a cutting tool, the Colorado River is unexcelled.
The second longest river in the United States flows at up to 20 miles an hour
and carries an average of half a million tons of sand and silt each day to the Pacific.
The oldest and deepest exposed rocks date back 1700 million years.
Nowhere else on earth is the geological history shown in such clear and orderly fashion as in the different colored layers of the canyon.
Hikers find the Bright Angel Trail a challenge as it descends to the river nine and a half trail miles below.
Because of extremes of elevation, the rim can be cool and the inner canyon extremely hot.
Only experienced and fit hikers should attempt the hike.
It's possible for a hiker to descend and return in two days.
On such trips, the hiker can see closely the canyon's rich natural beauty and sense even more closely its immense size.
Popular with many visitors are the mule rides into the canyon.
Either hiking or riding, the visitor can gain an appreciation for the variety of ecological zones in the canyon.
For along the trail, descending into the canyon are a continent's range of life.
Walking from Canada to Mexico would accomplish the same objective.
In the lower elevations are found desert life forms, while on the rims, conifer forest communities are located.
Riding a mule on developed trails is very distant from the danger and excitement that faced John Wesley Powell
when he led an expedition down the unexplored Colorado River in four boats in 1869.
This one-armed explorer increased public awareness of the southwest.
However, today's adventurers also face hardships on canyon trails.
And while it's difficult to determine who suffered the most, the mule riders are often most verbal and affected.
The physical ailments will quickly disappear, but the memories of the Grand Canyon will be timeless.
Of the national parks of the southwest, Bryce Canyon is one of the youngest in geologic time,
dating back only 50 or so million years compared with the Grand Canyon's ancient rocks.
The pink cliffs of Bryce, known collectively as the Wasatch Formation,
are the uppermost layer of the 16,000 feet of rock and a billion years of geological history
represented in the parks of the southwestern region of the United States.
The pink cliffs are created by the mix of chemicals in the rocks,
with manganese creating lavenders and greens, while iron creates pinks and reds.
In this dry, parched land, it's difficult to visualize that water has been the primary shaper of the landscape.
During storms and when the snow melts, there are hundreds of small streams cutting into the ground.
As the looser rock is worn away, parts of walls are split off and undermined columns collapse,
forming new spires, gullies, needles, and arches.
These badlands have been admired since the first visitor,
and one of the early surveyors said,
this is the wildest and most wonderful scene that the eye of man has ever beheld.
The canyon was named for an early Mormon settler, Ebenezer Bryce,
who had a more practical observation of the area.
He said the canyon was a hell of a place to lose a cow.
Riders exploring the trails in the steep canyons can appreciate his sentiments
as they form their own opinions on the canyon from horseback.
The Paiute Indians describe the area as red rocks standing like men in a bowl-shaped canyon.
The erosion that shaped the fantastic formations of Bryce Canyon occurred in a canyon,
but on the eastern side of Utah, in Arches National Park, the erosion occurred on a plain.
The arches in this red rock region are some of the best examples of this type of erosion to be found in the world.
More than 80 arches have been carved through huge vertical slabs known as fins
in the 300-foot layer of sandstone.
At one time, these gaping holes were credited to the wind,
but it's now known that they're largely the product of disintegration by groundwater.
Arches in all stages of development can be seen in the park.
150 million years ago, sand was laid down on an ancient coastal plain.
Under pressure, the sand became sandstone, the Entrada layer.
Through upheaval and erosion, it's been shaped by nature into the present formations.
The colorful names are a clue to the variety of shapes in the park,
Parade of Elephants, Devil's Garden, Garden of Eden, Upper Fiery Furnace.
The fins, arches, spires, coves, and windows continue to be shaped,
although at a speed which is far slower than the eye of man can observe.
Most of the main features of the park can be seen from the road,
but this is a park to be explored on foot, as the trails are gentle and easy.
Walking the four-mile Devil's Garden Trail leads the visitor to Landscape Arch,
believed to be the longest arch in the world with a span of almost 300 feet.
In the southeastern corner of the state of New Mexico is located the world-renowned Carlsbad Caverns.
On a high, dry, desolate plateau, the trickling of water has carved out caverns in the limestone.
More than a thousand years ago, Indians left paintings on the wall.
Later visitors were attracted by what appeared to be smoke on the horizon,
but found it was a column of bats leaving a large cave.
These caverns are very large. The full size of them is yet to be determined,
but so far, 20 miles have been discovered. Only three of those miles are open to visitors.
The walking tour begins at the natural entrance to the caverns.
It takes the visitor through the enormous rooms.
Limestone caves are common, but most of them are quite small and access is difficult.
In Carlsbad, one room could contain 14 football fields
and has enough height for the Capitol building to sit in one corner.
The rooms are a constant 56 degrees and are unaffected by the outside temperature.
The stalagmites growing from the floor up and the stalactites grown from the roof down
were created after countless years by the slow drip after drip of water carrying dissolved calcium carbonate.
The water evaporates, leaving the mineral deposits.
One estimate indicates that it requires 750 years to add one inch.
The spectacular rock formations have names befitting their splendor.
Temple of the Sun, Frozen Waterfall, Devil's Spring, American Eagle, Hall of the Giants, Frustrated Lovers.
The chambers are most impressive when they're silent except for the dripping of water.
The story told by the parks of the southwest includes not only the geology of ancient time
and the treasured record of life preserved in stone, but also the record of ancient men who lived here,
such as those who inhabited Mesa Verde National Park.
For over 600 years after the birth of Christ, the area called Mesa Verde,
which means green table in Spanish, was inhabited by a flourishing and elaborate Indian civilization.
But there's a mystery here that scientists and archaeologists are still trying to unravel.
Why did the Indians of Mesa Verde leave the mesa tops to build elaborate homes in the cliff sides,
and where did they go after leaving their cliff homes?
Some partial answers have been found, for it's believed that the Indians left the open mesas because of fear of attack.
Some of the cliff dwellings that they constructed after the move stand three stories high and contain more than 50 rooms.
More than 700 years after its abandonment,
Cliff Palace remains the most impressive monument to the skills of its builders,
who continually added to it during 100 years of occupation.
Well-built kivas below the courtyard and trade objects from as far away as the coast of California give indications of their lifestyle.
It's believed that eventually a drought and subsequent bad harvests forced their dispersal at the end of the 13th century.
Mesa Verde was designated as a park in 1906 so that the finds could be preserved and their scientific study be fostered.
The mountains of the Cascade Range stretch from the California border to Washington,
but the rugged wilderness and scenic beauty of the northern part is unequaled.
The North Cascades National Park has been called the American Alps for the many peaks which jut up from the forest to snow-capped summits.
While the volcanoes of the Cascades have had an effect on the land,
most of the rugged topography is a result of the hard granite being shaped by massive glaciers that carved out a complex of peaks.
They're not high, only 7 or 8,000 feet, but unusually steep, for the glacial valleys are deep.
There are many glaciers in the park, a little over 300, which are formed by the moisture-carrying clouds of the Pacific being forced over the mountains.
These are remnants of the Ice Age, which shaped much of the landscape.
Within the park are found tremendous variances in climate.
The wet Pacific winds loose their moisture on the west side, so the east side lies in a rain shadow.
From lush forests and snow-capped peaks to sunny meadows and bare rock peaks, the contrast is extreme.
At the eastern entry to the park stands Liberty Bell, which is outside the park,
but whose best views come from the North Cascades Highway, which leads through the large recreation area administered by the Park Service.
It's from this road that most visitors observe the features of the park,
including Ross Lake, which was created by dams built on the Skagit River to produce electricity for Seattle.
On the lake, boaters and canoe paddlers can travel deep into the heart of the wilderness.
The National Recreation Corridor of the road divides the park into two halves, a north unit and a south unit.
One of the features of this park is its inaccessibility.
This is a wild land with few roads.
For experienced backcountry travelers, it offers a scenic world of peaks, meadows, glaciers and wildlife, as well as an occasional berry.
A backpacking trip of a couple of days or a few weeks carries the traveler into a land that's little changed by the hand of man,
one of the many lands preserved for future generations.
While the features of the North Cascades Park are largely hidden from public view,
the features of Mount Rainier National Park are visible from over a hundred miles to the residents of Washington and Oregon.
In the state of Washington, the Mammoth Peak of Mount Rainier towers 14,400 feet above the Cascade Range.
While not the highest peak in the United States, many consider it the most commanding outside of Alaska.
For the residents of Seattle and other Puget Sound communities, it's simply the mountain, dominating as it does their skyline on a clear day.
An approach by air gives a feeling for the size of the mountain, which is quite young in geologic terms.
During the last major glacial age, just 10,000 years ago, the movement of ice was far below the present park boundaries.
No less than 27 named glaciers surround the summit, an expanse of ice covering 35 square miles.
This silent land is punctuated by the creaking of ice as it slowly inches down the mountainside.
During winter, the heavy rainfall, as much as 110 inches at paradise, leaves a snowpack of 30 feet that renews the glaciers each year.
The flowing rivers of ice carry rocks and debris that they leave on the lower slopes.
The alpine meadows of sunrise on the northeastern flank of the mountain offer tremendous views of Mount Rainier.
The profusion of wildflowers attracts visitors who enjoy the antics of the marmots, one of the most visible of the animals in the park.
From sunrise, the valley drops away 1,600 feet, providing hikers with an open view to the mountain.
In spite of the snow, the chill, and the cold, this is a volcano.
Dormant now, only an occasional wisp of steam reminds us that it has the same potential as Mount St. Helens to the south.
Sitting atop the Cascade Range is one of the deepest and most beautiful lakes in the world, Crater Lake.
It's not actually a crater, but a huge caldera, which was created by the collapse of Mount Mazama.
Volcanic in origin, its violent birth is masked by the calm waters inside the rim.
In geologic time, it happened very recently.
Just over 6,000 years ago, the Native Americans of the area witnessed the creation of the lake.
The events were included in their legends, and modern scientists have confirmed the stories that entered their folklore.
Over a period of a half million years, Mount Mazama grew through a series of massive eruptions to 12,000 feet.
Then in a couple of days, it destroyed itself when the cone of the volcano dropped into the emptied magma chamber.
The explosion was over 40 times as great as the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980.
It scattered ash over 5,000 square miles and left the empty caldera.
Slowly, water filled the caldera to its present depth of 1,932 feet.
A 33-mile road circles the caldera rim, with many pull-outs providing scenic views.
However, an excellent way to observe the lake at close hand is to take the boat trip.
The boats, which operate hourly, take two hours to circle the inside of the crater.
It'll stop once at Wizard Island.
The island is a cinder cone, which was thrown up by the volcanic activity after the collapse.
The naturalist provides an informed and interesting explanation about the lake.
There are no outlets to the lake.
It's a closed ecological system, as the water leaving through evaporation and seepage is almost equal to that coming in through rain, springs, and snow.
This lake is very pure, almost as pure as distilled water.
There are no impurities, so sunlight can travel deep into the water.
First the reds, yellows, and other colors of the spectrum are absorbed,
and then only the deepest blue is left to be reflected back to the surface.
The water is no more blue than the sky is blue.
The scientific explanation of the color of Crater Lake's water does not prepare the visitor for its intensity.
Along the northwestern coast of Washington is located the Olympic National Park,
which is really three parks in one, an alpine wilderness, deep forested valleys, and a wild coastline.
The Olympic Peninsula is an isolated part of the United States,
with only very winding two-lane roads connecting it to the rest of Washington.
This isolation has served to preserve the environment, although the park is increasing in popularity.
The Pacific Ocean dominates the environment,
either through the waves crashing onto the beaches or the storms it throws against the land.
The 50 miles of coastline within the park are perhaps the wildest and least developed of the coastlands in the United States.
Only a couple of areas, such as at Rialto Beach, are accessible by automobile.
The only way to see this unspoiled coastline is by walking.
Hikers travel the beach between the sea and the forest,
climbing over steep headlands or skirting them at high tide.
Winter storms leave driftwood skeletons of great trees that are used by backpackers as windbreaks.
Shelter is important because cloudy skies and damp cold are normal for much of the year.
When the storm clouds sweep across the coast, they come up against the Olympic Mountains
and on the western slopes create the wettest place in the continental United States.
As much as 200 inches can fall in a single year.
In the Ho, Kunalt, and other river valleys are one of the world's few temperate rainforests.
The plants that live here are water-loving plants that seem to grow to gigantic proportions.
The Olympics have the world's largest Douglas firs, western red cedar, and western hemlock.
The undergrowth is dense with ferns in abundance.
The light is soft, for the trees are thick and covered in air-loving moss and lichens.
The fern forest areas have been compared to cathedrals.
The area was originally set aside as an elk refuge, and the Roosevelt elk keep the undergrowth from completely clogging the forest.
The most accessible alpine area in the Olympic Park is Hurricane Ridge,
where the road from Port Angeles ends at the visitor center.
This wide open panorama is enhanced by the Park Service naturalists
that provide an explanation of the creation of these mountains.
The monarch of this wet range, Mount Olympus, is slightly hidden by other glacial clad peaks.
Over 600 miles of hiking trails allow visitors glimpses of tranquil meadows,
which are covered in wildflowers in the early summer.
Occasionally, the hiker will encounter wildlife, including mountain goats and deer.
Breathtaking vistas abound in this lush, green, and wild land.
The Olympics aren't the only national treasure found on the wild and wet Pacific coast.
To the south are the great redwoods of California.
Where the redwoods come down to the Pacific coast, the beaches, strewn with driftwood, run from headland to headland.
Some 50 miles of oceanfront are protected within the park boundaries.
The forests reach right to the water's edge, but it's the groves of trees found inland which makes this area so special.
These are old trees, almost 2,000 years in cases.
They soar higher than the Statue of Liberty. They are the tallest trees on earth.
They thrive in the fog belt. As they grow, the lower branches drop off,
leaving the massive trunk unadorned until it reaches the canopy hundreds of feet above.
This forms a natural cathedral.
Driving down Highway 101, the motorist travels through a quilt of national and state parks.
A number of excellent state parks protected outstanding groves before the national park was created in 1968.
Occasionally, the most common mammal in the park is seen, the Roosevelt elk.
In 1978, the park, after much political controversy, was expanded to include an area in the south to protect the tall trees' grove.
No road access is provided to these, the tallest trees in the world.
But the park service does have a shuttle which carries visitors to almost a mile and a half from the trees.
They stand in a bend of Redwood Creek and from a distance seem indistinguishable from other tall trees.
Walking up to the tallest tree gives some indication of its greatness, for it towers over 367 feet.
It has no known diseases and insects cause no great damage. The thick bark provides protection even from fires.
Acquiring land upstream from the grove was necessary because of heavy logging,
which was resulting in flooding and potential damage to the grove.
The parks has an ambitious program to restore the former logged lands to their natural state.
Ambitious because the average tree lives to be over 700 years and it'll be many years before the full impact of this restoration project will be known.
The Redwoods are more than trees and groves of unsurpassed beauty. They're a living link with history.
Also located in California is one of the most popular parks in the world, Yosemite.
The uniqueness of Yosemite Valley is not the sole attraction of this park,
which covers almost 1200 square miles of the Sierra Nevada enclosing a tremendous variety of ecological zones.
Between 2000 and 13,000 feet there are five plant zones, each with an associated community of animals.
In the valley, black oak and canyon live oak are common.
Wildflowers bloom at different times depending upon the elevation,
but during the summer months there are usually flowers blooming somewhere in the park.
The park doesn't close down during the winter, although the number of visitors declines.
Cross-country skiers and snowshoers can explore the backcountry.
It's more difficult covering the 700 miles of trail within the park,
but just as rewarding for the views in winter can rival those of summer.
It was the cold of the long winters during the ice ages which formed the canyon.
The glaciers broadened the canyon of the Merced River to form the classical U-shaped valley
and rounded the harder rocks to domes.
El Capitan, its walls towering 3600 feet, is said to be the largest block of granite on earth.
Climbers from around the world test their skills on the sheer rock walls.
Down these glacial sculpted rocks thunder some of the world's most spectacular waterfalls.
Upper Yosemite drops 1430 feet to a ledge and then an additional drop of 1000 feet to the valley floor,
making it the highest on the continent.
The falls are fullest in the spring with the runoff of winter.
The seeds of the conservation program which resulted in the park system were laid at Yosemite.
John Muir conducted much of his original research into the effect of glaciers on the landscape here
and his efforts along with others resulted in the area being deeded to the state of California in 1864.
A national park was established in 1890 surrounding the state park
and eventually in 1916 the two parks were merged.
Poets, photographers and artists have long been attracted to the valley
and they continue to explore its aesthetic beauty.
But for most people, visiting a national park is a chance to discover the ever-changing moods of nature
and at Yosemite the valley is always changing its appearance from hour to hour, day to day and season to season.
The parks of America have stood the test of time, they're an institution
and yet they continue to change for new parks are being created.
Although most of the parks are located within the borders of continental USA,
Hawaii and Alaska have very special parks.
In Hawaii, the volcanoes national parks bring the forces which created the islands into sharp focus.
Mauna Loa and Kilauea on the big island of Hawaii are still active.
On the island of Maui, Haleakala crater has a circumference of 21 miles.
This moon-like landscape was created by the now dormant volcano.
In Alaska, the additions to the national park system includes some of the most spectacular scenery in the world,
extending from the summit of Mount McKinley, the tallest peak in North America,
to the rugged coastline of southeastern Alaska where cruise ships explore Glacier Bay's tremendous fjords.
This is America's last great wilderness where the animals of Alaska can roam in large tracks of land untouched by man.
Entire ecosystems have been set aside.
This trail-less land is not easy to visit,
but future generations will find room to explore these newest additions to the park system.
The foresight of the visionaries who promoted the development of parks is now shared by millions.
A commitment to national parks is not an easy commitment,
yet few Americans would change the strict protectionism that has preserved these national treasures
that stretch from border to border and coast to coast, America's greatest treasures, its national parks.
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