U.S. National Parks

Fulger Sebastian, Morun Cristian, Mavru Eliz

An scolar 2014-2015 CNVA

Cape Royal and Angels Window in Grand Canyon

Angels don’t need windows, but if they ever wanted to frame a great view, they might choose the North Rim’s Cape Royal (above) and its noble companion parapet in Arizona. Thrust far above the immense luminous space of the canyon, this natural arch overlooks the big bend where the canyon turns west, carving ever deeper into the heart of the Kaibab Plateau. No viewpoint offers a better perspective on the contrast between the dizzying verticality of the gorge and the horizontal rock layers through which it was carved.

Half Dome in Yosemite

Like all good landmarks, Half Dome is an eye magnet. It towers over the other grand monoliths of Yosemite Valley and demands attention. The others in the pantheon, including El Capitan, Sentinel Rock, and Cathedral Spires, are no less illustrious; however, there’s something special about Half Dome. It has undeniable stage presence. View it from the valley floor, beside the winding Merced River. Or drive up to Glacier Point to watch it glow in the sunset as night falls. Best of all, see it from its own bald top. The trail, which takes in the glories of Vernal and Nevada Falls along the way, ends on a cable-protected pathway nailed to smooth granite slabs.

Mount McKinley in Denali

The mountain sprawls across the Alaska tundra like half a planet, gleaming white and broad shouldered. How big is it really? It’s hard to tell by looking. And one can read the facts, and accept them, and still not know the measure of the place. Alaska natives expressed their awe with a single word, Denali, which means “the high one.” With all due respect to the 25th American President, the mountain remains the ineffable Denali in the eyes of many. The summit towers 20,320 feet above sea level, more than 18,000 feet above the base. This gives the mountain an all-in-one-view vertical rise more than a mile greater than Mount Everest, which begins its grand ascent at an already lofty elevation of about 17,000 feet. But comparisons are good only for discussion

Mount Rainier

Now you see it, now you don’t. Mount Rainier, true to its name, disappears behind cloud banks, stays hidden for days and weeks at a time, and reappears in most dramatic fashion. Sometimes, it floats above the clouds, visible only to mountaineers on its glacier-decked slopes and to thrilled passengers of flights climbing south from Seattle. When weather permits, 14,410-foot-high Rainier is visible from most of western Washington and far out to sea. It looms above the skyline of downtown Seattle as if its glaciers were invading suburban neighborhoods. Of course the best encounters are from park roads and trails, notably on the south side in the area called Paradise, known for its wildflower meadows, views of the mountain, prodigious snowfall, and the occasional rainstorm.

Devils Tower National MonumentAs a landform, it seems almost impossible. From the relatively flat

surrounding land, the treestump-like tower’s sides form smooth upward arcs, drawing our thoughts to the sky. The summit, hovering 1,267 feet above Wyoming’s Belle Fourche River, is flat, not visible from below, and therefore mysterious. Plains tribes—Lakota, Shoshone, Crow, Blackfeet, Kiowa, Arapaho, and others—consider the tower a sacred object and call it by evocative names like Bear’s Lodge, Mythic-owl Mountain, Grey Horn Butte, Ghost Mountain, and Tree Rock. Legends tell of heroes, creation, and redemption. The tower’s ongoing importance is reflected by ceremonies and rituals conducted every year by regional tribes. The geologic story, not fully understood, credits an intrusion of molten igneous rock that took shape beneath overlying sedimentary layers, where it hardened and was eventually exposed by erosion. In the process of cooling, the rock formed vertical hexagonal columns that, parallel but separate, give the tower its distinctive striated appearance.