Top 5 National Parks In The Usa And Canada
The United States and Canada are home to an extensive series of national parks
, monuments, historic sites and scenic trails that protect natural and cultural sites throughout the country. Feel like getting away from it all? National parks don't just represent freedom, but history as well. Here are the top 5 National Parks in the USA and Canada.
1. Yosemite National Park, California
Yosemite National Park is the best-known of a collection of preserved wild lands in California's Sierra Nevada. Yosemite National Park's fame is mostly due to the striking beauty of Yosemite Valley, whose flat floor contrasts with vertical granite walls over which flow several major waterfalls. In addition to the Valley, Yosemite includes an extensive wilderness of mountain peaks, rivers, and groves of giant sequoia trees. Yosemite National Park covers about 308,000 hectares.
The park's 320 kilometres of roads give access to many of its features by private vehicle and in some areas by free shuttle bus. To get to know the real Yosemite, however, leave your car and travel even a short distance on a trail. You don't have to go far to discover the grandeur that can be found here and the wisdom this special place offers.
2. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee
Ridge upon ridge of forest straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. World renowned for its diversity of plant and animal life, the beauty of its ancient mountains, and its remnants of Southern Appalachian mountain culture, It's no surprise that Great Smoky is America's most popular national park.
The park boasts more than 4,000 types of flora and 450 varieties of fauna, including elk, bear, boar and river otters. Hikers can see some of this biodiversity on more than 1,368 kilometres of trails.
Most visitors come to the Smokies hoping to see a bear. Some 1,500 bears live in the park. From the big animals like bears, deer, and elk, down to microscopic organisms, the Smokies have the most biological diversity of any area in the world's temperate zone.
3. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
A powerful and inspiring landscape, the Grand Canyon overwhelms through its immense size; 446 kilometres long, up to 29 kilometres wide and 1.6 kilometres deep.
Grand Canyon National Park is a World Heritage Site, situated on the Colorado Plateau in northwestern Arizona. The Canyon is one of the most studied geologic landscapes in the world. It offers a record of three of the four eras of geological time, a vast array of geologic features, and numerous caves containing extensive archeological resources.
The Park contains several major ecosystems. Its biological diversity can be attributed to the presence of five of the seven life zones and three of the four desert types in North America.
The Park also serves as an ecological refuge. It is home to numerous rare and specially protected plant and animal species. Over 1,500 plants, 355 birds, 89 mammalian, 47 reptiles, 9 amphibians, and17 fish species are found in the park.
4. Glacier National Park, Montana
Glacier National Park encompasses approximately 1.4 million acres of wilderness and some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the western United States. A combination of spectacular scenery, diverse flora and fauna, and isolation from major cities has combined to make Glacier National Park the centre of one of the largest ecosystems in North America.
The general park area was once the homeland of the Blackfoot and Kootenai Indian tribes and many sites in the park are sacred sites. There are over 50 glaciers in the park from which it gets its name. There are also over 200 lakes or streams in Glacier.
The mountains seem sharper, the air purer, other animals more numerous and easier to spot. Glacier jolts you alive like no other place on earth.
5. Banff National Park, Alberta
Canada's oldest national park began with three prospectors trekking through the Rockies. They didn't find gold, just a steaming, hot spring, which in 1885, led to the creation of a 656-square-mile park of jagged snow-capped mountains, U-shaped valleys, forests and rivers. Today, more than 4 million visitors pay homage every year, and with some of the world's best hiking and skiing, peak season never ends.
Each year, millions of visitors come to Banff to marvel at the waters of Lake Louise, walk amongst the flower-filled fields at Sunshine Meadows, and drive beneath the jagged peaks lining the Icefields Parkway. Snow-capped peaks, glistening glaciers and sweeping vistas are all part of the allure of Banff National Park.
by: Iman Bahrani
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