National Parks of the United States

Death Valley (El Valle de los Muertos)

It is located approximately 320 km (200 mi) northeast of Los Angeles. This part of California is made up of numerous mountain ranges with arid mountains interspersed with desert valleys. The Sierra Nevada Mountain Range prevents moisture from the Pacific Ocean from reaching these valleys and the small amount of rain that falls is limited only to the slopes of the mountains. This vast desert area of eastern California and Nevada is known as the valley and mountain range area.
Death Valley is located approximately 80 km (50 mi) east of the Sierras. It is about 160 km (100 mi) long and varies in width from 8 (5) to 24 km (15 mi). The valley terrain receives less than two inches of rain a year and blue skies without a single cloud are normal in any season. Because the valley is surrounded by high arid mountain ranges, cool breezes do not reach it, so the sun warms the ground and rock walls to extremely high temperatures.
During the summer months, temperatures of 50 C (130 F) are common and almost never drop below 38 C (100 F) even at night.
Death Valley got its name from an incident that occurred in 1849, during the “Golden Rush” to California in. A small expedition of gold prospectors was trying to find a shorter route to California and they got lost in
Death Valley got its name from an incident that occurred in 1849, during the “Golden Rush” to California in. A small expedition of gold prospectors was trying to find a shorter route to California and they got lost in the valley. Before they could find their way, several members of the group died due to the intense heat and lack of water to drink.
However, this extremely hot and prohibitive land can be strangely beautiful. A small area of sand dunes gives the northern end of the valley a classic desert appearance. The rock walls and eroded canyons are multicolored by the exposed mineral deposits. At the southern end, which at 94 meters (282 feet) below sea level is the lowest point in the United States, a shallow lake forms during the winter months with mineral waters coming down from the surrounding mountains to evaporate in the summer exposing bright plates of white salt.
Death Valley Tip: The best time to visit Death Valley is in the winter when temperatures are bearable from 21 to 27 C (70 to 80 F). If you drive your car, remember to fill up your gas tank and bring plenty of water with you to drink. Shops, gas stations and in general any sign of civilization are very difficult to find in the desert country.
Links to Death Valley
The National Park Service pages are an excellent source of information.
Desert USA magazine has an interesting website with information about Death Valley.

Zion National Park

Zion National Park in Utah is one of the most beautiful. In 1880, scientist Clarence Dutton declared, “Nothing can exceed the wonderful beauty of Zion. In proportion it is about the same size as Yosemite, but the nobility and beauty of the natural sculptures found there are unparalleled. There is an eloquence in its forms that stimulate the imagination with singular power and kindle in the mind a brilliant response.” Zion Canyon.
From the greenery of the sprawling valley to the white sandstone that forms tower-like reefs rising up to 700 meters (2,000 feet) high, Zion is the wonderland of the visual imagination.
Monolithic stone sculptures, lush forests and thundering rivers form a breathtaking spectacle and the first-time visitor will be amazed by the great diversity of colors, a vibrant combination of magenta, blues and vermilion. Zion National Park has become a popular destination for tourists who have the experience of visiting the Western United States for the first time as well as long-time friends of the park.
Spanning more than 71,000 hectares (147,000 acres), the park is affected by a wide variety of elevations from 1,230 meters (3,700 feet), to almost 3,000 meters (8,726 feet) above sea level. The terrain changes from desert to forest and is crossed by a river that forms a dramatic canyon known as the Narrows. The climate and temperature in the area are equally diverse, reaching over 38 degrees C (100 degrees F) in the summer while the highest elevations are often covered with snow during the winter months.
The biggest attractions are hiking, hiking and mountaineering. Although the access roads provide a scenic route through most of the area, walking is how the park is best known and on many occasions, it is the only way to truly do it.
There is a wide variety of trails available, from a light scenic hike to multi-day excursions that present great challenges. The most popular day trips are to the Emerald Pool Trail, which waves through a forest of maples, oaks and poplars, passes numerous waterfalls until it reaches the picturesque place where the Emerald Pools are located.
A much more strenuous day trip takes you along the Angels Landing Trail, which climbs 500,1 feet (500 meters) to the top for spectacular views of Zion Canyon.
Zion Park also provides many possibilities for hikers. A special permit is required for all hikers who wish to spend the night in the park (these are available at the Tourist Office for $5) and most of the land is third-party but truly worth the effort.
Rock climbing is another favorite pastime in the park. The high sandstone reefs along the canyon provide challenging routes for climbers, which is why it has become a mecca for technical climbers, however, much of the rock is relatively loose and it is the climber’s responsibility to place their own protection. Given the kind of rock prevalent in Zion, this park is recommended only to expert mountaineers.

The Riverside Walk and Zion Narrows
To really experience the magnificence of Zion National Park, be sure to follow the Riverside Walk to the Virgin River. The paved road is only 3.2 km (2 miles) long and there are many exhibits and wildflowers hanging on the sides of the trails. Following the Riverside Walk, you reach where the Zion Canyon Narrows begins, where the pavement ends. From this point, walkers can continue upstream where the canyon walls are only 8 meters (24 feet) apart and measure over 300 meters (1,000 feet) high! Be sure to bring a good pair of boots and be prepared to get wet. Most of the canyon is too narrow for trails to exist forcing the hiker to venture into the river over slippery rocks. No special permit is required to visit for a day, but it’s a good idea to check weather forecasts and talk to rangers before venturing into the canyon, as surprise floods often happen.
For more adventurous hikers, there is a 26-mile (16 km) trail through the Narrows.
The Narrows is not the country walk that most people are used to. Located on the North Fork of the Virgin River, the Narrows trail is situated in an abyss 300 meters (1,000 feet) deep and becomes as narrow as 8 meters (25 feet) in many sections. This is truly a wonderful excursion that we highly recommend. The walk takes you through waterfalls, natural hanging gardens and amazing arches sculpted into the sandstone rock. The canyon can be considered as the cornucopia of sights, sounds, smells and colors that defy explanation.

Zion National Park is located 494 miles (309 km) from Salt Lake City and 69 miles (43 km) northeast of St. George. Most visitors enter the park through the south entrance, near
the town of Springdale where the intersection of Interstate 15 and Highway 9 is located. The cost to enter is $10 per vehicle or $5 per person. There are also annual passes for $20.
Like most parks, the most congested season is during the summer months. To avoid crowds, it is recommended that you plan your trip for the end of spring or the beginning of autumn. Although the park is open during the winter months, the types of activities available are very limited due to the cold and the low amount of snow.
Tip for Zion: Make sure you don’t miss the 37-minute movie called “Treasure of the Gods.” The film is a mythical depiction of the history of Zion National Park and its inhabitants, including the Anasazi and Native American Paiute, the Spanish Conquistadors, and the Mormon settlements. This film is shown daily at regular intervals on the giant screen of the Zion Canyon Theater, located at the entrance to the park. The film is full of adventures including rope slipping, mountaineering, flooding and award-winning cinematography that will take your breath away.

Yellowstone

Yellowstone is a huge park covering nearly 9,000 square kilometers (3,400 square miles) in the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Cody or Jackson can be reached by air 85 miles (50 km) from the entrances, or a small seasonal airport in West Yellowstone. There is no train service nearby. Limited bus service is available in some nearby towns. Once in the park area the car becomes almost a necessity. The park has 5 entrances that are open from May to October. It’s definitely a good idea to plan this trip during the good weather season, but be prepared to see large amounts of people and slow traffic. Some parts of the park are open in the winter to give access to snowmobiles or cross-country skiing.
There are several visitor centers where there are a variety of exhibits and information about some of the sections of the park. You can even buy two tapes that will guide you on a walk around the park or you can rent a CD player for a guided walk with her.
Advance reservations are required to stay during the popular summer months. You can find different types of accommodation ranging from moderate to expensive both outside and inside the park. Even campsites require reservations.
To enter the park you have to pay a fee of $ 20.00 dollars per car that is valid for 7 days. If you want to stay longer or you are over 65, there are less expensive alternatives such as Annual Area, Golden Access, Golden Age and Golden Eagle passports.

Geyser. Be sure to be prepared for a variety of weather conditions at any time of the year. Try to dress in layers so that you can adjust your clothes to unexpected changes in temperature or weather conditions. Bring a good pair of walking shoes and thick socks, particularly if you plan to take long walks.
There are more than 2,000 km (1,200 miles) of hiking trails. You can also tour the park on horseback.
In Yellowstone you can find many kinds of wildlife. They roam freely, mink, moose, grizzly bears, black bears and wolves. It is against park rules to feed, touch or disturb wild animals. Stay a safe distance from any bears! Bears with cubs and bears defending food can be extremely dangerous. Make sure all kinds of food is properly stored in a safe place either in your car or in special containers!
Yellowstone is located in a geothermal hot spot in the upper layer of the Earth. It contains about 10,000 geysers, hot springs, steam jets and large mud deposits. The most well-known place in Yellowstone is the “Old Faithful”, a geyser that erupts every 79 minutes.
Stay on the marked paths and boardwalks around the hot springs and keep an eye on your children! Steam and super hot waters are extremely dangerous.
When taking your hikes in Yellowstone remember not to drink the groundwater. Plan to bring your own water to all your walks.
If you want to learn more about Yellowstone, the National Park Service offers many talks, movies, and tours to help you understand it. The schedule of these activities can be found in the different visitor centers. But most of all enjoy the natural beauty, the original geological phenomena and the wide variety of wildlife.
Yellowstone Adventure Tip: Last summer, park troopers had to eliminate a grizzly bear because it learned to open cars to reach the food and candy inside. The animal only placed its powerful claw in the groove of the door and detached the metal! This will help you understand how dangerous bears become.
Yosemite National Park is located approximately 200 miles (320 km) east of San Francisco in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The trip to Yosemite is very pleasant, you have to drive the car from San Francisco for 3 or 4 hours along the coastal mountain range, crossing the Central Valley and through the foothills of the Sierra.
Yosemite National Park covers 3,000 square km (1,200 square miles) and contains one of the most beautiful alpine valleys in the world. Yosemite Valley is only 13 km (8 miles) long and less than 1.5 km (1 mile) wide, but its large walls of pure granite rise vertically to 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) high on each side.
Nine waterfalls fall into the valley, five of them from more than 300 meters (1,000 feet) high and Yosemite Waterfall 800 meters (2,425 feet).
Visitors who come to Yosemite go to see the valley, so you can find large crowds in the summer months, especially theines of week. There is only one road to enter the valley and access is sometimes restricted to control active summer weekends. Park services provide a free bus that takes you along the way from some of the parking lots.
Limited hotel and camping facilities are fully booked for the summer months from the time they open a year in advance. It is easier to get accommodation outside the valley, in other parts of the park or a short distance from the entrance.
Whether you drive your car along the way or take the bus, you must make frequent stops and walk the points where the views are appreciated in order to fully enjoy the magnificent panorama. From the meadow, just below El Capitan, you can see the small ant-like figures that correspond to climbers trying to climb the giant 1,000-meter-high granite wall. The echo effect produced by the smooth surface of the granite allows him to hear from almost two kilometers away, the cries of encouragement of the climbers to their companions. At dusk you can make out its lights slowly moving up the cliff.
Yosemite has less than 200 miles (320 km) of paved roads but 800 miles (1,300 km) of roads. More than 95% of the park is designated as a wilderness area. It is a fantastic place for walkers and hikers. It is also fabulous for serious rock climbers for its granite rock walls. The place called El Capitan, was used for a short time to practice the dangerous sport of “base jump” or skydiving until the park service prohibited
it In the park you can find an impressive amount of giant sequoia trees, a skiing area and a passage over the mountain range that leads to the eastern California desert. Tioga Passage, which sits at 3,300 meters (9,945 feet), is usually closed during the winter months. Just past the passage is Mono Lake, with its characteristic lime deposits, and the well-preserved ghost town of Bodie, California.
Yosemite Tip: The best time to visit Yosemite is during the spring and fall when the crowds begin to disappear. Yosemite’s waterfalls are of unparalleled beauty during this season when the snow water in the mountains melts and cascades into the valley. Autumn produces a magnificent spectacle when the leaves of the forest change color.

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a spectacular place! It is not just a simple canyon but an intricate network of canyons, fissures and ravines formed in the rocks with peculiar hills, plateaus and spirals of rock between them. Multi-colored sedimented layers take on different hues by varying the angle of sunlight and shadows throughout the day. It is truly one of the natural wonders of the world.
The Grand Canyon is immense. It is almost 320 km (200 miles) long and 16 to 25 km (10 to 15 miles) wide. At its deepest part, where the Colorado River channel runs, it is 1.6 km (1 mile) deep directly below the edge of the plateau.
These rocks formed at the bottom of a vast sea millions of years ago when sedimentary deposits accumulated to a thickness of nearly two kilometers (1 mile). Later, a large collision of the tetonic plates raised this entire region to form the Colorado Plateau which now lies 2,100 to 2750 meters (7,000 to 9,000 feet) above sea level. The Colorado River basin was formed by carrying water out of this region and soon began erosion through the layers of sediment. Eventually the river grooved this nearly two-kilometer-deep channel that we now call The Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon National Park is located in northern Arizona where there is nothing else nearby. The South Shore Visitor Center is 125 miles (75 km) north of Flagstaff, Arizona and can be reached by driving for an hour or an hour and a half. Both the South and North Visitor Centers are approximately 250 miles (150 km) east of Las Vegas but you have to drive for more than 400 miles (250 km) to get to either. The Southern Visitor Center is only 16 miles (10 km) from the Northern Visitor Center, a “bird’s eye flight,” but if you want to get from one to the other you have to drive for more than 320 miles (200 km).
The South Bank Visitor Center is the favorite place to visit the park. There you can see the best panoramas, has the best facilities and is the most accessible. The North Shore Visitor Center is less accessible and closed from late October to mid-May, with only a few hikers who want to avoid the crowds preferring it.
Several commercial airlines operate between Las Vegas, Nevada; Flagstaff, Arizona or Phoenix, Arizona and the Grand Canyon Airport in Tusayan just a few miles south of the South Shore Visitor Center.
Most people admire the canyon from the South Bank Trail. It is closed to car traffic from May to October, but there is a free bus service that takes tourists to all the most interesting points. There are several trails that take you to the bottom of the canyon, which is for serious walkers and hikers, even mule rides are offered if you book in advance. Helicopter and plane tours departing from Tusayan Airport are also offered to see the canyon from a “bird’s eye view”.
The National Park Service maintains the Grand Canyon Village on the South Bank. In it you can find several hotels and restaurants as well as a gas station, grocery store, laundry and several souvenir shops. The small village of Tusayan is approximately 10 km (6 miles) from the south bank.
In it you will find more hotels and restaurants, a few shops, gas stations, an IMAX theater and an airport.

Mesa Verde National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park is not just a canyon but rather a dozen small eroded ravines within the east side of the range, on the shore of the Paunsaugunt Plateau in southwestern Utah. This erosion has resulted in thousands of bizarre and fragile rock formations in many shades of pink, white, yellow and red, The park was named in honor of Ebenezer Bryce, a Mormon farmer who was the first modern-era inhabitant of the region. The park is located approximately 410 miles (270 km) south of Salt Lake City. It is 125 km (85 mi) northeast of Zion National Park.
The main canyon is part of the Pink Cliffs, which are the highest and geologically the most recent series of cliffs known as the Grand Staircase, this extends through southern Utah and was formed by the erosion and lifting of layers of sandstone rock of different colors. The name of the cliffs refers to the dominant color of the rock: (Going north from the Grand Canyon) – Chocolate, Vermilion (most spectacularly visible from Lees Ferry, AZ), White (which surrounds Zion Canyon), Grey and Pink. Most of the Grand Sataircase is now located within the new Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument.

Mesa Verde National Park is located in the southwest corner of Colorado near the
border with Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. The park is located 16 miles (10 km) east of Cortez and 48 miles (30 km) west of Durango. To access the park requires a route that consists of a hard climb from the highway (US 160) to the top of the table. The admission ticket to the park is $5 per vehicle or $2 per person. Mobile homes and other vehicles of this kind are not allowed to pass beyond the Morefield camp, however, there are adequate parking for these vehicles at the entrance of the park.

Water was initially responsible for creating the rock forms at Brye Canon. The rain and snow melting down the Pink Cliffs into the Paria River forming ravines, which subsequently continued to erode to form caverns, peaks and other forms (popularly called “Hoodoos”). Over the years these will also erode and the whole process will move westwards wearing down the reef gradually until it disappears.

Bryce Canyon. Admire the scenes from 14 points along the trail Bryce Canyon is reached by the UT 12 scenic route that crosses the northeast corner of the park. The entrance road splits to the south, follow the ravines for 29 kms and you will find 14 different points that have made Bryce Canyon so famous, from there you will see the best perspective of the extension and the great variety of rock formations. The first viewpoint is Fairyland Point, a valley of great beauty with a scale version of the main canyon. This place is located before the entrance station so you can admire it without paying. From the viewpoints it is possible to see up to 160 kms to the south and east in the direction of Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon.

Bryce Canyon is a spectacle of color and erosion

Bryce Canyon National Park is not just a canyon but rather a dozen small eroded ravines within the east side of the range, on the shore of the Paunsaugunt Plateau in southwestern Utah. This erosion has resulted in thousands of bizarre and fragile rock formations in many shades of pink, white, yellow and red, The park was named in honor of Ebenezer Bryce, a Mormon farmer who was the first modern-era inhabitant of the region. The park is located approximately 410 miles (270 km) south of Salt Lake City. It is 125 km (85 mi) northeast of Zion National Park.
The main canyon is part of the Pink Cliffs, which are the highest and geologically the most recent series of cliffs known as the Grand Staircase, this extends through southern Utah and was formed by the erosion and lifting of layers of sandstone rock of different colors. The name of the cliffs refers to the dominant color of the rock: (Going north from the Grand Canyon) – Chocolate, Vermilion (most spectacularly visible from Lees Ferry, AZ), White (which surrounds Zion Canyon), Grey and Pink. Most of the Grand Sataircase is now located within the new Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument.

Water was initially responsible for creating the rock forms at Brye Canon. The rain and snow melting down the Pink Cliffs into the Paria River forming ravines, which subsequently continued to erode to form caverns, peaks and other forms (popularly called “Hoodoos”). Over the years these will also erode and the whole process will move westwards wearing down the reef gradually until it disappears.

Bryce Canyon. Admire the scenes from 14 points along the trail Bryce Canyon is reached by the UT 12 scenic route that crosses the northeast corner of the park. The entrance road splits to the south, follow the ravines for 29 kms and you will find 14 different points that have made Bryce Canyon so famous, from there you will see the best perspective of the extension and the great variety of rock formations. The first viewpoint is Fairyland Point, a valley of great beauty with a scale version of the main canyon. This place is located before the entrance station so you can admire it without paying. From the viewpoints it is possible to see up to 160 kms to the south and east in the direction of Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon.