Natural world

Including museums focused on natural history.

114 Places

Redd, Washington

Juniper Dunes Wilderness Area

One of the northernmost occurrences of western juniper can be found in the sand dunes of Washington's Palouse.

slgwv

Bruneau Canyon

The "Grand Canyon of Southwestern Idaho" makes a spectacular gash across the flat Snake River plain.

slgwv

Mountain Home, Idaho

Bruneau Dunes

This Idaho state park boasts the tallest single-structured sand dune in North America.

slgwv

Malad Gorge

Some 46,000 years ago, a volcanic eruption led to a flooding event that carved this short canyon with steep vertical walls.

slgwv

Lake Chelan

A narrow fjord-like lake, the third-deepest in the United States, runs for over 50 miles into the Cascades of Washington state.

slgwv

Ephrata, Washington

Monster Rock

An enormous boulder deposited by the Scabland floods lies in the Quincy Basin among a host of smaller boulders.

slgwv

Paisley, Oregon

Fremont National Recreation Trail

A remote trail traverses the little-known Gearhart Mountains of southern Oregon.

slgwv

Las Vegas, Nevada

Hidden Forest Trail

A spring and an enigmatic cabin lie in a ponderosa pine forest in the heart of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge.

slgwv

Tumalo Falls

An attractive free-plunge waterfall outside Bend in the Deschutes National Forest.

slgwv

Littlefield, Arizona

Cedar Pocket Sinkhole

An improbable sinkhole in the sediments flanking the Beaver Dam Mountains.

slgwv

Delamar Dry Lake

This dry lake bed was once an emergency landing strip for military and experimental aircraft.

slgwv

Las Vegas, Nevada

Ice Age Fossils State Park

Pleistocene megafauna fossils are the subject of Nevada's newest state park at the northern edge of the Las Vegas metropolitan area.

slgwv

Anniversary Narrows

A spectacular slot canyon at the northern edge of Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

slgwv

Nye County, Nevada

Easy Chair Crater

An unusual double cinder cone with a bent oval crater, in the Lunar Crater Volcanic Field.

slgwv

Moapa Valley, Nevada

Buffington Pockets

The rocks exposed at Valley of Fire State Park also occur in a much less known but equally spectacular area a few miles to the southwest.

slgwv

Meadow Valley Wash

Much of the spectacular canyon followed over a century ago by the Los Angeles & Salt Lake railroad is now accessible to cars.

slgwv

Flagstaff Mountain Park Overlook

scenic overlook

slgwv

Kershaw Ryan State Park

Springs in an attractive side canyon off Meadow Valley Wash form the hub of a network of hiking, biking, and horseback trails.

slgwv

Kenmore, Washington

St. Edward State Park

A former Catholic seminary, now a Washington State Park, preserves undeveloped lands on Lake Washington and also hosts a luxury hotel.

slgwv

Valley Falls, Oregon

Lake Abert

Oregon's only closed-basin hypersaline lake, an important stopover for migrating waterfowl, is in danger of drying up completely.

slgwv

Summer Lake, Oregon

Fremont Point

Stay in an old lookout cabin atop Oregon's spectacular Winter Ridge.

slgwv

Lost River Caverns

A classic limestone cave near Allentown.

slgwv

Greenwood Fire Tower

A century-old fire lookout tower accessible to the public.

slgwv

Grampian, Pennsylvania

Bilger's Rocks

Rocky outcrops containing overhangs, caves, fissures, clefts, and alcoves that invite exploration and scrambling.

slgwv

Terrebonne, Oregon

Smith Rock State Park

Spectacular volcanic cliffs along the Crooked River invite hiking, rock climbing, and photography.

slgwv

Yerington, Nevada

Walker River State Recreation Area

Nevada's second-newest state park offers camping, fishing, hiking, and river float trips.

slgwv

Norden, California

Peter Grubb Hut

This trailside hut was built in the late 1930s as a memorial to a young hiker.

slgwv

Silver Falls State Park

Multiple waterfalls and several historic CCC buildings anchor this state park in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

slgwv

Sierraville, California

Webber Falls

A little-known, but surprisingly large waterfall on the Little Truckee River in the northern Sierra Nevada.

slgwv

Palm Springs, California

Tahquitz Creek Falls

At the western edge of Palm Springs, a rugged desert canyon trail leads to a waterfall at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains.

slgwv

Nye County, Nevada

Fang Ridge

Red rock "fangs" jut out of the desert near the Extraterrestrial Highway.

slgwv

Gerlach, Nevada

Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge

One of the largest wildlife refuges in the contiguous 48 states, it was instrumental in preserving the pronghorn antelope from extinction.

slgwv

Twin Falls, Idaho

Twin Falls Waterfall

One of the "twins" in these falls on the Snake River was sacrificed for hydropower generation in the 1930s.

slgwv

Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge

A haven for wildlife amid the farmlands and development of the Willamette River Valley.

slgwv

Smith Valley, Nevada

Wilson Canyon

An improbable water gap where the West Walker River, paralleled by a state highway, crosses the Singatse Range between Smith and Mason Valleys.

slgwv

Valley Falls, Oregon

Abert Rim

This spectacular fault escarpment, a popular hang-glider launch point, extends some 30 miles long and towers about 2,500 feet over the valley floors to the west.

slgwv

Duck Creek Village, Utah

Cascade Falls

An improbable waterfall springs from an orange-white cliff face, tumbling into the headwaters of the Virgin River above Zion National Park.

slgwv

Toiyabe Crest Trail

This little-used trail winds through the highest mountain range in central Nevada with sections around 10,000 feet.

slgwv

Hunter Creek Falls

This wilderness hike to a waterfall has an unlikely beginning in suburban Reno.

slgwv

Princeton, Oregon

Steens Mountain

With a crest near 10,000 feet, this treeless fault-block mountain in eastern Oregon provides stunning views and spectacular glacial landforms.

slgwv

Boulder City, Nevada

Black Canyon National Water Trail

See Hoover Dam and the bypass bridge from a perspective usually off-limits to the public, and float the upper part of the Black Canyon National Water Trail.

slgwv

Fairview Peak-Dixie Valley Fault Scarps

In 1954, two enormous earthquakes occurred just minutes apart, resulting in prominent scarps that extend for miles along the range fronts.

slgwv

Wallowa Lake Tramway

The steepest tramway in North America provides stunning views of the out-of-the-way Wallowa Mountains in northeastern Oregon.

slgwv

Sierra City, California

Sierra Buttes Lookout

A fire lookout atop a glacial pinnacle is reached by climbing three vertiginous flights of stairs.

slgwv

White River Falls

An out-of-the-way state park in Oregon that features both a picturesque waterfall and the ruins of a hydropower plant.

slgwv

Gerlach, Nevada

George W. Lund Petrified Forest

A little-known occurrence of fossil wood in northern Washoe County, Nevada, near the Black Rock Desert.

slgwv

Castle Dale, Utah

Wedge Overlook

A spectacular overlook of the Little Grand Canyon of the San Rafael River, a deep sandstone gorge streaked with orange, red and white in a remote, uncrowded part of Utah.

slgwv

Coulee City, Washington

Summer Falls

This large artificial waterfall in Washington state was merely an incidental byproduct of a technological megaproject.

slgwv

Map