The Crown Jewels: Western National Parks

The National Park Service considers Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Yellowstone National Parks the “Crown Jewels” of its system. I think that many of the western parks deserve that accolade and thus have appropriated the title to include the parks shown here: Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Death Valley. You have likely seen many images from these parks, so many that some have become cliché. I have tried to avoid those images and to present a unique perspective of these fascinating landscapes. Where I have not succeeded I have tried to render a familiar scene in a different light. In any case, I hope these images will inspire the onlooker to go see for themselves, become a fervent supporter of the National Park System, and take their own images home.*

Death Valley National Park

The salt flats of Death Valley National Park from 5000 feet.

Death Valley salt flats from Dante’s View.

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

If you drive east on Gros Ventre Road in Grand Teton National Park you eventually encounter these red hills.

Another look at Half Dome.

Yosemite’s Half Dome as viewed from the high country near Olmstead Point.

Sunset illuminates a lone pine on Pot Hole Dome in Yosemite National Park.

The hot springs and pools at Yellowstone National Park provide endless variations of color and abstraction.

In the fall, when the water everywhere in Yosemite is low.

*See, however, this sobering article.