Exploring America’s State Parks
Photographer: Mike Nielsen»>Go to Slideshow: State Parks
America’s 58 national parks are expansive and glamorous, gracing calendars and inspiring countless cross-country road trips. In their shadow, over 3,675 state parks carry on in relative obscurity, hiding an almost unbelievable variety of landscapes, ecosystems, and wildlife habitats. The masses mostly head to the big-name parks, leaving these smaller state alternatives on the fringes, often without another soul in sight.
During this particular economic crisis, the future (and funding) of state parks looks as precarious as that of the wildlife they harbor. As cities sprawl into megalopolises, even during tough economic times, it seems short-sighted to abandon the few unspoiled places that remain—especially considering that America’s system of parks was developed by forward-thinking leaders during even rougher patches. In the midst of the Civil War, in 1864, a vocal group of advocates convinced Abraham Lincoln to set aside the land of Yosemite and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias for the state of California. And the well-conceived parks infrastructure that we take for granted today was a product of the Civilian Conservation Corps program of the 1930s.
Given the embarrassment of riches that America enjoys (our parks make up 10% of the protected land in the world), it wasn’t easy to narrow it down to sixteen. In addition to the slideshow above, you can read about many more state parks here: State Parks Close to You
