HOW TO USE THIS E-BOOK
Getting around the e-book
This Insight Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration for your visit to US National Parks
West, as well as comprehensive planning advice to make sure you have the best travel experience. The
guide begins with our selection of Top Attractions, as well as our Editor’s Choice categories of
activies and experiences. Detailed features on history, people and culture paint a vivid portrait of
contemporary life in US National Parks West. The extensive Places chapters give a complete guide to
all the sights and areas worth visiting. The Travel Tips provide full information on getting around,
hotels, activities from to culture to shopping to sport, plus a wealth of practical information to help
you plan your trip.
In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a
hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also
hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go
directly to the website for more information.
Maps
All key attractions and sights in US National Parks West are numbered and cross-referenced to highquality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You
can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.
Images
You’ll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of US National
Parks West. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.
About Insight Guides
Insight Guides have more than 40 years’ experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides.
We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations
across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.
Insight Guides are written by local authors who use their on-the-ground experience to provide the
very latest information; their local expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural
background features. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an
impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide to you the best places to stay and eat, so
you can be confident that when we say a restaurant or hotel is special, we really mean it.
Like all Insight Guides, this e-book contains hundreds of beautiful photographs to inspire and inform
your travel. We commission most of our own photography, and we strive to capture the essence of a
destination using original images that you won’t find anywhere else.
© 2014 Apa Publications (UK) Ltd
Table of Contents
How To Use This E-Book
US National Parks West’s Top 10 Attractions
Editor’s Choice
Introduction: The Spirit Of The Parks
Decisive Dates
Pioneers and Protectors
Geology
Flora of the West
Wildlife
Radical Recreation
Park Rangers
Introduction: Places
Introduction: California and the Pacific
Yosemite
Redwood
Lassen
Sequoia and Kings Canyon
The Californian Desert
Insight: Flowering Against All the Odds
Channel Islands
Hawaii and American Samoa
Introduction: The Southwest
Great Basin
Zion
Grand Canyon
Insight: The Canyon’s Hidden History
Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon
Canyonlands
Arches
Petrified Forest
The Sonoran Desert
Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns
Big Bend
The Ancient Ones
Insight: The Art of the Ancient Ones
Introduction: The Rocky Mountains
Yellowstone
Grand Teton
Glacier
The Dakotas
Rocky Mountain
Insight: Wild and Wonderful
Introduction: The Pacific Northwest
Olympic
North Cascades
Mount Rainier
Crater Lake
Alaska
A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information
Practical Information on California, including Death Valley, Yosemite,
and Redwood
Practical Information on Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and
the Grand Canyon
Practical Information on the Rocky Mountain and Surrounding Areas
Practical Information for Alaska, Oregon, and Washington
Further Reading
US NATIONAL PARKS WEST’S TOP 10 ATTRACTIONS
From the heat of spectacularly eroded desert river canyons and fiery volcanoes
to the icy strongholds of glaciers and snowy peaks, and a panoply of natural and
cultural history, here are some of the most awe-inspiring national parks in the
West.
Top Attraction 1
Grand Canyon National Park. The Colorado River and relentless erosion carved the Park’s colorful
buttes, mesas, and 2 billion-year-old rock formations. For more information, click here.
Richard Nowitz/Apa Publications
Top Attraction 2
Olympic National Park. Walk among towering old-growth trees and lush ferns in one of the world’s
few temperate rainforests. For more information, click here.
iStockphoto
Top Attraction 3
Denali National Park. In a class of its own and home to vast numbers of wildlife including Alaska’s
grizzly bear, Dall sheep, moose, and caribou. For more information, click here.
iStockphoto
Top Attraction 4
Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The fantastically decorated limestone caves are also a haven for
400,000 Brazilian free-tailed bats. For more information, click here.
iStockphoto
Top Attraction 5
Rocky Mountain National Park. Famous for a sea of craggy peaks over 12,000ft (3,660 meters), it
gives new meaning to the term “breathtaking.” For more information, click here.
iStockphoto
Top Attraction 6
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Watch lava flowing and new land being created here on the
volcanically active Big Island of Hawaii. For more information, click here.
Bigstock
Top Attraction 7
Ancestral Pueblo culture. This reached its apotheosis in the 13th-century cliff dwellings of Mesa
Verde National Park in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. For more information, click here.
Abraham Nowitz/Apa Publications
Top Attraction 8
Zion Narrows. Backpack across miles of silent high-country peaks and plateaus at Zion National
Park, a nature sanctuary in the heart of southern Utah’s pioneer Mormon Country. For more
information, click here.
iStockphoto
Top Attraction 9
Yellowstone National Park. Spewing geysers, sizzling hot springs, and other geothermal features are
scattered amid the scenic Rocky Mountains in Wyoming. For more information, click here.
iStockphoto
Top Attraction 10
Yosemite National Park. With its glaciated granite domes, lush river valley and Sierra Nevada high
country, it deserves its reputation as California’s most beloved national park. For more information,
click here.
iStockphoto
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Immense glaciers and soaring redwood forests, stunning mountain peaks and
otherworldly rock formations…the western national parks have it all.
Glacier Bay National Park.
iStockphoto
Best Scenery
Canyonlands National Park. Breathtaking views of the Colorado and Green river canyons
characterize this mesmerizing wilderness park near Moab. For more information, click here.
Crater Lake National Park. A spectacular seasonal rim drive and fascinating boat tour around
America’s deepest lake awaits visitors to Oregon’s only national park. For more information, click
here.
Arches National Park. An easy drive and trails lead to some of the more than 2,000 sandstone arches
clustered in this family-friendly park. For more information, click here.
Grand Canyon National Park. Explore historic rustic architecture at Grand Canyon’s South or North
rims. For more information, click here.