The Best Natural Wonders to Add to Your USA Bucket List
From the stunning red rock canyons of Arizona to New York’s Niagara Falls, we’re sharing America’s can’t-miss natural wonders that deserve a place on your bucket list. How many have you seen?
Antelope Canyon
Arizona
The light shining through the shafts of this slot canyon makes its red twists and twirls even more beautiful. A color-swirled, water-worn slot in a mesa on Navajoland, Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park is a popular crevice of twisting and twirling slickrock.
Exploring the canyon requires a Navajo guide. In a big 4WD vehicle, ride several bumpy miles down a sandy wash to the slit in the rocks rising up out of the ground—the entrance to a slot canyon wonderland.
From the Pacific to the Atlantic, through prairies and bayous to snow-capped mountains, uncover the best of the US with Moon USA State by State.
Crater Lake
Oregon
This sapphire-blue lake sits in the heart of a sunken volcano and is the centerpiece of Oregon’s only national park. From July to November, you can drive the 33-mile Rim Drive which encircles the lake. This highway is lined by 30 overlooks that afford views of both the lake and the surrounding Cascade Range around seemingly every turn.
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Michigan
The National Park Service property on the north side of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula derives its name from the sandstone bluffs that rise 200 feet directly from the water’s surface. The bluffs are washed in shades of pink, red, and green due to the mineral-rich water that seeps from the rock and sculpts them into caves, arches, and castle-like turrets, including Miners Castle, a 200-ft-tall rock formation.
You’ll also find lakes, forest trails, waterfalls, a lighthouse, and other historic attractions, but the optimal way to experience the grandeur of this shoreline is from a boat.
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
Florida
Diving in the waters around the Florida Keys is a major draw for water-sport enthusiasts. Here you can explore the continental United States’ only living coral reef and the third-largest coral reef system in the world. You’ll encounter amazing sealife like parrotfish, yellow cherubfish, brain and staghorn coral, spotted spiny lobster, and sea hermit crabs, plus formations such as Grecian Rocks and Key Largo Dry Rocks, which contains elkhorn coral, and the ever-popular, often photographed Christ of the Abyss statue.
Big Sur Coast
California
With rugged green hills tumbling over craggy cliffs overlooking the crashing waves of the Pacific, the Big Sur coastline is epic. Head to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park for the classic view of McWay Falls and hiking options: take the short 1-mile round-trip hike to Partington Cove, or a longer 4.5-mile round-trip hike through redwoods to coastal views on the Ewoldsen Trail.
Mammoth Cave National Park
Kentucky
Kentucky’s one national park is home to the most extensive cave system in the world. With more than 400 miles of mapped passageways and perhaps hundreds of miles of undiscovered routes, Mammoth Cave is so big that no known cave in the world is even half as long as Mammoth.
Evidence indicates that humans explored Mammoth Cave 5,000 years ago, although it wasn’t until 1798 that the cave was “rediscovered.” Established as a national park in 1941, Mammoth Cave was a tourist attraction as early as 1816, making it the second-oldest tourist site in the United States (behind Niagara Falls).
Badlands National Park
South Dakota
Once at the bottom of an inland sea, the Badlands hold geologic history in their layers and folds, which turn pink and yellow at sunrise or sunset. Though the dusty gray guise gives the landscape a barren appearance, the Badlands are filled with life, hosting bison, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, deer, fox, coyotes, prairie dogs, burrowing owls, and other prairie animals.
Niagara Falls
New York
The falls . . . ah, the falls. Despite the tourists, hoopla, and clichés, the falls are a sight to be seen. While not the tallest in the United States, the trio of cascades that make up Niagara Falls flow with a dramatic volume. Maid of the Mist and Cave of the Winds tours operate from the park; for visitors who don’t want to get quite so close to the watery action, excellent views of the falls can be had from the park’s observation deck.
Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park
Hawai‘i
The indomitable power of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park is apparent to all who come here. Wherever you stop to gaze, realize that you are standing on a thin skin of cooled lava in an unstable earthquake zone atop one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Marvel at hot lava fields, sulphur springs, and dramatic steam vents at the active Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes.
Bioluminescent Bays
Puerto Rico
In these bays—of which Puerto Rico has three of the five in the world—tiny organisms light up the water at night. Though bioluminescent dinoflagellates exist throughout the ocean, it’s rare for them to be concentrated enough to create the biological light show you’ll see in Puerto Rico’s bioluminescent bays.
By day, you’ll see what looks like any other body of still water; the only way to see bioluminescence is by taking a boat ride or paddling a kayak into the lagoon at night. For the best visibility, go when there’s a new moon.
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