
Glacier Bay National Park
It’s ironic that one of the main attractions of Alaska is busily melting away, but it’s not all bad news from a photographer’s point of view. While most of the more than 100,000 glaciers at Glacier Bay in Alaska are retreating and thinning, they’re doing so in great photogenic style, and the Margerie and Johns Hopkins glaciers are advancing, thanks to heavy snowfalls on the Fairweather Range (Saint Elias Mountains). The glaciers can be seen in finer detail by taking a boat out to Bartlett Cove, where you might even get to see a bear or a moose swimming across the bay.
Grand Canyon National Park
This Grand Canyon is one of the world’s biggest protected environments. The canyon is 277 miles long, a mile deep and 18 miles wide, and its sides are a layer cake of geological periods. Yaki Point offers one of the best spots for looking right down into the maw of the beast and is served by shuttle bus. From here, you can see the aptly named Cremation Creek riverbed to the east and see the bizarre mesas and buttes to the north around Clear Creek. The South Kaibab Trail is popular with hikers; this is a 6-mile trail that descends into the canyon from Yaki Point.
Cumberland Island is Georgia’s slice of wild paradise. It’s the largest barrier island in the state and is home to almost 10,000 acres of untouched wilderness, including vast marshes and forests. The eastern edge of the island is buffeted by the Atlantic, and here rare Loggerhead Turtles nest. There are famous feral horses running around the island and there are plenty of alligators to photograph if you dare! Human beings are scarce on the Island, although there is a 19th century African Baptist Church and a historic inn. The area possesses a distinctly brooding atmosphere.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
In this magnificent and exciting park you can watch an island grow literally in front of you. The volcanic ash here is 70 million years old and it’s what the Hawaiian Islands are made of. Mauna Loa and Kilauea, two of the most active volcanoes on the planet, are located here. Mauna Loa is almost as high as Mount Everest, and Kilauea has been erupting on a regular basis since the early 1980s, so the photo opportunities are out of this world.
With Flights.com offering a flight search made easy for users these days, it’s simple to pack the kit and head off for some of the most beautiful scenery on earth. Stretch your zoom and wide-angle capabilities to their limits in America’s incomparable wide-open spaces.