Happy 86th anniversary to Joshua Tree National Park, which was designated as a National Monument on this day by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on this day in 1936. Joshua Tree National Park really did a number on me. I’ve fallen in love with other parks upon my first visit before like Bryce, or Yellowstone, or Smoky, but Joshua Tree is so weird and surreal and captivating in a whole new way.

Joshua Tree feels like an alien world. It's not the same alien beauty of Yellowstone, which has its "traditional" wilderness beauty augmented by the bizarre sights of steam and colorful springs, where the ethereal motion of steam and water add a kinetic layer to the land. Joshua Tree isn’t the same as the alien beauty of Bryce, whose weird hoodoo shapes and forms become charming and enchanting as you make your way around or into the amphitheater. Instead, Joshua Tree’s essential strangeness comes in the downright stark and bleak beauty of sun-bleached rocks providing a backdrop to artfully the twisted and convoluted outlines of beautiful trees, each one with its own personality and a story to tell. Joshua Tree is a Dali painting come to life in stone and flora and fauna.

It's. Just. So. Different.

- In Joshua Tree, California, you are on Newe (Western Shoshone) and Yuhaviatam/Maarenga’yam (Serrano) land. #FindYourPark

📷- @sonyalpha #sonyalpha #sonyalpha7riv, #shotwithhoya’s polarizer on a 70-300mm. ISO 100, f11, 1/125

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#joshuatree #joshuatreenationalpark #mojavedesert #mojave #joshuatrees #california #cali #californiaadventure #californiaphotographer #californialove #californialiving #caliexplored #FindYourPark @usinterior @nationalparkservice #usinterior : : #nationalparkgeek @nationalparkgeek @national_park_photographer @bestoftheusa_nationalparks #seekmorewilderness #national_park_photography #nationalpark #iflnps #travel #travelwithmoon #nationalparkservice #bealpha #longexposure_shots #yes_busa #jotrphoto2022

Today is the 137th anniversary of the dedication and unveiling of The Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable symbols of American culture. She is, of course, a personification of the Libertas, the Roman Goddess of liberty and freedom and all the usual patriotic themes that are the hallmarks of an American worldview. That being said, her symbolism and her deeper meanings as a symbol of inclusion and immigration are what truly undergird her as a hallmark of American culture.

Fatefully, she is an immigrant herself- conceived and built in France and given to America as a gift, her creator, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi deemed her as tacit sign that enlightenment and liberty had a home in America. Additionally- she was built next to Ellis Island: the gateway to America for scores of European immigrants pouring into the country during the turn of the last century. Liberty soon became a sign of welcome, a symbol for the oppressed, and a wide marker of acceptance for all into the greater American culture. Therefore, she is a perfect symbol of American culture at its best- one of immigrants, acceptance, and freedom.

- This is a composite shot of Independence Day fireworks, merged with a shot of The Statue of Liberty to simulate what a ‘true to eye’ firework experience is at the Statue of Liberty, when the shells are launched around Manhattan. The fireworks are shot on on a 70-300mm lens at ISO 500, f12, 5 second exposures merged with a single shot of the statue at 1/100, f22.

- In New York City, you are on Munsee Lenape land.

#Statueofliberty #findyourpark #statueoflibertynationalmonument #ellisisland #ellisislandmuseum #newyork #thestatueofliberty #nyc #nyphotographer #newyorkinstagram #ignyc #FindYourPark @usinterior @nationalparkservice #usinterior #experienceyouramerica : : #nationalparkgeek @nationalparkgeek @national_park_photographer #bestoftheusa_nationalparks @bestoftheusa_nationalparks #bestofthe_usa #national_park_photography #nationalpark #iflnps #travel #travelwithmoon #nationalparkservice #longexposure_shots #yes_busa

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"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

#onthisday in 1919, 104 years ago, Grand Canyon National Park was established. Although it had previously been a National Monument, and even in spite of its sublime beauty and scale, conservationists fought an uphill battle to safeguard this iconic segment of the American landscape. Locals wanted Arizona to manage the land. They wanted to mine it. They wanted to make it a tourist trap, akin to Niagara Falls. These myopic instances have always amused me but they really reveal the necessity of the National Park Service and the function of a National Park; to save the best of our land, the best of our history for ourselves and sometimes, from ourselves. Today, The Grand Canyon is the second-most visited National Park next to Great Smoky Mountains and perhaps one of the most emblematic of the National Park endeavor.

To me? The Grand Canyon (and Petrified Forest) were my first National Parks outside of Florida. As a small child, my parents took me up and down the East Coast of the US to see all the historical NPS units, but at the ripe old age of 10, they took me to Arizona for my first taste of western wilderness. I often say that my life was never the same after visiting certain National Parks, and The Grand Canyon is one of those parks. Seeing the deepest canyon on earth and marveling at rock that was 1.8 billion years old fundamentally changed my outlook on nature. And, the rest, of course, is history.

- In @grandcanyonnps, you are on Havasupai, Hopi, Pueblos, and Southern Paiute land. #FindYourPark

- @sonyalpha #sonyalpha #sonyalpha7riv, #shotwithhoya’s polarizer on a 70-300mm. ISO 100, f14, 1/60

#grandcanyon #thegrandcanyon #grandcanyonnationalpark #grandcanyonnps #arizona #arizonaphotographer #visitarizona #grandcanyonsouthrim #matherpoint #FindYourPark @usinterior @nationalparkservice #usinterior #experienceyouramerica : : #nationalparkgeek @nationalparkgeek @national_park_photographer #bestoftheusa_nationalparks @bestoftheusa_nationalparks #seekmorewilderness #bestoftheusa_nature #bestofthe_usa #national_park_photography #nationalpark #iflnps #nationalparkservice #longexposure_shots #yes_busa

Here’s to a bright end to the week.

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The color palette in Yosemite Valley as the sun sets on a summer day is soulful- bright yellow light fills the space and turns the normally cool and grey soaring walls into temple walls. The shadows deepen into blues and the bright greens of the trees sink back into dark half tones.

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️ - In @yosemitenps, you are on Western Sierra and Miwok land. #FindYourPark

- shot on a #sonya7riv, with a 50 mm lens. Edited in #Lightroom. Full version on @Flickr. #flickrfeature

📍 - #yosemite #yosemitenationalpark @yosemiteconservancy

- #landscape

- #usinterior #nationalparkgeek #flickr

#Yosemite #FindYourPark #yosemitenationalpark #yosemitevalley #anseladams #halfdome #elcapitan #california #californiaphotographer #visitcalifornia #californialiving #FindYourPark @usinterior #experienceyouramerica : : #nationalparkgeek @nationalparkgeek @national_park_photographer #seekmorewilderness #bestoftheusa_nature #bestofthe_usa #national_park_photography #nationalpark #iflnps #travel #travelwithmoon #nationalparkservice #bealpha

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“Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space. I know of no sculpture, painting or music that exceeds the compelling spiritual command of the soaring shape of granite cliff and dome, of patina of light on rock and forest, and of the thunder and whispering of the falling, flowing waters. At first the colossal aspect may dominate; then we perceive and respond to the delicate and persuasive complex of nature.” - Ansel Adams