Exploring the beauty and diversity of UNESCO Natural World Heritage Sites.
Introduction Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, located on the Big Island of Hawaii, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that offers a unique glimpse into the Earth’s geological and ecological wonders. Spanning 135,000 hectares, the park is home to two of…
Yosemite National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada is famed worldwide for its majestic granite cliffs, giant sequoias, and thundering waterfalls. This UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 1984) spans over 300,000 hectares (roughly 1,200 sq mi) of wilderness. Glacial rivers like…
La Fortaleza (“The Fortress”), the blue governor’s palace in Old San Juan, is part of a UNESCO World Heritage fort complex that has guarded Puerto Rico for centuries. La Fortaleza and the San Juan National Historic Site (including El Morro…
Nestled on the Tennessee–North Carolina border, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is celebrated worldwide as a temperate-rainforest treasure. The U.S. National Park Service calls it “world-renowned for its diversity of plant and animal life” and notes it is “America’s most…
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Illinois preserves the remains of an ancient Native American city that thrived from about AD 700–1350. Recognized globally, Cahokia was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 for its outstanding archaeological value. Today…
Introduction and UNESCO Significance Nestled on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, Olympic National Park is a vast wilderness brimming with natural beauty. Spanning nearly one million acres, the park encompasses rugged Pacific coastlines, ancient old-growth rainforests, scenic lakes, and snow-capped mountain ranges.…
Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky is home to the world’s longest known cave system. Over 426 miles of passageways have been surveyed, and the park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (designated 1981). Its deep limestone chambers and formations…
Redwood National and State Parks in Northern California protect a truly awe-inspiring natural heritage. Renowned for the world’s tallest trees, these parks preserve towering ancient redwoods alongside prairies, rivers, and rugged coastline. This UNESCO World Heritage site spans ~139,000 acres…
Overview: Spanning the Alaska–Yukon border, this UNESCO World Heritage site encompasses Kluane National Park & Reserve (Yukon, Canada), Wrangell–St. Elias National Park & Preserve (Alaska, USA), Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve (Alaska, USA) and Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park (British Columbia,…
The Grand Canyon in Arizona is one of the world’s most spectacular natural wonders, a 1.5-kilometer (0.9 mile) deep chasm carved by the Colorado River over millennia. Its vast canyon, stretching about 277 miles (446 km) long, displays layers of…
