A Salute to America's National Parks
Zimmermann still shoots film, on a large-format camera, an approach that requires meticulous planning, lengthy contemplation, and often return visits. Each of these photos is the end result of a complex process. At Yellowstone, the photographer’s approach resulted in a brush with the authorities, who mistook his large-format camera for a camcorder, for which he didn’t have a permit. (Ironically, only a month later, the Park Service created a full-time staff position for a large-format photographer to work in the tradition of Ansel Adams.) Soon enough, Zimmermann cleared everything up and continued on his journey. “I was happy as a child in every park I visited,” he said, “and as far as I was concerned, the trip could have gone on forever.” The pictures he took along the way will remind you why our national parks are the envy of the world.
For more stories celebrating the centennial of the national parks, head here.»
Arches National Park
Visitors contemplate the North Window, one of the best known of the red-rock formations in Arches National Park, in eastern Utah. Lying beyond it along the Windows Trail is Turret Arch.
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Congaree National Park
Congaree National Park, in the floodplain of South Carolina, contains the largest remaining tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the United States.
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Grand Canyon National Park
Many visitors get their first glimpse of the Grand Canyon from this vantage at Mather Point, on the more heavily traveled South Rim.
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Petrified Forest National Park
In Petrified Forest National Park, in eastern Arizona, the Blue Mesa Trail winds its way past hills of bentonite clay and petrified-wood deposits that are millions of years old.
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Yellowstone National Park
As superheated water rises through limestone, it dissolves the soft rock, leaving white, chalky deposits behind. As a result, Mammoth’s terraces are constantly evolving in shape and color.
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Arches National Park
One of Arches' most famous features is the Fiery Furnace, a natural labyrinth of narrow passages running between high sandstone walls.
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Congaree National Park
About 10 times a year, rising waters from the Congaree River spread through the forest, carrying nutrients that nourish this ecosystem.
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Grand Canyon National Park
This view, atop the Desert View Watchtower, is from the highest observation pointon the South Rim. Designed by Mary Colter, one of America's first prominent female architects, it lets visitors take in the Big Bend of the Colorado River, the North Rim, and the Painted Desert in the distance.
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Petrified Forest National Park
Petrified Forest National Park lies entirely within the multihued badlands known as the Painted Desert, which gets its signature colors from the dense mineral deposits in its strata of mudstone and sandstone.
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Yellowstone National Park
The travertine terraces of Yellowstone’s Mammoth Hot Springs are one of the many surface manifestations of the volcanic forces at work deep below the park.
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Arches National Park
The unofficial state symbol of Utah, Delicate Arch is probably the most recognizable of all the park’s many natural bridges. In 2002, the Olympic torch passed through it on its way to the Games in Salt Lake City.
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Blue Mesa Trail, Petrified Forest, National Park, Arizona