Start your spring outdoor adventure with a sunrise at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. With waterfalls, wildlife, history, hiking trails and amazing views along the famous Skyline Drive, the park is a feast for your eyes and spirit, and will keep you coming back for more. Photo from Thornton Hollow Overlook by N. Lewis, National Park Service.
Is it just us or does it look like these sunrise clouds are getting ready to fight? The forces of nature are powerful indeed, and the rugged landscape of City of Rocks National Reserve in Idaho is testament to more than two billion years of geologic upheaval. Faults stretch, mountains rise, ranges extend and wind and rain scour and smooth everything. The park’s unusual rock formations tell these ancient stories, leaving room for future tales under the ever-changing sky. Photo by National Park Service.
March 27, 1912: The First Japanese Cherry Blossom Trees Are Planted in the U.S.
On this day in 1912, the first two Japanese cherry blossom trees were successfully planted by First Lady Helen Taft and Viscountess Chinda on the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. Japanese Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo gave the U.S. over 3,000 trees to demonstrate the growing relationship between the U.S. and Japan.
Every spring, Washington D.C. commemorates the initial planting through the National Cherry Blossom Festival. This year, the peak bloom is forecast for April 8-12.
As you wait for this year’s blooming period, treat yourself to this delicious spring recipe, a Raspberry, Pistachio, and Vanilla Semifreddo from PBS Food.
Image: Cherry blossoms in Washington D.C. 2013
It’s such a beautiful sight when the Cherry blossoms bloom. Have any followers been to the Cherry blossom festival?
For many public lands, one visit is never enough. Photographer Dawn Demaske made several summer trips to Badlands National Park in South Dakota, but hadn’t seen a winter sunrise until recently. Setting up near the park’s signature rock formations, Dawn watched the sky lighten. “The sunrise was spectacular and it was everything I wished it would be. I felt very fortunate to be there at that moment and I took it all in.” Photo courtesy of Dawn Demaske.
Let’s start off the week with a beautiful sunrise from Acadia National Park in Maine. At 1,530 feet, Cadillac Mountain is not only the tallest mountain in the park, it is also the tallest mountain along the eastern coast of the United States. That means for half the year, this is the first place in the Continental U.S. to see the sunrise each day. That fact, along with its rugged beauty, make Cadillac Mountain a very popular destination. During the busy months, parking lots can fill up, so if you want to see this impressive sight, please plan ahead. Photo by Kristopher Schoenleber (www.sharetheexperience.org).
The cherry blossoms in Washington D.C. reached their peak bloom Wednesday, March 23 and it could last up to ten days! An estimated 1.5 million people will attend the 104th annual National Cherry Blossom Festival.
Any of our followers travel to DC for this?
Top Shot features the photo with the most votes from the previous day’s Daily Dozen, 12 photos selected by the Your Shot editors. The photo our community has voted as their favorite is showcased on the @natgeoyourshot Instagram account. Click here to vote for tomorrow’s Top Shot.
Your Shot photographer F. Dilek Uyar captured this moment in Kayseri, Turkey. “This place lays down in the piedmont of the imposing Mount Erciyes and actually called as a heaven for birds,” she writes. “It ıs not only heaven for birds but also for one who wants to have a break from stressful daily life. You can find peace in the twitter of the birds and even feel the freedom of the wind by riding horse.” Photograph by F. Dilek Uyar
Sunrise over Badlands National Park in South Dakota reveals a landscape of grassy prairies and rugged rock formations. The rock layers testify to tens of millions of years of deposition – when tiny grains of sediments such as sand, silt and clay are cemented together into rock. Different environments – sea, tropical land and open woodland with meandering rivers – caused different sediments to accumulate here at different times. About half a million years ago, the process reversed itself and now water and wind erode the rocks, leaving behind this jagged silhouette and its embedded fossil treasures. Photo by National Park Service.
