Our national parks: America's spectacular wilderness heritage

by Reader's Digest Association

Our national parks are the best of America the beautiful, and this book showsthem at their finest. Richly illustrated, with full-color photos from finest photographers, Our National Parks discusses the wildlife and geology of each park, plus ecological and environmental concerns, Indian heritage and frontier history particular to each. 350 color photos.

Genres: Travel, Nature, Reference, Nonfiction, History

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. is a global media and direct marketing company based in Chappaqua, New York, best known for its flagship publication founded in 1922, Reader's Digest. The company's headquarters are in New York City, where it moved from Pleasantville, New York.

The company was founded by DeWitt and Lila Wallace in 1922 with the first publication of Reader's Digest magazine, but has grown to include a diverse range of magazines, books, music, DVDs and online content.

Reviews

[Pramod Nair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our National Parks is a beautifully illustrated book with a large collection of splendid and breathtaking photographs. This guidebook to America's spectacular Natural wonders provide quality information with great text and detailed maps for all those who wish to visit these parks. Since it was printed during the 80s some of the information maybe a bit outdated, still this is a wonderful book to read as it will take the reader for a magical journey through some of the most picturesquely beautiful places.

The National Parks are listed alphabetically for easy access. The detailed article "The story of our National Parks" that was given at the beginning of the book gives the reader an introduction on the history of the conservation of natural wonders by law and the formation of park lands.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it's outdated, it's still full of detailed information about each park, including history, wildlife, fossils, maps, and more.

[John Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bit of a lightweight book on the national parks. Photos are meh, descriptions are basic, and histories are abridged. It's just a primer and not a great one.

[Lafcadio · Rating 5 out of 5]

As if I didn't already want to visit every national park... The alphabetical descriptions of these parks combines earth and life science with prose that calls the reader to the park like a siren:

"Standing atop a high point in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, you survey an arid land of purple shadows and gray-brown rock. Southwestward into Texas rise the Guadalupe Mountains, and your eye follows the line of the ancient seacoast that gave them birth. In steep-walled canyons, carved long ago by rushing water, deep rock layers are laid bare, a few so sharply tilted that you can almost feel the force of these mountains' upheaval. Northward, and all around, is the high New Mexico desert, a harsh landscape of mesquite and scrub, elivened by agaves and abundantly varied cacti. Rock wrens flit through the low brush and into crevices; vultures, hawks, even golden eagles, glide and soar.

"With the hot sun on your back, it is hard to realize you are standing over a deep, cool wonderland of stone, where the temperature never varies from 56°F, where the only light is man-made, where growth and change are measured in millimeters per century, where magnificently ornamented cliffs and canyons filled with surreal sculpture dwarf the outside landscape. It is harder still to see a correlation between the lively beauty around you and the eerily silent, lifeless beauty far beneath your feet. Yet the changing nature of the aboveground world is responsible for the drama way below."

[Dree]

Read earlier edition (read 1986)