"Raw, rugged, and surf-splashed" well define Acadia National Park, which at anchor in the Atlantic just off Maine's coast quite easily could also be described as a Yankee blueblood of the National Park System.

Arches National Park in Utah is one of the world's, not just one of the United States', most incredible national parks. When you gaze at Balanced Rock, climb up into the Windows, or walk under Delicate Arch, it's hard to argue against that claim. The park's "rock-itecture" -- windows cut from stone, spindly arches longer than a football field, thin fins of rock -- and desertscape are otherworldly.

Badlands National Park in South Dakota is a land of extremes, from fantastic rock formations created by wind and water, to a vast “ocean” of mixed-grass prairie. The park is home to a variety of wildlife, both present and past – some 33 million years or more past. You can see most of the park on a 2-hour drive, but you really should stick around a little longer.

There’s something for everyone at Big Bend National Park in far West Texas: mountains, desert, blooming cactus, geology, paleontology, plenty of trails, and wildlife, all beneath a sky perfect for stargazing,far from any city light pollution.

Freshwater to saltwater, swamps to estuaries, tropical to temperate, Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida preserves and protects five different habitats, 360 animal species, 851 species of vascular plants, and a colorful history of people and places, all within the 729,000 acres (295,016 hectares) of land neighboring the more well-known Everglades National Park.

Uplift, volcanism, water, erosion, and time have all played their parts to create what the National Park Service calls “some of the steepest cliffs, oldest rock, and craggiest spires in North America.” Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado will introduce you to one of the best examples in the world of exposed 1.8 billion-year-old metamorphic basement rock.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a globally recognized icon of the American landscape.

Stretches of road elsewhere in the United States may indeed be spectacular, but nothing matches this manicured, uniquely uncommercialized, half a thousand mile thoroughfare through the lofty heart of America’s first frontier.

Southern Utah's national parks all are red-rock wonders.

Zion National Park features towering cliffs of stone. Arches National Park showcases a one-of-its-kind collection of stony arches and windows. Canyonlands National Park is a maze of canyons, and Capitol Reef National Park offers a sprawling rockscape.

A literal and spiritual sandstone cathedral, Canyon de Chelly is one of the more unique national monuments in the United States. While it was added to the National Park System in 1931 by President Herbert Hoover, the agreement left most of the landscape as the property of the Navajo Nation. To this day, the monument is managed through a partnership between the National Park Service and the Navajo Nation, and it serves to sustain the living Navajo community.

Baked by time like some multi-layer geologic tort, Canyonlands in southeastern Utah features a landscape cut by canyons, rumpled by upthrusts, dimpled by grabens, and even pockmarked, some believe, by ancient asteroids.