Follow this link to see some of the most stunning images of national parks. Keep zooming in to see amazing geographic features, bizarre animals, and fascinating rock formations. The fun goes on for hundreds of pictures. The pictures were submitted by normal people who shared their photography with national geographic. I have literally been playing with this for the last two hours.
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/infinite-photo/
Just an example of one of the amazing images from this website.
Fascinating stuff. I’m thrilled that there is a space for people to submit their photographs. I most appreciated the Facebook “like” button, which allows those who enjoy the National Park pictures to share them with their friends. I also did some investigating on Twitter and found that most national parks have accounts that staff members use to engage visitors. The Yosemite Twitter account seemed to engage the public the most, as it responded to questions about weather, park rules and even thanked people for sending pictures of the park. While many use people flee to nature to escape the day-to-day grind, some still prefer to stay connected through technology. Nothing wrong with that.
This is a great way to converge interest in natural landscapes/the national park system with social networking! Websites like Facebook and Flickr do a great job of creating an engaging interface by which to view photos of interest. It’s also good to see that national parks are following the online interactive website trends that are popular in American culture right now.
During the presentations of Arches National Park and Shenandoah National Park (among others), the main issue surrounding those parks had been perpetuated in part by the sheer volume of people who traverse about the parks daily, stepping on organisms or upending soil. It was noted in class that it is difficult to solve this kind of problem, as it is beneficial that people are so interested in taking in natural wonders. This is a great way to allow people to visit the parks without having to fly in or disrupt the natural setting. Great share.
This website is a perfect example of the diversity and epicness of the entire national park system in the United States. If this imagery can’t make someone want to take a vacation to the Grand Canyon or Zion National park I don’t know what will. There is just such a multitude of images, it almost seems endless. I actually found it really interesting to click on the tab for the Top 10 Underappreciated Parks. You always here about places such as the Everglades and Glacier National Park, but some are just as great that don’t get as much attention. Apparently the Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska is the largest National Park in the country and also has 9 of the highest 16 mountains as well. There is a boreal forest as well as an old copper mine. It seems like a very diverse park and really has a lot to offer even though it may be labeled as “underappreciated” by National Geographic.