Images

This image from a viewpoint at Dead Horse State Park in Utah shows horizontal Mesozoic sedimentary rocks characteristic of the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado River can be seen from this vantage point and this state park is located between Canyonlands National Park to the southwest and Arches National Park to the northeast.

Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Utah. https://www.usgs.gov/nationalparks Photo by Annie Scott, USGS

Observations and measurements may now be made by attaching imaging and LIDAR sensors to unmanned aerial vehicles; pictured is a drone being used by the modern-day expedition to document their journey

USGS personnel are taking part in this year’s modern expedition that follows Powell’s 1869 journey; they are using 18-foot, inflatable, self-bailing rafts with rigging.

Photo of the scree sign with sponsors, U of Wyoming and USGS.

The Powell 150 expedition prepares to launch from Green River, Wyoming, on May 24, 2019. A John Wesley Powell impersonator poses with the group to send them off on their ~1000 mile journey.

Grand Canyon National Park from Powell Point on the South Rim. Photo taken during a ceremony commemorating the 150th anniversary of the John Wesley Powell expedition. 

In 1938, after a brush fire, a rancher found remnants of the Nellie Powell, a boat from Powell’s second expedition in 1871, which had been left at Lees Ferry.  Grand Canyon National Park now stores this piece in its collections. (Annie Scott/USGS)

The Edith (left), in Grand Canyon National Park’s historic river boat collection, is an example of a wooden river boat, though it was made from several decades after Powell’s expedition.  Brothers Emery and Ellsworth Kolb paddled it down the Colorado River in 1911-12.

Visitors on the trail, Mt. St. Helens in the background

USGS Cooperative Summer Fellowship Program intern Kacey Garber conducting research in 2017

Some of the walkways in Mammoth Cave have been made accessible to wheelchairs. The park opened accessible tours in 2016.

2004 Chevak banding crew with four goose species. From left to right: Black Brandt, Emperor Goose, White-fronted Goose, and Cackling Goose.

Photo of Rocky Mountain National Park - fall trees in the foreground, mountains in the background.

A spring in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas. The gray rock is tufa - a sedimentary rock that precipitates out of mineral-rich springs. 

High elevation tundra in Rocky Mountain National Park.

View of Mt. St. Helens at sunset, taken sometime after the crater forming eruption in 1980.

Cliffs along north rim of the caldera rise about 1,000 feet above the lake surface (elevation 6,173 feet). Wizard Island is visible from this vantagepoint. The deep blue color of the lake is a reflection of the clear sky above and the great depth of the water (not from any mineral content in the water!).

Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park is located in Kona District on the Big Island of Hawai'i. 

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is found along Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Indiana Dunes National Park is the country's 61st National Park. Based in northwestern Indiana, the National Park lines Lake Michigan and offers more than 15,000 acres for visitors to enjoy and explore.