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The United States invented the national park. In 1872 Congress set aside Yellowstone “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people”, and the idea has since spread to almost every country in the world. Today the country has more than 60 national parks, from the deserts of Utah to the rain forests of Washington and the volcanoes of Hawaii. Here are sixteen of the most beautiful, what makes each of them special, and puzzles from every one.<\/p>\n
Yosemite was the first wild landscape protected by the US government, when Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant in 1864, but it was handed to the state of California. Yellowstone, eight years later, became the first true national park. For decades each park was looked after separately, often by the army, until the National Park Service was founded in 1916 to care for them all. Writers and naturalists such as John Muir helped convince the public that these places should belong to everyone.<\/p>\n
The world’s first national park sits on top of a huge volcanic hot spot. It holds about half of all the geysers on Earth, including Old Faithful, along with boiling springs, mud pots and the brightly coloured Grand Prismatic Spring. Bison, elk, wolves and grizzly bears roam its high plateaus.<\/p>\n