Who is ready for summer? This photo from Glacier National Park is getting us excited for the warmer months right around the corner.

Photo: National Park Service

The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Refuge is located along the central coast of California, in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. Bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and farmland to the east, the refuge encompasses one of the largest coastal dune systems remaining in California.

The refuge was established to protect breeding habitat for the endangered California least tern and the threatened western snowy plover. The refuge also provides habitat for other endangered species, including the California tiger salamander (recently listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act), California red-legged frog, Morro blue butterfly, shoulder band dune snail, and 16 rare or endangered plant species.

Photo: USFWS/Shive 

Is it getting cold where you are? There is still plenty of warm weather down at the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuge Complex. The refuge is located in the lower Florida Keys and currently consists of approximately 9,200 acres of land that includes pine rockland forests, tropical hardwood hammocks, freshwater wetlands, salt marsh wetlands, and mangrove forests. These natural communities are critical habitat for hundreds of endemic and migratory species including 17 federally-listed species such as Key deer, lower Keys marsh rabbit, and silver rice rat.

Photo: Chad Anderson

Still stuffed from Thanksgiving? Why not work some of it off on our public lands? Most people live within driving distance of a National Park, Wildlife Refuge, or other public lands. Here’s a great shot from Arches National Park earlier this week. 

For more information on public lands near you, visit www.recreation.gov today.

Photo: National Park Service 

Before highways and railways, before pioneers, even before Columbus…..the land we know as the United States was truly a vast wilderness. To protect these last remaining areas, in 1984 Congress created the Paria Canyon - Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness. Paria Canyon’s outstanding scenery, desert wildlife, colorful history, and opportunities for primitive recreation will remain free from the influence of man and are protected in this condition for future generations. Its 112,500 acres beckon adventurers who yearn for solitude, scenic splendor, and the chance to explore one of the longest and deepest slot canyons in the world.

Vermilion Cliffs National Monument Manager Kevin Wright hikes Coyote Buttes South in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness area within the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona. 

Photo: Rachel Tueller, Bureau of Land Management

The popular overlook at Wild Goose Island in Glacier National Park has a different look this week with fresh snow on the trees and mountains. Fall has definitely arrived!

Photo: National Park Service 

With fall right around the corner, it will soon be great weather for hiking and backpacking in places like Zion National Park (pictured above) all across the country. To find great places near you, visit the new www.recreation.gov for all types of outdoor activities on our public lands.

Photo: National Park Service 

As part of President Obama’s initiative to fuel the economy and create jobs by promoting travel and tourism, the administration today announced a new design, improved navigation tools and expanded content for Recreation.Gov, the interagency website that guides visitors to 90,000 sites on federal lands such as national parks, wildlife refuges, waterways, forests and recreation areas.

The redesign of www.recreation.gov is an initial step in a multi-year strategy to engage visitors with enhanced interactive content and more multimedia, mobile, trip-planning tools. The seven million visitors who use the web site every year will be able to make reservations, see ready-made itineraries for destination cities, and search for activities on an interactive map.

We put together this short video to show all the amazing places you can visit through www.recreation.gov. 

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia includes more than 14,000 acres of beach, dunes, marsh, and maritime forest. Within a workday’s access to millions of people, Chincoteague Refuge is one of the most visited refuges in the United States, providing visitors with outstanding opportunities to learn about and enjoy wildlands and wildlife.

Photo: USFWS 

It’s wonderland. Old Faithful and the majority of the world’s geysers are preserved here. They are the main reason that Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872 as America’s first national park—an idea that spread worldwide. A mountain wildland, home to grizzly bears, wolves, and herds of bison and elk, the park is the core of one of the last, nearly intact, natural ecosystems in the Earth’s temperate zone.

Photo: National Park Service