It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for in DC: Peak bloom for the cherry blossoms has arrived at the Tidal Basin, and it is gorgeous! Photo courtesy of Buddy Secor. 🌸

Happy first day of spring! What better way to celebrate than with this serenely beautiful pic of spring wildflowers 🌼 at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. As the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, spring is the perfect time to get outdoors and explore America’s public lands! Photo by Jon LeVasseur (www.sharetheexperience.org).

Less than 100 miles north of California’s Bay Area, Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument sweeps down from the Snow Mountain Wilderness to the cool blue waters of Lake Berryessa. Established in July of last year, this secluded, hilly expanse of oak woodlands, grasslands and flowery meadows is a gorgeous and peaceful place for all kinds of outdoor recreation. Photo by Jim Eaton, @mypubliclands.

Spring is arriving with warmer days and soon-to-be gorgeous views like this sun-splayed shot taken from Shenandoah National Park’s Timber Hollow Overlook in Virginia. If you want to see more stunning sunsets, rolling hills and colorful wildflowers, stop by one of Skyline Drive’s many overlooks or explore the park’s over 500 miles of trails. Photo by National Park Service.

Happy 167th birthday to us! The Interior Department was created on March 3, 1849, to take care of our nation’s internal affairs. Today, Interior is responsible for conserving America’s treasured natural resources and public lands, like Glacier National Park in Montana, pictured here on a spring day. Photo by Greg Chancey (www.sharetheexperience.org).

Spring at Yosemite National Park in California is breathtakingly beautiful. iPhone photo of El Capitan from earlier this week courtesy of Steven Bumgardner.

Your daily dose of cute: A bear cub hanging out in a tree at Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina and Tennessee). Black bears give birth during hibernation, and the female bears and their cubs usually emerge from their winter dens in late March and early April. Photo by Matt & Delia Hills (www.sharetheexperience.org).

mypubliclands:

It might be time to plan your trip to Stevens Trail on the North Fork of the American Wild and Scenic River.

The wildflowers were peaking this weekend and lots of people were out. It’s hard to believe that such a wild place is less than an hour from Sacramento. 

- BLMer and photographer Bob Wick   

Stevens Trail is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The trail is a popular year-round hiking trail in the lower elevations of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Historically, the trail connected the town of Iowa Hill with the city of Colfax, both in Placer County, California. The current trail extends 4.5 miles along the northwestern slope of the North Fork of the American River Canyon.  

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is gorgeous in the spring! Located in south Arizona, Organ Pipe Cactus protects 516 square miles of Sonoran Desert. In the spring, the park’s landscape is carpeted in wildflowers – like yellow poppies, blue lupine and magenta common owl’s clover. Photo courtesy of Ed Cooper.

Happy first day of spring! Now is the perfect time to start planning a visit to America’s gorgeous public lands. Pictured here is a meadow of wildflowers at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington at sunset. Photo by Danny Seidman (www.sharetheexperience.org).