From Orbit: National Parks Seen From the Space Station and the Ground

NASA astronauts on the space station have photographed national parks from orbit, and the National Park Service set each view beside a ground-level photograph of the same place. The stops follow the station's journey west to east, starting in Alaska, with coordinates for each. The Park Service thanked NASA for taking pictures of them.

Alaska: ice, fire and the tallest peak

Katmai National Park and Preserve is a land of fire and ice, and from above its icy volcanic ridges leave a distinct pattern on the surface of the Earth. In Denali National Park and Preserve, Mount McKinley rises 20,310 feet, the tallest peak in North America, and towers over everything around it whether you look up at it or down on it.

Katmai: left, from the space station (NASA, Jeff Williams); right, Mount Katmai in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (NPS).

Denali: left, from the space station (NASA, Charles Anderson); right, Mount McKinley in autumn (NPS, Tim Rains).

The West: from volcano to salt flat

Mount Rainier is an active volcano, the most glaciated peak in the contiguous United States, standing 14,410 feet over its neighbors. Yosemite's High Sierra wilderness has drawn people for thousands of years with its waterfalls, meadows, valleys and giant sequoias. And Death Valley's Badwater Basin, 283 feet below sea level, is the hottest, driest, lowest place in North America.

Yosemite: left, from space (NASA, Jeff Williams); right, sunset over Upper Lyell Canyon (NPS).

Death Valley: left, from space (NASA, Jeff Williams); right, Badwater Basin after a storm (NPS).

The Southwest and the Rockies

The Grand Canyon is hard to miss from either side: its river runs 277 miles, the canyon reaches up to 18 miles wide and is a mile deep. In White Sands National Monument, the white dunes of the Tularosa Basin cover 275 square miles of desert and form the world's largest gypsum dunefield. Yellowstone forms the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, 34,375 square miles of forests, lakes and hydrothermal features that include about half of the world's active geysers.

Grand Canyon: left, from space (NASA); right, Desert View after a storm (NPS).

White Sands: left, from space (NASA); right, a blooming soaptree yucca on the dunes (NPS).

Plains, swamp and shore

The Badlands break a stretch of gentle prairie with spires and deep canyons that have surprised explorers and travelers. The Everglades, on Florida's southern peninsula, are the nation's largest subtropical wilderness. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal park stretches 184.5 miles along the Potomac River. Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor often flies a replica of the famous 30- by 42-foot star-spangled banner, and Acadia has the highest rocky headlands along the Atlantic coast.

Everglades: left, from space (NASA, Jeff Williams); right, mangroves in a river of grass (NPS, G. Gardner).

Fort McHenry: left, from space (NASA, Jeff Williams); right, the flag over the fort (NPS).

One more from the preserve list

The set closes with Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico. About 1.25 million years ago a volcanic eruption created the 13-mile wide circular depression now called Valles Caldera. The preserve is known for large mountain meadows, abundant wildlife and meandering streams, and it also protects the homeland of ancestral native peoples and a rich ranching history.

Where each park sits

Sources

• National Park Service, PARKS...IN...SPAAAACE!!!, with pictures from NASA astronauts and NPS photographers; rewritten in hubnx's own words.