National Parks: America's Best Idea Quiz

Answer: Crater Lake

Mt. Mazama's enormous caldera holds all of Crater Lake inside it. The mountain erupted in around 5,677 BC, reducing its height from about 12,000 feet to 7,000. It's estimated that the eruption was 42 times larger than the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980. The Klamath tribe, native to the area, recorded it as being a battle between their god of the underworld and their sky god.

Crater Lake is the ninth deepest lake in the world and the deepest in the USA. There are no streams or rivers that supply it with water- it comes solely from rainfall and snow.

Answer: Shenandoah

The road follows a ridge in the Blue Ridge Mountains that goes nearly all the way through the park. The best time to visit Shenandoah is in the fall, when the leaves are changing color. After the creation of the park in 1935, the families living on the land were asked to leave their homes, as it had become federal property.

Not surprisingly, many were upset and didn't want to leave their beautiful valley. The government let some of them stay after their property was acquired, until they died.

The last Shenandoah resident died in 1979, at the age of 92.

Answer: Petrified

Petrified Forest in Arizona offers some surreal examples of petrified wood. This happens when minerals become trapped in the wood for ages after being buried under volcanic ash and other sediment. The wood from this park is thought to be as old as the Triassic Period.

The lack of oxygen preserved the wood because it inhibited its decomposition. Water brought minerals like quartz and iron oxides and trapped them inside the plant cells, causing a stony mold to replace the organic decay. The fossils of Late Triassic ferns, gingkos, phytosaurs, and dinosaurs have also been found in the park.

Answer: Olympic

Olympic National Park has three distinct ecosystems. Ruby Beach is a favorite of the coastal one, while the Hoh Rainforest nestles at the heart of the temperate one. Sitka Spruces, Douglas Firs, and Western Hemlocks grow in abundance there. Hurricane Ridge is the star attraction of the sub-alpine interior, where many glaciated peaks can be viewed from.

Answer: Joshua Tree

This stunning desert landscape has many clusters of otherworldly trees and boulders. The park, which had actually been a monument when U2 named their album after it, is featured on the album cover. Part of the inspiration in using the park was the band's determination to find sounds that evoked feelings of being in the type of open country that their rock roots (blues and jazz) came from.

The atmospheric opener "Where the Streets Have No Name" surely delivered that sentiment.

Answer: Yosemite

Yosemite Valley is one of the most iconic images in the national park catalog. On one side is El Capitan, a giant 3,000 foot monolith, and a favorite of rock climbers. On the other side rises Half Dome, a rocky peak that appears to be cut in half, yet is only an illusion when viewed from certain angles. Horsetail Fall is a seasonal waterfall on the east side of El Capitan.

The falls will light up red at a certain time in February when the sun is setting.

Answer: Mammoth Cave

A common misconception about Mammoth Cave is that fossils of the extinct woolly mammoth were found here. However, it's only named after the large entrance to the cave. Modern discoveries of the true extent of the cave system have rendered its name even more appropriate.

Some attractions in the cave include Frozen Niagara, Gothic Avenue, and Cedar Sink. Frozen Niagara isn't a frozen waterfall, though it may look like one. It's actually a series of what are called flowstones: sheetlike deposits of calcites that formed where water fell along the walls of the cave.

Answer: hoodoos

A hoodoo is a column of weathered rock. Bryce Canyon has hundreds of them standing side-by-side. You can hike down into the "canyon", but it is a very steep decline. Bryce Canyon isn't actually a canyon- just a collection of natural amphitheaters along the side of a plateau.

Answer: Rio Grande

These dunes in Colorado are the largest in North America, and are still growing. Sand and sediment unearthed from the melting of glaciers that fed the Rio Grande were carried away by westerly winds. The winds ran into the Sangre de Cristo Range and weakened, building up the dunes we now see in their shadow. Be careful when hiking on the dunes- strong winds can blow the sand right in your face!

Answer: Mt. Rainier

Views of Mt. Rainier can be seen from almost every angle of the Wonderland Trail as it circles around the base of its glaciated summit. The trail is 93 miles long and fluctuates between about 2,300-6,700 feet. Only 200-250 experienced hikers are able to complete the full circle per year.

At 14,411 feet, Mt. Rainier is the highest mountain in the Cascades and falls just short of the highest mountains in the Rockies. On a list of most prominent summits, which measures a mountain's height relative to its surroundings, it even exceeds every mountain in the Rockies. In fact it exceeds every other mountain in the USA, with the exception of Denali in Alaska.