Site No. 354ref
Waterton Glacier International Peace Park

This park extends across two countries, Canada (Alberta) and the United States (Montana). After crossing the border from Canada, we realized, that the part in the US is much larger and has a lot of hiking and camping possibilities. We came through in October, so it was not very crowded, maybe in summer there are a lot more people.

Unfortunately the "Going to the sun" road was closed in the middle, but the outstanding scenery in the part we could travel was great! Well worth a visit.

Site No. 28
Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park features 50% of all the world's known geothermal features, and has more than 10,000 examples. Nowhere else you can find so many geysers - 2/3 of all on earth.

So what else is there to write or comment? Yellowstone really is one of the must´s to see. Also the bisons´s, elk, coyotes and grizzly´s are a reason. Perhaps it is a good idea to choose a quieter time of the year, otherwise you will be one in a thousand.

Site No. 27
Mesa Verde National Park

For us it was a great experience to walk into these ruins from ancestral Pueblo Indian dwellings. They were built from the 6th to the 12th century and proofed their well developed craftsmanship.

When you are somewhere in the area, you have to go there. As we found out later, it really is one of the best examples for a cliff dwelling (and we visited many).

Site No. 353rev
Chaco Culture National Historic Park

Chaco is quite far away from the "ordinary" tourist route, and the road to get there was in a miserable condition. Therefore we gave a bad rating for accessibility.

The Canyon was occupied by Pueblo Indians for more than 2.000 years, where the archaeologists guess it to have been a ceremonial centre. Remarkable for its buildings and their direction to sun and moon solstices it surely has a good reputation to be a world heritage site. It was interesting to realize, how big the whole complex was.

We visited in October - it might get busier during the summer...

Site No. 492rev
Pueblo de Taos

Well, Taos is a different story. When you are visiting world heritage sites, you normally walk or hike in ancient buildings or natural wonders. But the Pueblo de Taos is an old pueblo, which still is inhabited by the Indians today.

We did not feel comfortable with the situation, that we would have a look into someone´s home, walking through a "private" backyard, taking pictures of the inhabitants. We think, you should have a lot of time to really learn something about the culture, making just a glimpse as a visitor is not adequate.

Therefore we decided, not to go into the pueblo, but visited beautiful Taos town and several exhibits in Santa Fe and Albuquerque to learn a little bit about the Indian culture.

Site No. 75
Grand Canyon
National Park

Everybody has to visit the Grand Canyon. The result is a very crowded park, where even in November you are among thousands of people and their cameras.

The depth and endlessness were impressive, but the real "feeling" of 2 billion years in earth history was better in other parts of Arizona and Utah. When you are there, you should visit the tower at Desert view!

Site No. 72ter
Kluane / Wrangell-St Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini - Alsek National Parks

Site No. 721
Carlsbad Caverns
National Park

Carlsbad near the southern border of the US, close to Mexico is quite off the beaten track, therefore you should think about the distance to travel.

Once you are there, expect several really huge caves, which are really interesting for someone who has never seen the different mineral formations our mother earth has to offer. The range in colours is much bigger than the diversity in formations. Worth a visit for all cave-enthusiasts!

Site No. 134
Redwood National Park

The difference between Sequoia and Redwood is easy: The first one is the largest in diameter and the second one grows the tallest living trees on Earth. When visiting there, you will find those trees and a really wonderful landscape.

Nearly 40 miles of coastline add to the experience of an jungle near the sea, where mankind did not destroy everything (like in the areas around).

Site No. 151
Olympic National Park

One of the few temperate rain forests in the world can be found in this park, but we could not really find the justification for a world heritage site.

If you like to go hiking in a beautiful landscape through really dense forest then it is something for you.

Site No. 308
Yosemite National Park

Yosemite is inscribed because of the great variety in granite relief, valleys, lakes and domes carved by glaciation. Because the different elevations cover a range between 600-4.000m, there is a great variety of flora and fauna to be discovered.

We were very impressed by all the waterfalls and lakes during our spring-time visit. Quite a lot of the "trails" can be accessed by wheelchair, what made the park very sympathic. What we did not like, was the very bad organization and information for visitors. Hopefully this confusing chaos will be solved in the future.