America’s top natural wonders

The first wagonloads of prospectors bumped into the valley on Christmas Day, 1849, drawn by tales of gold, silver and great fortunes awaiting them on the Western frontier. Hopes were high after small silver deposits were struck, but the success of the ‘49ers was short-lived. Food and water shortages left them on the brink of despair; many had to slaughter their oxen to stave off starvation, leaving behind their wagons and continuing their westward haul on foot. Nearly half the original settlement perished that winter. The survivors, lean and ragged after months of hardship, were happy to sing “Goodbye, Death Valley” as they left in search of better fortunes.

That first winter might not have played well on the tourist brochures of 19th-century California. Yet despite its grim past and a less-than-inviting name, Death Valley today is one of America’s great natural attractions. The hottest, driest and, at 300-feet-below sea level, lowest place in North America, it attracts legions of tourists each year to its unforgiving landscape — even in the brutal heat of summer, when temperatures can top 130 degrees Farenheit.

America’s top natural wonders are a study in extremes, from the lowest point in Death Valley to the highest peak atop Mount McKinley. Like everything in our super-sized country, they’re also rich in superlatives: the world’s most active volcano, Mount Kilauea, which has been spewing a flow of hot lava for nearly three decades; or the continent’s most powerful waterfall, Niagara Falls, which gushes more than 4 million cubic feet of water per minute.