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Jul 22, 2018Travel Sunday: On the Ganges in Varanasi, India

These floating candles are part of the Ganga Aarti ceremony, a nightly Hindu ritual here in Varanasi, which is a holy city for followers of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism, all of which are ancient religions of India. Tourists join congregants who gather at the river’s edge as practitioners make offerings of light to the goddess Ganga, the river’s namesake. In addition to Varanasi’s religious significance, this diverse city in North India also draws tourists for its ornate temples, silks, and archaeological sites.Desktop Version

Dec 17, 2018We have liftoff!

The Wright brothers documented the first sustained flight in a powered, controlled aircraft on this day in 1903. That historic achievement was the result of single-minded perseverance, study, and experimentation. The brothers had spent more than a dozen years designing, engineering, constructing, and tweaking various test craft, including groundbreaking work done on the glider shown here. Orville Wright snapped this photo of the plane as it’s piloted by his brother Wilbur, gliding down the slope of Big Kill Devil Hill in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in October 1902.Desktop Version

Nov 12, 2021Beavers Bend

To take in these incredible fall colors, we"ve come to Beavers Bend, a 1,300-acre state park and resort in the southeast corner of Oklahoma. It"s a scene that may confound your expectations for the wilds of the "OK" state. The "bend" referenced in the park"s name is a nearly 180-degree turn in Mountain Fork, the river that runs through the park.Desktop Version

Oct 25, 2020A most sincere pumpkin patch

Ah, the perennial pumpkin patch. You might think the round orange gourds in today"s photo are vegetables, but botanists say pumpkins are actually the fruit of pumpkin vines. They"re considered fruit because pumpkins contain seeds and grow from the same part of the plant that produces flowers. And now, as Halloween nears, pumpkins are ripe for picking and carving into spooky jack-o"-lanterns.Desktop Version

Sep 3, 2018Construction workers resting above Manhattan

For Labor Day, we’re going way back to the 1930s, during the construction of New York City’s RCA Building, better known today as 30 Rockefeller Plaza, or simply ‘30 Rock.’ While many of us will spend the weekend grilling, working, or maybe even napping like these workers (hopefully not 800 feet above the ground, though), it’s worth noting the origins of this holiday. Labor Day was established in the late 19th century, by trade unionists who proposed a day to honor the contributions of the labor movement. However you labor, and however you spend your day, we hope it’s a pleasant one.Desktop Version

Aug 6, 2018Jamaica celebrates its independence

It’s a big day in Jamaica today, as the island country commemorates the anniversary of its independence in 1962. Here in picturesque Port Antonio, they’re likely enjoying the Caribbean beaches and tropical rainforest climate that the island is famous for. You can get into the spirit of the holiday, no matter where you are. Try a recipe for Jamaican jerk chicken, play some music from the island, and pour a glass of Jamaican rum or coconut water. With views like this, every day must feel like a holiday in Jamaica.Desktop Version

Mar 28, 2018Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve in Layton, Utah

There are at least 27 private reserves along the shores of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. This one, owned by the Nature Conservancy, stands in a marshland that’s an important rest stop for birds migrating on the Pacific Flyway path. The Pacific Flyway runs from Alaska all the way down to Patagonia in South America. It’s one of four major north-to-south migration routes for birds. Nature preserves like this keep important points along the flyway intact and undeveloped.Desktop Version

May 1, 2021It s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

With Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month kicking off today, we"re visiting the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco"s Golden Gate Park. Originally designed as a temporary exhibit in the 1894 World"s Fair, the gardens became a permanent fixture in the park, overseen by landscape designer Makoto Hagiwara.Desktop Version

Sep 21, 2020A gentle wind fills this sail

To mark International Day of Peace, we invite you to look closely at the colorful sail in today"s homepage photo. It"s a composite of 120 small panels painted by children from different ethnic and social backgrounds—each panel offers a message of hope for a better world. The Ship of Tolerance is part of an international outreach program created by the Kabakov Foundation that aims "to promote art as a medium for communication and cooperation between diverse cultures while nurturing the growth and development of young artists in all disciplines." Children are taught the importance of understanding others and making friends with those outside their own cultural experiences. You"re looking at an installation that was moored in Lake Zug, Switzerland.Desktop Version

Jul 2, 2019Sequential images of a total solar eclipse

Today, lucky observers in South America will see an awesome event similar to the one captured in the composite of images on our homepage. They were taken during the Great American Eclipse of 2017.Desktop Version

Apr 24, 2018National Park Week: Everglades National Park

You’re looking at a satellite view of Florida’s Everglades, the largest subtropical wilderness in the US. It’s not a static wetland, but rather a ‘river of grass,’ a slow-moving river 60 miles wide and 100 miles long. Keep zooming in and you’ll likely see sawgrass marshes, mangrove trees, tropical birds, and a gator or two. Among the myriad interesting things about this unique and fragile ecosystem—it’s the only place in the world where American alligators and American crocodiles co-exist. How do you tell the difference between the two? Well, you see one later and the other after a while. (See what we did there?)Desktop Version

Jan 13, 2020Welcome to California

These are the peaks of Mount Diablo, part of the Diablo Range in the eastern part of the San Francisco Bay Area. On a clear day, you can see all the way to the Sierras from here. In fact, this is one of the best viewsheds in the Bay Area, which is a feat, since the peaks are comparatively low for the region. While Mount Diablo may tempt you to take in the scenery or hike in the surrounding state park, the area offers compelling stories from American history as well.Desktop Version

May 26, 2019Racing toward history

Considered by many to be one of the most beautiful marathons anywhere, the Marathon de la Baie du Mont Saint-Michel has attracted runners from around the globe to this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The point-to-point route for the marathon was designed so runners can see the finish line at the base of the Mont Saint-Michel Abbey from the starting line on the western side of the bay, and from points along the way. But you don"t need to be a runner to enjoy this historic location. Every year more than two million people travel to the tidal island, making it one of the top tourist destinations in France.Desktop Version

Apr 4, 2020In the path of the pronghorn

As the days lengthen and spring flowers bloom, herds of pronghorns in Wyoming migrate north from their winter grounds in the Upper Green River Basin to Grand Teton National Park. The journey, which biologists have dubbed the "Path of the Pronghorn," covers about 150 miles across government and private lands. Pronghorns have walked this route since prehistoric times, though today, fences, highways, and other unnatural barriers have made the journey more perilous. To mitigate these dangers, wildlife corridors are being constructed over highways and under bridges, offering safer passage for these quintessential symbols of the American West. Conservation efforts like these have helped to make the "Path of the Pronghorn" one of the longest migration corridors remaining for large mammals in North America.Desktop Version

Sep 26, 2020Wandering Watkins Glen

When we talk about celebrating public lands, the images that pop into our heads are generally icons of the famous national parks out West. Old Faithful, El Capitan, the Arches. Our photo for National Public Lands Day highlights the relatively unsung beauty of the more than 10,000 state parks dotting the nation from coast to coast.Desktop Version

Feb 23, 2021Giants of the avian world

The three shaggy-coiffed birds you see here are Dalmatian pelicans, posing on chilly Lake Kerkini in Greece. These waterfowl are among the largest freshwater bird species in the world, with wingspans stretching as wide as 11 feet. Dalmatian pelicans generally breed during the first four months of the year, building their nests on or near the ground, and sometimes upon vegetation floating in water. While breeding, they form monogamous pairs, though they generally don"t pair up for life.Desktop Version

Apr 7, 2018The confluence of the Arve and Rhône Rivers

That’s the Arve river on the right, flowing into the Rhône. This point where the two rivers meet is just west of the city center in Geneva, Switzerland. The Arve’s much lighter color is due to the silt it picks up as it flows out of the Alps. From here, the Rhône will continue on—in a mostly southerly direction—through southeastern France toward its mouth on the Mediterranean Sea.Desktop Version

Feb 17, 2020Happy Presidents Day

It"s hard to imagine a more appropriate place to celebrate Presidents Day than here, at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. The monument features four of our most famous presidents—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Four hundred workers using dynamite, hammers, and chisels crafted these 60-foot-high sculptures out of the granite mountainside in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Work on the monument began in 1927 and was completed in 1941.Desktop Version

Jul 26, 2021The dancing trees of Sumba Island

On the northern coast of Indonesia"s Sumba Island, a stand of mangrove trees appears to dip and sway to summon another dreamy sunrise. Walakiri Beach is gently sloped, so it"s easy for a visitor to walk out into the knee-deep water to examine the extraordinary transitional zone of a mangrove ecosystem. Mangroves thrive here at the boundary between land and sea, growing in coastal salt water and low-oxygen conditions where other trees would quickly die. Their complex root systems filter out the salt and form a strong natural defense against storm surges, rising sea levels, and coastal erosion. Mangroves also create aquatic nursery habitats that support a highly diverse range of juvenile fish and crustaceans.Desktop Version

Jul 9, 2020High alpine color in Colorado

Songstress Dolly Parton once sang "wildflowers don"t care where they grow," but we gotta believe the wildflowers growing in Colorado"s American Basin, shown here, are pretty delighted with their surroundings. American Basin is in the San Juan Mountains in the southern part of the state, about a five-hour drive from Denver. Visitors here will find rocky cliffs, streams, unique rock formations, and some spectacular wildflowers. July and August are the best months to see the blooms—it"s the time of year when you"ll reliably spot the Rocky Mountain columbine (Colorado"s state flower), elephant"s head, Parry"s primrose, and marsh marigold. Bring us back a bouquet, all right?Desktop Version

Apr 21, 2021Exploring the Pearl of the Atlantic

We"re taking in a view of the island of Madeira, by far the largest island in the Madeira archipelago, which sits 320 miles off the coast of Morocco in the North Atlantic. Known as the "Pearl of the Atlantic," Madeira is part of an autonomous region of Portugal. It boasts a diverse forest ecosystem, endemic flora and fauna, and the largest living stand of laurel trees in the world. It"s a great place to hike, too. Trails run alongside irrigation channels, called levadas, that move water all over the island. Walks range from easy strolls in the countryside to precarious hikes along mountain ridges or into remote parts of the forests. Afterward, the calorie-depleted can dig into a local delicacy like peixe espada com banana (fried local fish with banana) and sip on Madeira wine. Saúde!Desktop Version

Apr 17, 2018The Children’s Cultural Festival in Reykjavik begins today

Audiences at the Harpa Concert Hall are usually a bit older, but today when the 2018 Children’s Culture Festival launches, there will be another crowd like this one: Children who will not just see performances, but also learn to develop some of those artistic and creative-thinking skills through hands-on workshops and interactive performances. The festival’s been held since 2010, with events in multiple locations around the city.Desktop Version

Nov 30, 2020A water loch-ed castle

Located on a small island where three sea lochs meet in northwestern Scotland, the current Eilean Donan Castle is just the latest incarnation of several monastic cells and Scottish clan strongholds that have occupied the tidal islet since the 7th century. The first fortified castle was built in the 13th century to defend against invading Vikings who occupied much of Scotland at the time. An iconic symbol of Scotland, from the 14th to 18th centuries the castle was mostly held by the Mackenzies and defended by the MacRaes, both storied clans of the Scottish Highlands. The castle was destroyed in 1719 by the invading British Royal Navy during the Jacobite Uprising, but was rebuilt along its earlier design in the early 20th century by Lt. Colonel John MacRae-Gilstrap.Desktop Version

Dec 14, 2021American robin

Season"s tweetings! Today is the first day of the 122nd annual Christmas Bird Count, said to be the longest-running citizen science project in the world. Between December 14 and January 5, tens of thousands of volunteer birdwatchers will participate in counts across the US, Canada, and many other countries in the Western Hemisphere. Organized by the National Audubon Society, each local count takes place in a 15-mile-diameter circle, where volunteers follow a specific route to record and often photograph every bird they see.Desktop Version

Apr 26, 2019Happy Arbor Day!

A Chinese proverb advises, ‘The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.’ That’s especially true today. It’s National Arbor Day in the US and we’re featuring this dramatic photo of coast redwoods to remind you of the incredible power and importance of trees. The very first recorded Arbor Day took place in 1594 in the little village of Mondoñedo in Spain, organized by its mayor. The first US Arbor Day was observed in Nebraska City, Nebraska, on April 10, 1872. It was organized by journalist and politician Julius Sterling Morton, who’d moved to Nebraska from Michigan, and called his adopted state a ‘treeless prairie.’ He rallied celebrants at that first US Arbor Day to plant an estimated 1 million trees.Desktop Version

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