Exploring our home planet!

I love learning about distant planets, but I'm just as passionate about discovering more about my own! Even within the United States, our country spans a stunning variety of terrains, water systems, landforms, and ecosystems, home to an incredible diversity of flora and fauna. We can explore our world from towering mountain peaks that scrape the sky to vast cave systems hundreds of feet below the surface — and even descend into oceans that stretch miles deep.

One of the most rewarding ways I’ve explored our planet, both personally and professionally, is by visiting state and national parks here in the US. There’s something deeply fulfilling about experiencing Earth's beauty firsthand. In fact, I may have developed a bit of a National Park addiction — I’ve visited fifteen so far:

1. Arches

2. Badlands

3. Big Bend

4. Biscayne Bay

5. Canyonlands

6. Capitol Reef

7. Everglades

8. Grand Canyon

9. Great Smoky Mountains National Park

10. Joshua Tree

11. Mammoth Cave

12. Rocky Mountain

13. Shenandoah

14. Wind Cave

15. Yosemite

This even doesn't include all our other state and federal protected places, of which I am also completely obsessed with! Honorable mentions go to Custer State Park, Cape Cod National Seashore, Jewel Cave State Park, Pisgah National Forest, and the Crazy Horse Memorial (not a National Park, but deserves a spot on this list!). The last being especially memorable because I was on native land, and I realize the great significance that holds.

Sadly, many of our beautiful and vital national parks are at risk of losing their protections as government policies shift to allow mining, drilling, logging, and other extractive uses. I hope you'll join me in advocating for the preservation of the regulations that safeguard these lands. They are our true national treasures—irreplaceable and worth protecting for generations to come. Up next for me, Great Basin National Park!