The popular overlook at Wild Goose Island in Glacier National Park has a different look this week with fresh snow on the trees and mountains. Fall has definitely arrived!

Photo: National Park Service 

Encompassing over 1.2 million acres, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area offers unparalleled opportunities for water-based & backcountry recreation. The recreation area stretches for hundreds of miles from Lees Ferry in Arizona to the Orange Cliffs of southern Utah, encompassing scenic vistas, geologic wonders, and a vast panorama of human history.

Photo: National Park Service 

President Obama views the Hoover Dam during a stop there, Oct. 2, 2012.

The Bureau of Reclamation has conducted tours through the Hoover Dam and powerplant since 1937. Today, close to 1,000,000 visitors a year take the tour and millions more drive across the dam. Click here to learn more and to plan your visit today.

Photo: Pete Souza 

Red Rock Canyon was designated as Nevada’s first National Conservation Area. Red Rock Canyon is located 17 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip on Charleston Boulevard/State Route 159.  The area is 195,819 acres and is visited by more than one million people each year.  In marked contrast to a town geared to entertainment and gaming, Red Rock Canyon offers enticements of a different nature including a 13-mile scenic drive, more than 30 miles of hiking trails, rock climbing, horseback riding, mountain biking, road biking, picnic areas, nature observing and visitor center with exhibit rooms and a book store.

Photo: Jacob Klein

Chief Mountain and autumn colors. A perfect match in Glacier National Park.

Photo: National Park Service 

Here’s a great way to participate in National Public Lands Day.

mypubliclands:

The BLM is hosting a National Public Lands Day social media meetup on Saturday, Sept. 29.  You’ll be out volunteering, won’t you?  Well, tweet messages and photos to @BLMNational using the hashtag #NPLD; follow us on Facebook and tag us at @BLMNational; tage your Tumblr posts with #NPLD and #Bureauoflandmanagement (no spaces); and instagram your photos to our new @mypubliclands using the hashtag #NPLD.  We’ll retweet, reblog, and like the best throughout the day!  Visit http://blm.gov/sqkd (or scan the QR code) for more.

This Saturday, over 170,000 volunteers are expected to roll up their sleeves as part of National Public Lands Day. You can visit http://bit.ly/nKsSH9 to find a project site near you and join in the fun. And even if you don’t volunteer, all national parks and most other federal public lands will be offering free entrance to everyone tomorrow. So come on out and celebrate your national public lands!

Photo: National Public Lands Day 

Bryce Canyon National Park, famous for its worldly unique geology, consists of a series of horseshoe-shaped amphitheaters carved from the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. The erosional force of frost-wedging and the dissolving power of rainwater have shaped the colorful limestone rock of the Claron Formation into bizarre shapes, including slot canyons, windows, fins, and spires called “hoodoos.”

Photo: Anand Rane 

Nothing like taking a boat out on Lake Clark in Alaska. Truly one of the most beautiful spots one will find anywhere in the world.

Photo: National Park Service 

Saturday was International Observe the Moon night and our public lands provided some of the best views across the country. This cool moon shot was taken in Glacier National Park.

Photo: National Park Service