Emeka Nweze
Nature is beautiful, and one of the ways to see and experience this beauty is through national parks. They are easily the most wondrous places on the planet and best place to bask in all that nature truly has to offer. National parks are rich with some of the most remarkable views, wildlife and natural phenomenons which can serve for scientific, educational, and recreational purposes.
There over 4,000 national parks in the world and almost every country can boast of having at least one. In the midst of all the decline in the earth’s atmosphere and all that climate change brings, it is important for governments to maintain and protect these parks so that man can continuously remain in touch with nature.
In no particular order, here are 10 amazing national parks in the world.
1. Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
The Serengeti National Park is a Tanzanian national park in the Serengeti ecosystem in the Mara and Simiyu regions. The name “Serengeti” is an approximation of the word used by the Maasai to describe the area, siringet, which means “the place where the land runs on forever” The park is famous for its year-long migration of over 1.5 million white-bearded (or brindled) wildebeest and 250,001 zebra and for its numerous Nile crocodile and honey badger.
2. Grand Canyon National Park
Grand Canyon National Park, in northwestern Arizona, USA, is known for its central feature, the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often considered one of the Wonders of the World. The park received more than six million recreational visitors in 2017, which is the second highest count of all American national parks. The Grand Canyon was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. The park celebrated its 100th anniversary on February 26, 2019.
3. Plitvice Lakes National Park
Plitviče Lakes National Park is a 295-sq.-km forest reserve in central Croatia. The park is known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. The water is surrounded by walkways and hiking trails and an electric boat. The forests in the park are home to bears, wolves and many rare bird species.
4. Guilin and Lijiang River National Park
Located in southeastern China, this park is renowned for its karsts, beautiful rivers, limestone cones, cultural relics, stone carvings, cylinders and hills with colorful names like “Elephant Trunk,” “Dragon Head” and “Five Fingers”. The Lijiang River flows among the solitary hills and protruding rocks of Guilin.
5. Iguazú national park
Iguazú national park, located on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná, is arguably the most beautiful waterfall park in the world. The park has diverse wildlife including coatis, jaguars and toucans, as well as trails and viewing platforms. The park is most known for the Iguazu falls, which are waterfalls of the Iguazu River which make up the largest waterfall in the world.
6. Banff National Park
Banff National Park is Canada’s oldest national park , located in Rocky Mountains of Alberta. The park is known for its glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine landscapes. The park is also surrounded by amazing wildlife such as the grizzly bear, cougar, wolverine, elk, bighorn sheep and moose, along with hundreds of bird species.
7. Göreme National Park
Göreme National Park is a national park in central Turkey. The area consists of plateaus and high hills, dissected by streams and river valleys carved out by water, the valleys having steeply sloping sides. The park features a rocky, water- and wind-eroded landscape with a network of ancient, interconnecting underground settlements. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 under the name Goreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia.
8. Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park national park located in the United States, with parts in three states; Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Yellowstone is known for its canyons, alpine rivers, lush forests, hot springs and gushing geysers. It’s also home to hundreds of animal species, including bears, wolves, bison, elk and antelope.
9. Namib-Naukluft Park
The Namib-Naukluft Park, situated between the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and the edge of the Great Escarpment, encompasses part of the Namib Desert, the Naukluft mountain range, and the lagoon at Sandwich Harbour. Most notable feature and main attraction of the park is Sossusvlei, a clay pan surrounded by sand dunes, and Sesriem, a small canyon of the Tsauchab. Namib-Naukluft Park also features a few wildlife species such as, snakes, geckos, unusual insects, hyenas, gemsboks and jackals.
10. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports and shipping, recreation, scientific research and Indigenous traditional use. With its unparalleled diversity of marine life. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest and best known coral reef ecosystem, with its almost 3000 reefs representing about 10 per cent of all the coral reef areas in the world. It also has an unparalleled diversity of marine life which includes an array of invertebrate species, bony fish, sharks, rays, marine mammals, marine turtles, sea snakes, as well as algae and other marine plants .
