Nihoa Island

70 ha large island with its own palm species, several endemic bird species, flowers and giant crickets.

Laysan Island

This small, remote island has a hypersaline lake in its central part and endemic species of animals and plants including endemic duck and finch.

Kure Atoll

The northernmost coral atoll in the world. The only island – Green Island – is a habitat for hundreds of thousands of birds.

Haleakala silversword grove

This plant – Argyroxiphium sandwicense subsp. macrocephalum – grows only in the alpine desert on the top of the Haleakalā volcano. This unusual succulent plant grows up to 2 meters tall and flowers once per 15 – 50 years.

Mono Lake

Lake with alkaline water and characteristic, eerie tufa towers. Lake has an unusual, very productive ecosystem that includes also the unique bacteria GFAJ-1 that uses arsenic in its cellular structure. Here live also other endemic species, e.g. Mono Lake brine shrimp (Artemia monica). Paoha island in the lake contains many hot springs and fumaroles.

Redwood Mountain Grove

The largest grove (1300 ha) of giant sequoia on Earth. Here grows also the tallest publicly announced giant sequoia in the world – Hyperion.

Lost Horse Valley

Best grove of Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia Engelm.) – visually impressive plant. Here is also Lost Horse Mine – historic gold and silver mine.

Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest

Grove of Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva), contains the oldest known individual trees in the world, more than 4,750 years old.

Find of Aleutian Shield Fern

One of the rare northern endemics in the world, this fern (Polystichum aleuticum) is found only on Adak Island, Mount Reed. In 1992 the number of individual plants in the wild decreased to 112.

Brooks Falls

Some 1.8-2 m tall and approximately 80 – 100 m wide waterfall that is world-famous thanks to a large group of brown bears catching salmon and other fish. Sometimes up to 50 bears can be seen on this waterfall.