While the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Hollywood Sign will marvel any sightseer, there is no feeling quite like sidling up to General Sherman, the world’s largest tree located in Sequoia National Park, or shimmying your way through the rust-red slot canyons, carved by wind and water over thousands of years, of Zion National Park. From the undulating dunes of Death Valley National Park, gaze upon the cosmos and behold infinity. Brave the edge of the Grand Canyon, the earth’s vastest scar, and witness the passage of time in its colorful layers of sediment. To experience a National Park is so much more than just viewing it. National Parks remain the single most iconic destination in America not only because of their unrivaled beauty, but because of their transformative powers on those who visit.   

A trip to a National Park can change you in ways that other destinations may not. National Parks challenge the idea of what you know by illuminating all that you don’t. Among the grandest, most majestic displays of nature, we are all transformed by the same feeling: that of being small, and maybe a little bit powerless. That overwhelming sense of diminishing oneself can produce the most profound feelings of humility and connectedness in people—and that sort of perspective shift can be life-changing.

And that’s without considering just how draw-droppingly glorious National Parks are. These particular slices of nature—the unspoiled, the protected—are best experienced in person to really bear witness to the sheer scale of their reach, the superlative magnificence of their unique features, and the elegance of their endurance.

There is one thing all Americans can agree on: our National Parks are national treasures. We are so fortunate to have such majesty within reach: unrivaled landscapes, epic adventures, and dramatic opportunities to shift our own perspective away from the mundane and minute and toward the grand and universal. A visit to the National Parks will awe you with splendor. But the true thrill of a trip to a National Park is how it will inevitably change you.