Teddy’s namesake park offers the ruggedness of the western North Dakota landscape. The South Unit, with easy interstate access and a paved, 36-mile scenic loop, is the most visited section of the park. For wilderness and solitude, head north to the park’s longest footpath, the 16-mile Achenbach Trail, which winds up from river bottom into hills with distant views. However you travel, expect to see herds of bison, precipitous cliffs, and bottomless canyons.

From 600 to 1400 A.D., Eastern Woodland people built thousands of burial mounds in the shapes of bison, birds, and bears, as well as turtles and lizards — likely to honor the tribe’s totem animals — along the upper Mississippi River. Roughly 200 mounds remain intact, some with ceremonial fireplaces embedded in the creatures’ heads or hearts, at this 2,526-acre monument.

Few and precious places give us great insight into the civilizations that lived on this land long before it was called the United States. Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado is a prime example of such a place, with nearly 5,000 of the most well-preserved archaeological sites in the country, including 600 cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people who lived in the regions from A.D. 600 to 1300.

What it lacks in width, the Black Canyon makes up for in depth. Great cliffs plunge to the Gunnison River, at points more than 2,700 feet down, creating some of the best and most advanced rock-climbing opportunities in the national park system.

This 27,000-acre park is tucked along the mystical Congaree River near Columbia, South Carolina, just a short drive from Atlanta, Charleston, or Charlotte. The park includes more than 25 miles of hiking trails and 2.4 miles of boardwalk loop trail, but many visitors also choose to explore Congaree on the water via kayak or canoe.

A short drive from Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, Cuyahoga provides the weekend respite and open space that many weary urbanites need. This park offers not only natural treasures—forests, hills, open farmland, and the Cuyahoga River—but historical interest as well. The Cuyahoga Valley played a key role in American history as the site of the Ohio & Erie Canal, which opened Ohio up to settlement in the early-to-mid 1800s.

Wind Cave holds within its depths a history as diverse as the people who’ve been there. Among them are the Lakota and Cheyenne Indians, who view the cave as a sacred site; early white settlers to the region, including one female geologist and guide, a rarity for the time; and men of the Civilian Conservation Corps, who lived and worked at Wind Cave Camp during the Great Depression.

Made of the seven farthest flung of the Florida Keys (70 miles west of Key West), Dry Tortugas is managed alongside its mainland sister park, Everglades. The park plays an important role in American history, protecting the valuable shipping channel at the confluence of the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea and securing the coastline for the U.S. Today, visitors value these clear azure waters more for swimming, sailing, snorkeling, and sightseeing.

A jutting peninsula of spectacular cliffs along the northern California coastline, here hikers can trek to quiet lagoons, pine forests, rolling dunes, and salt marshes. For bird-watchers, there’s Limantour Spit, where long-billed pelicans roam the flats and ride the updrafts. And one of the most popular activities of visitors to the seashore is watching rush hour in the Pacific from the vantage of the 136-year-old Point Reyes Lighthouse.

The Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River traces hundreds of miles of border between the U.S. and Mexico, offering incredible views. Panther Junction Visitor Center, within Big Bend National Park, is a great spot to start. The river is perfect for hikers, anglers, and rafters, but if it starts feeling crowded, just head to the upper canyon - challenging treks down to the river tend to thin the packs.