November 22, 2024 19:22 PM

Naturalist Beth Pratt Names Best Places to See Wildlife

Naturalist and California Director for the National Wildlife Federation Beth Pratt has worked at the country's largest national parks, as well as in sustainability and climate change programs for Xanterra Parks and Resorts, and with Al Gore for his Climate Reality Leadership Corps. But the true inspiration for her, as it has been since she was a child, is nature itself: the landscape, plants and animals.

In observance of Earth Day, Beth named her favorite places in the United States to catch glimpses of wildlife of any kind. Here are just a few of her choice locations.

Gaylor Lakes Trail, Yosemite National Park, California

Pratt calls Yosemite National Park her "favorite place on Earth." Every spring, she hikes the Gaylor Lakes trail, which stretches two miles. The hike gives some truly incredibly views from high elevations off Tioga Road, in the Tuolumne Meadows. The trail where the hike begins leads to a ridge with views of the high Sierra, Mt. Dana and Dana Meadows. Pratt advises not to stop at the top, "as the rest of the hike allows you to wander through a sublime, expansive basin and is much less strenuous."

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee

Smoky Mountains is an area world renowned for plant and animal life diversity, as well as the ancient mountains and Southern Appalachian mountain culture. It is well known for a large frog and salamander presence-folks even call it "Salamander Capital of the World." The Park is home to five families of salamanders and 30 species. Pratt suggests to go see the salamanders in springtime, "near any wet area in the park, include Grotto Falls at the Trillium Gap Trailhead; Ramsey Cascades, (the tallest waterfall in the park)...the Ash Hooper Branch Wildflower Trail is one of the best hikes for wildflowers and also pretty good for salamanders."

Platte River, Nebraska

Every year throughout college, Pratt drove cross-country to visit national parks. One year, upon visiting colleagues in Kearney, Nebraska, the Sandhill Crane Migration capital of the world. It was there that she learned of The Sandhill Crane migration-when 500,000 birds make a pit stop there before continuing north for the summer. The migration runs from February to April.

"If you want to avoid the crowds and get out of the cars," she says, "birding friends recommend the North Platte Area."

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