The American national parks

Glacier · Continental Divide
Twenty-five active glaciers remained in 2010, against about a hundred and fifty in 1850. The park keeps its name. The Bureau has entered the matter under nomenclature, pending review. The reserve holds more than 130 named lakes over more than a million acres, a count the Bureau expects to remain stable. The mountain goat is the official emblem of the park and appears on the badge in that capacity, not as an illustration. It stands on the Continental Divide, which crosses the park and decides, to the drop, which ocean the water reaches.

Yellowstone · Geyser Basin
Established in 1872, and generally held to be the first national park anywhere. The register lists 1283 geysers known to have erupted, of which some 465 are active in a given year. The Bureau finds the discrepancy unremarkable and has stopped counting. The reserve extends over 8983 square kilometres, or 3468 square miles, laid across the roof of a dormant caldera. Ground temperatures vary. The Bureau holds this to be a property of the site rather than a fault in it, and has amended no maps. The bison on the badge is drawn at a distance, which the Bureau recommends maintaining.

Yosemite · Sequoia Grove
Set aside by an act of 1864, twenty-six years before it became a national park in 1890. The Bureau notes that the land was protected first and classified afterwards, and considers this the correct order. The act was signed by Lincoln, in the middle of a civil war, which the register records without comment. The park now covers 3070 square kilometres, or 1187 square miles, across four counties. The sequoia on the badge is drawn larger than the bear beneath it; the Bureau has checked the proportion and found no error.

Zion · Sandstone Canyon
Protected from 1909 under the name Mukuntuweap, and raised to a national park ten years later. The canyon runs some 800 metres deep. The Bureau regrets the change of name and has retained the older one in its own files. The highest ground stands at 2660 metres, on Horse Ranch Mountain, against 1117 metres at Coalpits Wash: fifteen hundred metres of difference, which the register notes and the walker discovers. The bighorn on the badge is drawn on the sandstone rather than beneath it, as is its habit.