Geography is eye-popping. To the east bordering the Atlantic coastline, the Appalachian Mountains jut out clearly pocked with dregs of the Ice Age during the Quaternary Period. To the west, there are some major mountains ranges like the Rocky Mountains, the Nevada Sierra and Cascade Range.Trapped between these two mountain ranges, travelers will find the 2,500km-wide Great Valley blessed with highly fertile lands in which water is a precious commodity.Climate reserves some pretty amazing coast-to-coast contrasts. In the southern states summers are hot and winters are cold. In the eastern coastal state, climate is continental featuring hot summers and cold winters combined with high humidity levels. Up in the northern West Coast, temperatures tend to be low while seasons change rapidly.In the Midwestern states temperatures vary from one region to another depending on land height. It can be said that temperatures are mild, yet winters are extremely cold.
The United States is the world’s third largest country. It embraces fifty states and one federal district. 48 of those states are in the continental U.S. territory, save Alaska up in the north and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.
The U.S. abuts Canada in the north, Mexico in the south, the Pacific Ocean westward and the Atlantic Ocean eastward.
The coastline has features of its own all across the country. The Atlantic coast is high and rugged featuring bays and gullies like the one in the Hudson River’s outlet, or the Baltimore Bay stretching out up to the Hateras Cape. Down to the south, the relieve is lower and makes fine-sand dunes. The Gulf of Mexico coastline, for its part, is swampy and its most outstanding feature is the Mississippi River’s mouth.
There are numerous short-course but plentiful rivers. The Mississippi is the exception to the rule with a 3,328,000 square-kilometer basin, one of the world’s longest rivers. Its tributaries are Missouri, Ohio and Arkansas. Rivers Hudson, Michigan and Colorado are also important. The Mississippi and its tributaries are all navigable watercourses.
There’re some salt lakes like Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake and Lahontan Lake.Rivers connect with each other through such canals as the Great Lakes, thus enhancing communication with Canada. The five Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario) came into being back in the Ice Age and are shared by both countries.
There are huge coniferous woods in the Rocky Mountains region, steppes and prairies down in the Appalachians over 100 meters high, huge cotton fields in the Gulf of Mexico region, Arctic vegetation on the highest peaks, as well as all kinds of cactus and xerophylous plants in the deserts.All year long, travelers can take a stroll around maples, custards, oaks, elms, walnuts, beeches and basswoods down the western region of the country, gaze at a sunrise from atop red firs in Washington, and then hike you way into pine trees, Oregon oaks, junipers and mugworts.Deserts show off their particular beauty and its vegetation picks up the scarce rainfall water provided by nature for their survival.
Wildlife is varied. Reindeers and elks can be made out in the eastern part of the country, while coyotes, bison, cougars, lynxes, rat-kangaroos, blue wolves, bears and deer are seen on the western side of the nation. There are also countless wading birds up in the Great Lakes, down the rivers and along the coastlines. Owls, hawks and eagles live alongside crawlers and other reptiles.The deserts are sprinkled with all types of animals in size, color and features. A case in point is the well-known rattlesnake. American bison are a token of freedom and strength, and in spite of the fact that it was an endangered species in the past, the Yellowstone National Park has given them a new lease on life to be a legitimate gift for all mankind.
