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Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Wilderness Act, one of the cornerstones of the conservation movement in America. The Wilderness Act created the National Wilderness Preservation System through which the federal government has protected more than 100 million acres of wilderness.
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To celebrate the anniversary, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History recently conducted the Wilderness Forever photography competition.
The Smithsonian selected 50 winning photos from 5,000 entries from professional, amateur, and student photographers across the country. Each photo was taken within a U.S. wilderness area.The Smithsonian has shared a selection of the winners with us, but you can check out more entries in the contest and vote for your favorites. Every month, the Smithsonian will feature the entry that receives that most votes.
A Red Fox frolics in Denali National Park in Alaska during autumn.
An adult male Snowy Owl is wide awake at dawn in Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness Area. Otis Pike is the only federally designated wilderness area in New York.Colorful petrified sand dunes of White Pocket tower over Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs in Arizona. White Pocket is a notoriously hard-to-reach patch of sandstone near the Arizona-Utah border. Proxy Falls cascades down to a moss-covered forest in Three Sisters Wilderness in Oregon. The Three Sisters are a series of three volcanoes. Two out of three of the volcanoes are inactive.A lone paddler watches the sun set upon the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Superior National Forest in Minnesota. The area is renowned for its fishing and canoeing.This path winds through the Aurora Ridge Trail in Olympic Wilderness Area in Washington. The Olympic Wilderness contains some of the most pristine forests left in the U.S.
The Milky Way sparkles over Second Beach in Olympic Wilderness. Second Beach is one of the most popular beaches in the Olympics. It is home to a labyrinth of tide pools, as well as bald and golden eagles and seals.
A brown bear in Alaska's Katmai National Park.
A herd of mountain goats huddle together on top of Mount Evans, Colorado, during a lightning storm. Mount Evans is one of 53 mountains in Colorado over 14,000 feet high. It is the closest to Denver.
