Photographer’s Path: Images of National Parks Near the Nation’s Capital

A collection of color photographic images highlighting nature and history in the Greater Washington DC area. The photos, taken by Thomas Paradis of the National Park Service, highlight the beautiful (a royal red cardinal flower with ascending blooms of scarlet, shot in DC’s own Rock Creek Park, the bizarre (a leopard/tiger-patterned stalk of the grimly named American cancer-root, taken along the George Washington Memorial Parkway), and even the glitzy (neon lights illuminating the restored amusement park arcade facade at Maryland’s Glen Echo Park), and many more. Text by Megan Nortrup.