With the popularity of yesterday’s post on “Five Places To Look Up On Google Earth”, here is a second article for all of you Google Earth lovers. Here in the United States there are plenty of great sites to visit.  Google Earth is a free application found at earth.google.com that allows you to look at satellite images at any location on earth.  Here are five places you should check out here in the United States.

The Grand Canyon
35° 58′ 26″ N, 113° 46′ 8″ W
The Grand Canyon, a steep sided gorge located along the Colorado River in Arizona, is one of the world’s premier natural attractions.  The canyon is 277 miles long and ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles.  It is over a mile deep.  Geologists believe that the canyon is over 17 million years old.   Ancient Indians considered the area a holy site and lived within the caves that surround the canyon. Europeans arrived in the area in 1540.  Each year, the canyon attracts more than five million visitors.

Mount Rushmore
43° 52′ 41″ N, 103° 27′ 30″ W
Located within the United States Presidents Memorial, Mount Rushmore is located in Keystone, South Dakota.  The sculpture was cut from granite by artist Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941).  It represents the first 150 years of American history and each of the four presidents represented stands 60 feet tall.  The sculptures are representations of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.  The entire park covers over 1200 acres.  There is some controversy over the monument because the Native Americans claim that the monument is in violation of a treaty signed by the United States with the Lakota Tribe concerning ownership of the Black Hills region.

Old Faithful
44° 27′ 36.29″ N, 110° 49′ 36.8″ W
Old Faithful is a cone geyser located in Wyoming in the area of Yellowstone National Park.  It was discovered by Americans in 1870, during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition.   You can find Old Faithful in Teton County, Wyoming.  The geyser erupts about every 90 minutes, shooting approximately 5000 gallons of boiling water into the air.  In the 1880’s, US soldiers sometimes used Old Faithful as a laundry service.  They found if you put your linen and cotton clothes over the vent, they would shoot into the air and be completely cleaned.  Woolen garments, however, were ripped to shreds.

Area 51
27°58’59.70″N, 86°51’27.06″E
This is the nickname of a military base located in the southern portion of Nevada, situated on the southern shore of Groom Lake.  The purpose of the base is to test experimental aircraft and weapons systems.  The secrecy of the base, and the fact that the government barely acknowledges its existence, has given rise to conspiracy theories, mainly based on UFOs.  The government, of course, denies all such knowledge of this.  Rumors have persisted that the Air Force has moved Area 51, but this is from a poorly researched article in Popular Mechanics.

Mount St. Helens
46° 12′ 0.17″ N, 122° 11′ 21.13″ W
This is an active volcano in Skamania, Washington that last erupted in 1980.  The location is 96 miles south of Seattle in the Cascade Mountain range.  When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, it was the most disastrous and economically costly volcanic event in U.S. history.  The explosion killed 56 people and destroyed hundreds of homes.  The volcano is more than 4600 feet high. 

Related posts:

1. 5 More Places to Look at in The U.S. on Google Earth
2. Five Places To Look Up On Google Earth
3. Five US Monuments To See From Google Earth
4. Five More Amazing Things To See From Google Earth
5. Where On Google Earth Can You Find These Monuments?