All language subtitles for North Americas National Parks IMAX 2002 720p Bluray AC3 EN Sub_Subtitles01.ENG

The National Parks
of North America

Havens of the mountain spirits

of desert mysteries.

Living museums of nature's
most profound beauty

and starkest contrasts.

The National Park is
an American invention,

an expression of
the American soul.

The parks are our treasures,
our history,

our pride and our solace.

İn their immensity
of our diversity,

they provide us
the fullest sense of who we are.

İt is difficult to imagine a time

when these treasures were in
danger of being overrun

by human progress.

Then, with the founding of
the National Park Service in 1872,

we ensured that our footprint
on these singular lands

would be a small one.

Men may bend,
crumble and fade away

when subject to
the undying power of Time,

weather, and Light.

But we may taste eternity,

if only for a moment,

as we explore our timeless
National Parks.

America's National Parklands
stand alone in the world.

They are the crown jewels
in the North American landscape.

These places tell us
the chronicle of Time,

and help us to understand
the Earth's story.

By setting aside pieces of
America's original wild land,

we have protected our
birthright for ourselves

and given an enormous
gift to the world.

Our National Parks represent us
to the world with honor.

Within the parks,

managed wilderness offers us
the perpetuity of wildness.

İt offers us hope and memory.

It offers us the earth
as İit was and,

so long as
its protection remains intact,

as it will be.

These mountains rising to
heights of 13,000 feet

in dramatic vertical displacement

are Temples of great wisdom
and strength.

Breaking through clouds,

battling the high weather,

the mountains are
symbols of our own guest

to rise and stand strong.

At Teton,

sky and earth are united
in more than 100 alpine lakes,

bearing the reflections of
bold granite peaks,

clouds, and trees declaring
the unity of all nature's elements.

In knowing this glorious land,

and in preserving it,

we also preserve
the spirit within all of us.

In the American Southwest,

there is a slowness
and a distance to things.

A patience.

An endurance.

There is time for snow.

There is time
for the etching of great canyons.

The Colorado Plateau of
the Southwestern United States

is the oldest land mass
in the puzzle

that makes up
the American continent.

This truly unigue landscape
is home to 15 of

our most spectacular
National Parks.

There is barely a hint of
this land's storied past

where millions of years ago,

İt was an ocean floor.

These vast,
petrified layers of sediment

are testimony to
the eons of pressure

and sifting that were exerted
by a turbulent ocean above.

Just as the needles of
a cactus conceal the soft,

delicate plant hidden within,

so too does the rough external
appearance of the desert conceal

a highly sensitive,
and fragile ecology.

All this is measured
by the delicate

beauty of this rocky land,

which has endured a long battle
with the forces of weather.

In the desert,

the struggle to survive
is what brings us closer

to the intangible
mystery of Nature.

The old growth forests,
lush meadows,

and pristine waters
of the Pacific Northwest

offer us a palette
of emerald beauty.

A sleeping volcano encased
in snow and glacial ice,

Mount Rainier is the famous
landmark of the Cascade Range

and dominates the skyline.

This portion of the Cascade
mountains owes its beauty

to the rains that wash off
from the Pacific Ocean.

But rather than dilute color,

these waters bring it to life.

Across the broad spectrum
of nature's palette of forms,

Water occupies
its own sacred position.

İt is the source oflife
and the shaper of landscapes.

In contemplating water,

we are reminded of
the essential lesson of Nature

that everything is connected.

This lesson of beauty and harmony

was not lost on
our early conservatlonists:

Freeman Tilden,

the poet and advocate
for our National Parks system,

once wrote:

"The early philosophers
looked at the world about them

and decided that
there were four elements:

fire, air, water and earth.

But as they grew alittle wiser,

they perceived that there
must be something else.

These tangible elements
did not comprise a principle;

they merely revealed
that somewhere else,

if they could not find it,

there was a soul of things

a Fifth Essence,

pure, eternal, and inclusive."

Denali:
The word means "The High One,"

and is the name
the local Athabascan people

ascribe to Mt. MecKinley.

İts stunning mass reaching
over 20,000 feet,

it is the rooftop
of North America.

Denali stands at the apex of

the six-hundred
mile long Alaskan range.

These mountains,
with their surrounding glaciers

and lowlands make up North
America's largest national park.

An area totaling
more than six million acres.

Within this vast territory,

human influence is
rendered meaningless

as the patterns of nature's
artistry canvas the landscape.

From the low riverbeds that
reveal swirls of earthen clay

Through the Tundra,

a sub arctic wilderness
of miniature plant life

turns into
a Technicolor carpet in the fall.

And into the deep,
centuries-old forests,

Denali echoes
the rugged independence

of a perpetual frontier.

The sands of the Pacific seashore
along the Olympic peninsula

glimmer like molten gold,

as if to provide us with a hint of
all the treasures that lie inland.

The place where ocean meets land,

is not to be overlooked

when we explore
our protected natlonal treasures.

Three distinct ecosystems
co-exist in this park

from the Pacific shoreline
to high sub alpine meadows

displaying spacious
wild flower spreads.

A place that receives more than

12 feet ofrain per year offers us,

in exchange,

a rare temperate
ralinforest with tall trees,

a sweeping canopy
and a fine retreat.

Nearly 954 of Olympic
National Park is wilderness.

Besides a variety of Forests,

Meadows and Highlands,

the wilderness encompasses
a 60 mile long Pacific coastline.

On the right day,

we can return to the Pacific Coast

as the tides recede
across the of sands,

chasing the sunset westwards,

treading along the land-bound
edges of our National Parks.

"Gateways to nature, to discovery,

to solitude,

to celebrate the beauty
and infinite variety of our land."

That is how Parks Canada defines
the Country's National Parks.

What is it that impels us
to respect the freedom

and majesty of the National Parks?

Is it something peculiar
only to Americans?

That cannot be.

For soon after
Yellowstone was created,

the Canadian government created
their first National Park-Banff,

nestled in the heart of
the magnificent Canadian Rockies.

Before winter would arrive,

the Northern Rockies'
earliest human inhabitants

descended into
the prairies and valleys,

escaping the approaching
harsh winds

and unforgiving cold.

Days passed.

The Seasons turned.

The waters went from warm to cold,

as did the world they reflected
on their surface.

And, thus,

the mountains were abandoned
for six months or more,

left under cover of
snow and ice, barren.

What is it that the mountains know
in their solitude?

İt is, perhaps something
we can never understand.

Much as the earliest tribes
who come here,

we too, know that these
Northern Rockies promise

only a first taste
of things to come.

They are a gateway,

an introduction to
our diverse continent:

a warning and a welcome
from the Spirit of the Mountains.

In contrast to
the snow-capped Rockles,

we find the dry desolation
of the desert lands.

The lowlands of the Death
Valley Desert are rugged,

forbidding and almost
unimaginabiy hot and dıy.

Lying in the rain shadow of the
massive Sierra-Nevada Mountains,

it receives less than
2 inches of rain a year

with temperatures reaching
120 degrees in the summer.

Elevations range from
280 feet below sea level

the lowest point
in the United States

to 11,000 feet
in the distant Panimint mountains

giving this land
a wide variety of ecosystems.

İn 1903, writer Mary Austin
called Death Valley

"The loneliest land that
ever came out of God's hands."

The artful balance oflife
and struggle to survive

is readily evident here
in the desert.

The will to survive
in this harshest of environments

teaches us much about
the intangible mysteries of nature.

The 500 sguare miles of
Utah's largest National Park

encompass the heart of
the Colorado plateau,

a grand sweep of
slick rock landscape,

whose massive rock layers
have been sculpted by water

and polished by incessant winds.

"The Great Unknown."

This is what explorer

and geologist John Wesley Powell
called this land.

In 1869 he led an expedition

into this unmapped
130,000 sguare mile region

shared by what is now Colorado,

Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.

He found aland of
high desert plateaus

that in places rose
nearly 2 miles above sea İlevel.

Streams and rivers
scored the land,

slashing awesome canyons

and scooping out amphitheaters

filled with fantastic
rock formations.

Although shaped by water,

Canyonlands is desert dry,

receiving just 7 to 9 inches
of precipitation a year,

much of that in torrential
summer thunderstorms.

The Colorado Plateau is
a land of standing rocks

and painted deserts

enclosing one of the greatest

concentrations of
parkland in the world

nine national parks

and dozens of national monuments

and wilderness areas.

As the earth turns,
and the days reveal themselves,

the cliffs and mesas of
the Grand Canyon seem to shift

and change color

under the fluctuating
guality of light.

Few spectacles in Nature
challenge the human imagination

more than the Grand Canyon.

Over 200 miles long
and an average of ten miles wide,

it is the indisputable titan
of the Colorado Plateau.

The Colorado River is responsible
for carving this canyon.

Even when you
cannot see the river,

you are constantiy reminded
of the powerful force of water

and time to shape, sculpt,

form and re-form rock
and earth and acknowledge

its awesome power to create.

Five million visitors come from
all over the world

each year to see
this natural wonder.

Yet, for so many who see it,

it's unfathomable enormity,

it's layers of time,

it's mystery, color and silence,

it still remains
beyond comprehension.

A million years ago,

glaciers sliding off
the Nevada mountains

carved out the valley
known as Yosemite.

With broad Seguolia groves,

thousands of streams,
lakes and rivers,

and hundreds of
species of wildlife,

Yosemite has long been
known as the Californian

"Garden of Eden."

Yosemite occupied a special place
in the heart of John Muir

who many consider to be
the father of the National Parks.

In 1901 he wrote:

"Climb the mountains
and get their good tidings.

Nature's peace will flow into you
as sunshine flows into trees.

The winds will blow
their own freshness into you

and the storms their energy

while cares drop
like autumn leaves."

"Everybody needs beauty
as well as bread,

places to play in and to pray in

where nature may heal

and give strength to body
and soul alike.

Keep close to nature's heart

and break clear away
once in a while

and climb a mountain
or spend a week in the woods.

Wash your spirit clean.

John Muir 1912."

Who would have thought that
a ten sguare mile preserve,

set aside to protect
a small hot springs complex

would mark the beginning of
Canada's National Park system?

But that's what happened in 1885

with the establishment of
the first National Park at Banff,

in a picturesgue corner
of the Rocky Mountains.

The Park system embraces
more than 35 parks

and in excess of
170,000 sguare miles.

Canada's vast National Park system

reflects the close relationship
to the natural world

and supports the commitment
Canadians have made

both nationally
and internationally

to support the global environment.

Today, Banff,

and the adjoining
Jasper National Park,

are prime destinations
for eco-tourists

from all over the world.

Yet, if one strays form
the beaten path just a little,

it is possible to believe
that man has never been here.

And isn't that,
at the end of the day,

the guest for all those
who visit the National Parks?

To believe that there is
a world out there that is higher,

and more majestic,
that the world of men.

That, as time marches on,

the loftiest achievements of Man

will always be in competition
with something as simple,

and elegant,
as a serene Alpine lake.

When we visit
the area of southern Utah,

we are reminded of the broad
range of natural spectacles

offered on this great continent.

Broad flatlands give way to
gulckly rising mountains.

Greenery and water are sparse,

yet that does not prohibit us

form sensing that this
place possesses a powerful energy.

Moving among these formations,

we feel as if we are approaching
the walls of an ancient city.

We are dwarfed
by their imposing nature,

made to wonder what Timeless
force made all this possible.

When writer Edward Abbey
saw this land,

he wrote,

"In this glare of
brilliant emptiness,

in this arid intensity
of pure heat

All things recede
annihilating all thought

and all that men have made
to spasms of whirling dust

far out on the golden desert."

Like the hoodoo and spires of
the Bryce Amphitheatre,

we are spectators,

witnesses who, in passing,

have come to feel uplifted
and renewed by this,

our National Parks Odyssey.