Rockland is a coastal city in Maine on the western shore of Penobscot Bay, known for its working harbor, maritime industries, and connection to the surrounding Midcoast landscape. The city developed around shipbuilding, fishing, lime production, and coastal trade, and its waterfront remains an important part of daily life. Rockland Harbor is sheltered by islands and peninsulas, with commercial fishing boats, pleasure craft, and passenger vessels using its waters.
Pangnirtung is an Inuit community on the eastern shore of Cumberland Peninsula on Baffin Island, Nunavut, overlooking the sheltered waters of Pangnirtung Fiord. Steep mountains and rocky slopes rise around the settlement, while the fiord opens toward the larger waters of Cumberland Sound. The community is often called the gateway to Auyuittuq National Park, which lies nearby across dramatic Arctic terrain.
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park occupies a large area of southeastern California, extending across the Colorado Desert east of San Diego County. It is California’s largest state park and contains a varied desert landscape of broad valleys, badlands, rocky mountains, palm oases, dry washes, and sandy plains. The park takes its name from Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and the Spanish word for bighorn sheep.
On South Plaza Island, sea lions breed all along the low lying northern coast. These sheer cliffs are home for swallow-tail gulls and the beautiful red billed tropic birds. The landscape is dominated by optunia cactus trees. A look under each tree reveals a land iguana patiently waiting for a succulent cactus pad to fall.
Framingham is a city in eastern Massachusetts, located about 20 miles west of Boston in the MetroWest region. Its landscape combines developed neighborhoods and commercial districts with wooded areas, ponds, and former agricultural land. The Sudbury River and several smaller waterways pass through the surrounding area, while Cochituate State Park provides a large recreational lake nearby.