Gray wolves, Yellowstone National Park
Great white sharks, Guadalupe Island, Baja California
Why waste your time watching Shark Week or Sharknado 4 when you can practically take a selfie with the real thing? Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Baja California and just a day’s cruise from San Diego, has become the world capital of commercial great white watching, largely because the island’s population of seals draws a substantial number of the ocean’s apex predator. Once you arrive at Guadalupe, you’ll climb into a sturdy—really sturdy, they promise–metal cage and hooked up to a hose attached to an oxygen tank on deck. The cage and you are then lowered into the shark-filled water. And then it’s show time.
Monarch butterflies, California coast
Elephant seals, California coast
Brown bears, Alaska
Sandhill cranes, New Mexico and California
Elk, Jackson Hole
Humpback whales, Maui
Waterfowl, Northern California
Bats, Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Wood bison, Alaska
Wood bison were nearly extinct less than a century ago. Now, for the first time in living memory, the shaggy behemoths are wandering the Alaska wilderness, free. To find wood bison in Alaska, visit the remnant herd at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. The facility, about an hour south of Anchorage, hosts bears, moose, and musk oxen too. $13; alaskawildlife.org.