Sacred Land

via National Geographic Photo of the Day http://feeds.nationalgeographic.com/~r/ng/photography/photo-of-the-day/~3/_VrKm7yB1gc/

Patos Island, one of Washington's San Juan Islands, is part of a thousand-acre national monument created last year by President Barack Obama. Wilderness, a higher form of land protection, covers 350 acres of the San Juans.

See more pictures from the September 2014 feature story “50 Years of Wilderness.”