The sun rises as moose graze in Kidney Pond in Maine, under the shadow of the 4,000 ft. peak of Katahdin Mountain

Sunrise in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Locations include Black Sands Basin, Firehole River, Midway Geyser Basin, Lower Geyser Basin, and Riverside Geyser

Alligators, egrets, wood storks and ravens enjoy the first rays of sunshine from a gator hole in the Everglades National Park.

Bison awaken and graze in Yellowstone National Park.

A colony of terns watches the sun rise in the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge in Chatham, Massachusetts. This is the second-largest colony of terns on the Atlantic coast, with over 17,000 birds

Hot air balloons fly over Vermont's Green Mountains.

Alewives make the dangerous trek from the freshwater lakes of New England to the Atlantic Ocean.

Fisherman enjoy daybreak off the coast of Florida.

Sunrise over a sea cave full of young anemones and coralline algae.

Dawn in Yosemite National Park.

Early morning on the Penobscot River in Maine.

Giant sequoias welcome the sun in Sequoia National Park in California

Elephant seals crawl up the beach at California's Point Reyes National Seashore to soak up the first drops of sunshine at this seal colony at Chimney Point, California. Elephant seals play in the water after a hunt, and tule elk wander in a meadow.

Lobster fishermen begin their day in New Harbor, Maine

The Triangle X Ranch in Moose, Wyoming welcomes the new day as horses graze in the pasture and geese pass overhead.

Pahayokee, Everglade National Park, Florida. Savannah-like open sawgrass prairie stretches as far as the eye can see, punctuated by the occasional cypress tree. Beneath the apparent prairie, however, is a wide river flowing at a speed of more than one mile per hour. It's Marjorie Stoneham Douglas' famous "River of Grass." In fact this exact Pahayokee platform was this writer's most frequented Everglade destination. To better observe the workings of the underwater world, we submerge a camera and peer directly into the lives of mosquito fish and the enriching mat-like algae known as periphyton. Insects traverse the razor sharp strands of grass as the weather changes.

Watch Tule elk at sunrise in the Tule Elk Preserve in California.

The sun rises over the incoming waves on the Atlantic coast at Coast Guard Beach at the Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts.

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Schwabacher's Landing, Moose, Wyoming — The nocturnal beavers have settled into a small tributary under the sheer cirque walls, rugged ridges and jagged peaks of the Teton Range. Their engineering skill has produced an 8-foot high dam and a new pond for those creatures of the day: a great blue heron fishing in the morning mist, ducks with their ducklings, trout, and a goldfinch feeding her chick. We witness these two communities as they pass each other during the crossroad of dawn.

The Homosassa Spring on the Gulf coast of Florida is home to West Indian manatees.

Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine — At 1,532 feet, this is the highest vantage point along the North Atlantic seaboard. During certain times of year, the summit receives the rays of the first rising sun within the United States. The pea, composed of pink granite, is perched above a forest of spruce and pitch pine. Among the granite slabs are tiny sub-alpine plants such as cinquefoil, squat, gnarled trees, wild blueberries and various sized boulders. The view of the Maine archipelago is unsurpassed, with the Cranberry Islands foremost in the southwest.

Eastern U.S. — The sun hits the Atlantic seaboard five hours after the western coast of Europe, and a wide range of habitats begin the shift from the nocturnal to the heat and light of day. We observe the changes, as naturalists, from the sub-tropical ecosystem of the Everglades to the northern lakes of New England, from the very first light atop Cadillac Mountain in Maine to the sabal palms of the Gulf of Mexico. These are great sunrise moments in nearly a dozen morning ecosystems of the East.

Western U.S. — Crossing the North American continent in a scant four hours, dawn settles on the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the coastal ranges and beaches of California before departing the western shore. We witness the geo-dramas of Yellowstone geysers, herds of horses and bison on the open range, the spectacular lighting of the Teton Range. Then in California, we see the massive sequoia, tule elk, a rainbow of wildflowers, the Yosemite Valley, and elephant seals on the beach. These are the great sunrise moments in nearly a dozen morning ecosystems of the west.