On July 20, 1969, the Lunar Module Eagle touched down on the moon, and humans took their first small steps on a world beyond Earth. The moon may be a giant leap away (about 238,900 miles, give or take a few moonbeams), but you only need a few small steps to find spectacular views of it from your national parks. We think they’re pretty out of this world. 🚀 Beyond offering some of the best places to gaze at the night sky, national parks have long been destinations for scientific discovery, exploration, and innovation. In fact, some parks helped prepare astronauts for their journeys beyond Earth. Places like Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park provided volcanic landscapes that helped astronauts train for the challenges of exploring the lunar surface. Today, the National Park Service and nasa continue to collaborate on research, data collection, and outreach, because exploring Earth and exploring space have more in common than you mig...