The Arches of Arches National Park
After the third visit to Arches National Park, I'm beginning to understand why it's such a popular park: many of the viewpoints are easily accessible…
Arches: Fiery Furnace
Within Arches National Park, remains a pocket of wilderness where there is no other destination than what you discover. The Fiery Furnace is a maze…
Arches: Park Avenue
2,000: That's the official estimate number of natural arches found within Arches National Park. Arches may be the stars of this show, but they have…
6 Underrated National Parks to Visit
I watch as the line of cars extends nearly a mile beyond the park boundary and onto the highway itself. Traffic cones beam day-glow orange…
Capitol Reef: Scenic Drive & Capitol Gorge Trail
I love the raw beauty to Capital Reef National Park: the towering cliffs encasing a green oasis of Fruita valley, the mysterious canyons and distant…
Grand Staircase-Escalante: Devil’s Garden
Apparently, there are quite a few places in the world called "Devil's Garden" and the one we explored on this occasion was found in the…
Capitol Reef: Burr Trail Road & Notom-Bullfrog Road
To get to Burr Trail Road, we took Utah Scenic Byway 12 south for 38 miles toward the small town of Boulder from Torrey. SB-12…
Capitol Reef: Lower Cathedral Valley
The best way to visit Capitol Reef National Park is via long road trips on dusty dirt roads, some requiring 4 wheel drive and possibly…
Capitol Reef: Fruita & Fremont River Trail
Capitol Reef National Park feels like a secret. Hidden away in the remote back routes of Utah, and as evident by the low tourist population,…
Scenic Highway 12 and Escalante Petrified Forest State Park
Scenic Highway 12 Some of Utah's most gorgeous high desert scenery unravels along this all-American highway. The entirety of the road starts near Bryce Canyon…
Bryce Canyon: Mossy Cave and Fairyland Point
Mossy Cave Trail Hitch and I took Highway 12, a little less than 4 miles beyond the SR-63 turn-off. I found this hike exceedingly pleasant,…
Red Canyon, Dixie National Forest
Under the jurisdiction of Dixie National Forest is an excellent prelude to Bryce Canyon, if you are traveling eastbound on Highway 12. When we were…
Bryce Canyon National Park: Highway 63 & Bristlecone Loop
Utah State Route 63 We drove southward from the Bryce Visitor's Center and took SR-63 all the way to Rainbow Point. It's a little over…
Bryce Canyon National Park: Queen’s Garden and Navajo Loop Combo
To absorb the true meaning of Bryce Canyon National Park, I felt that I had to descend into the canyon itself. There's a quote from…
Zion East: Driving Nirvana
Zion National Park Scenic Byway From Canyon Junction to Mount Carmel Junction on Utah Highway 9. The drive heads up and east, paralleling Pine Creek,…
Zion National Park: Northgate Peaks Trail
Northgate Peaks Trail Overlook on Kolob Terrace Kolob Terrace, also known as Kolob Plateau, is a less-visited section of Zion and is accessible via the…
Zion National Park: Weeping Rock & Timber Overlook Trail
The Weeping Rock, Zion National Park Main Canyon The verdant gardens of Weeping Rock are exquisitely beautiful. In the early morning and without another soul…
Zion National Park: Emerald Pools & Kayenta Trail
Hiking Zion's Emerald Pools The trail to Emerald Pools is a Zion National Park signature hike and a must for any first time visitor. It's…
Zion National Park: Riverwalk Trail
Zion National Park is pretty popular and received some 3.6 million visitors alone last year. Not as much as Grand Canyon's 5.2 million visitors, but…
Padre Island National Seashore
Off the coast of Texas lies the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island in the world: Padre Island National Seashore. Just over 70 miles long…
Horseshoe Bend in Glen Canyon
I've seen Horseshoe Bend a few times in photographs on the National Geographic website, but when we got to Arizona I started seeing the image quite frequently…
Touring the Canyons of Lake Powell
As we drove up to Wahweap Bay, we both let out a long sigh-like "wow". We beheld shimmering blue-green water and cresting rocks of white, red,…
Upper Antelope Canyon
Antelope Canyon lies in the great Navajo Nation wherein meanders down from the hills into lake Powell. Antelope Canyon has a few different bits and…
Big Bend National Park: East Side Trails
For the remainder of our stay at Big Bend, we pushed toward the distant eastern side of the national park. As we drove toward Rio…
Grand Canyon: Village to Visitor Center
Grand Canyon's Trail of Time Starting from Vankamp's Visitor Center of the Grand Canyon Village, we hiked the South Rim trail along the newly created…
Glen Canyon River Trip
While at the Grand Canyon visitors center I'd read that tour guides ran calm water rafting trips from Glen Canyon Dam down the Colorado river…
Grand Canyon: Desert View Drive
Grand Canyon's Desert View Point Just south of Mather Point, we took Desert View Drive eastward for about 23 miles to reach Desert View Watchtower.…
Grand Canyon Village Historic District
If you’re into history, the Grand Canyon Village within the Grand Canyon National Park is an excellent place to explore and most of the buildings…
Waco Mammoth National Monument
As we rolled into Waco Texas, the only thing I knew of it was the Branch Davidian shootout that took place in there in 1993. It turns…
Grand Canyon: Hermit’s Rest to Bright Angel
The best way to see the Grand Canyon without punishing yourself on a heart-bursting in-and-out hike of the canyon is to hike the Rim Trail.…
Big Bend National Park: Chisos Basin
At the heart of Big Bend National Park resides the Chisos Mountains. They extend nearly twenty miles from the Punta del la Sierra in the…
Big Bend National Park: Western Desert
Big Bend National Park is a magical place for the outdoor lover. Avid hikers will find a paradise of trails within the borders of this…
Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monuments
Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument is one of three national monuments near Flagstaff Arizona. We alternated our site-seeing between the…
Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well and Tuzigoot
Arizona is packed with National Monuments, having more than any other state. Everywhere we go in the state there are amazing things to see and…
Navigating Grand Canyon National Park
Visiting Grand Canyon National Park on the South Rim required a lot more planning than I had originally expected, but this is why I planned…
Saguaro National Park East
In our second trip to Saguaro National Park, we headed out to the Rincon Mountains to see what the East half of the park had…
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
Our trip to Organ Pipe National Monument took over 2 hours to reach, and along the way we noticed several border patrol stops. Which makes…
Saguaro National Park West
We took a trip to Saguaro National Park late in the morning and the temperature was already reaching a high of 86°F. This is unusually…
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Within the northern boundaries of the Chihuahuan Desert of western Texas resides an underrated gem of the National Park System: Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Do…
Carlsbad Caverns: Left Hand Tunnel
Crisis in the Caves, 1979 On a hot July day in 1979, four men entered the elevator leading down into the Big Room of Carlsbad…
Grand Canyon West
I'd first like to preface that Grand Canyon West is not a part of the Grand Canyon National Park. It's a private amusement park owned…
Spectacular Views of Death Valley National Park
Our first stop in Death Valley was a spot called Dante's View. What makes it such a good starting place is that it overlooks a…
Death Valley Sand and Pupfish!
If you're much of a Star Wars fan like we are, you may remember the scene in New Hope where C3P0 and R2D2 are arguing on…
Colors of Death Valley National Park
One of my favorite spots in Death Valley is Zabriskie Point. From this vantage point, we were surrounded by an unearthly desert landscape filled with wild erosion lines and the…
Driving in Death Valley National Park
Our trip to Death Valley was precipitated by a tip from our friend Dennis about the super bloom just getting under way. He was planning…
Death Valley: Would you like salt with that?
Our first day exploring death valley was a low point of our American journey; -282 feet below sea level to be exact; as low as…
Super bloom, Super Awesome in Death Valley!
Trail and I were enjoying southern Arizona and planning to continue making our way deeper into the state when I got a Facebook message from…
Ash Meadows National Wildlife Reserve
Ash Meadows National Wildlife Reserve is located in Nevada not far from the much larger Death Valley and quite close to our current base of…
Carlsbad Caverns: Slaughter Canyon Cave
Tom's Missing Goats Tom Tucker went searching for a group of missing goats back in on hot July day in 1937. Eventually, he found his…
Revisiting Joshua Tree National Park
The amazing views of Joshua Tree National Park griped us so well on our first trip, that returning for a longer stay seemed natural. One…
