Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
Following part of the Lincoln Heritage Trail, we drive two hours to Abraham Lincoln's third home in Indiana. The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial marks the…
Marsh – Billings – Rockefeller National Historical Park
All our knowledge of Vermont came from fleeting passages in a lengthy lecture series of American History. I think 30 minutes in total was covered…
Cane River Creole National Historical Park
Cane River Creole National Historical Park was our first foray upon entering Louisiana. Right along Cane River Lake, reside two French Creole cotton plantations both…
Statue Of Liberty National Monument
In honor of the Union's defeat of slavery and the Confederate south, France gifted the United States with a colossal neoclassical statue. Her real name…
Mount Rushmore
On the whole, Mount Rushmore feels like some mix between a roadside tourist attraction and a national monument. Likely that is because it was first…
Yellowstone: Mammoth Hot Springs
Fissures, Faults & Water Angry steam billows upward in white plumes from bubbling rusty orange puddles swirled in limestone white, while an acrid rotten-egg smell of…
Easy Hikes of Craters of the Moon
Long ago, a huge serpent miles in length, lay where the channel of the Snake River is now. Though the serpent was never known to…
5 Deadliest National Parks
Back in the summer of 2016, I remember reading an article about an Oregonian 23-year-old man who went over 225 yards off the boardwalk trail,…
Minidoka National Historic Site
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized Executive Order 9066, it seized the freedom of over 110,000 people. Two-thirds were American citizens and half of the…
City of Rocks National Reserve
Officially named as City of Rocks National Reserve, I recently discovered this place after doing a quick search for national parks in Idaho. The 1840s…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
Casa Grande, Arizona
Casa Grande Arizona is home to the Casa Grande RV Resort and thus was home to us for about three weeks time. We've been waiting…
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…
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…
