Category: National Park
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Acadia: “Crown Jewel of the North Atlantic”
Acadia National Park was established in 1916 with land donated by local citizens who valued and wanted to preserve the mountains, woodlands and ocean shoreline in perpetuity. Their dedication and foresight continue to inspire and benefit all Americans to this day. We enjoyed our hikes through the forest, and stunning views along the coastline. This…
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Bryce Canyon National Park
Last year, we visited Zion and Canyonlands but skipped Bryce Canyon due to anticipated crowds, so we made a point to visit this summer. This beautiful and special place is sure to mesmerize and inspire even the most hardened of souls. Bryce Canyon National Park lies on the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau in…
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Grand Teton National Park
With 46.7% of Wyoming falling under federal management (Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service), there are two remarkable national parks in northwest Wyoming worth visiting: The Grand Teton National Park with 300,000 acres, and Yellowstone National Park, with 2.2 million acres spanning three states (Wyoming, Montana…
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Gateway Arch National Park
The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial was established by executive order in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. An architectural competition was held in 1945 to choose the design of the memorial which would celebrate the westward expansion of the United States championed by President Thomas Jefferson. Eero Saarinen’s design for the memorial was selected in…
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The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert
We visited the Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert almost four weeks ago. At the time of this posting we are heading east and visiting friends and family as we continue toward home. Hope the smoke from the fire in Canada was not as bad as the news makes it appear. This was…
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Zion Canyon
First established in 1909 as Mukuntuweap National Monument, the Monument was renamed Zion in 1909 by the Acting Director of the newly established National Park Service due to concerns that the original Native American name would deter visitors who might have difficulty pronouncing its name. Zion National Monument became a National Park on November 19,…
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Arches and Canyons
We arrived in Utah on the thirty-second day of our travels; a first visit to the state for us both. We had a five-night stay planned in Moab, because we wanted to visit both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. A visit to Arches requires some advanced planning as from April 1 to October 31, the…
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Mesa Verde National Park
Established by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Mesa Verde National Park encompasses over 52,000 acres near the Four Corners region. Designated as an UNESCO World Heritage Site, it preserves more than 600 cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people. The first people settled in Mesa Verde in AD 550. Their homes were “pit houses“, sunken rooms with…
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Great Views, Sand and Pistachios
Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is a New Mexico state park located at the foot of the Sacramento Mountains. The park is 4,400 feet above sea level. The Sacramento Mountains, which border the park and show in the background of the photo below, reach an elevation of 6,700 feet. This shot was taken from the…
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Deep Under the Chihuahuan Desert
The Carlsbad Caverns is located 754 feet below the surface of the desert. Discovered by Jim White in 1882, the limestone cave was formed not by water erosion but by sulfuric acid corrosion. Deep below the limestone cavern are petroleum reserves. As hydrogen sulfide seeped up through the earth it reacted with dissolved oxygen in…