US National Parks

Driving Along Black Canyon of the Gunnison’s Stunning Cliffs

To be perfectly honest I was not aware of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park until recently. However, it was a good one to add to our list of national park visits in Colorado. Someone told me it was like Grand Canyon National Park. To some extent that’s true, but the Black Canyon seems deeper and more narrow with its own beauty so it is worth visiting. We didn’t make an effort to leave Ourey very early. The…

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Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park Yields Amazing Vistas

They say timing is everything. We discovered that to be true in a number of ways as we visited Mesa Verde National Park in the southwest of Colorado. This was our second of three national parks on our agenda for this trip. It was quite a different experience from our visit to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The main focus of Mesa Verde National Park is preserving the Native American structures and sharing about their culture. Established in 1906, the…

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Great Sand Dunes National Park in the Spring

Our purpose in visiting Colorado was to check a few more national parks off our bucket list. I don’t think we will ever be able to visit all of the 64 parks, but I am hoping we can at least make it half way. This trip will add three more to the list with Great Sand Dunes National Park our first one. I have to admit I had not heard of Great Sand Dunes until I started researching our national…

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Hiking Hills and Sand Dunes in Death Valley

After a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast at our hotel, we were ready to begin our second day around Death Valley. It was another clear blue-sky day which started out cold, but quickly warmed up with the sun. Our first experience when we arrived in Death Valley was a drive through the hills on the east side of the Black Mountains. The drive is called Twenty Mule Team Canyon Road. Those of you who are older might be…

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Exploring the Highs and Lows of Death Valley

I realized recently that I have been to almost all of the national parks in California. Only two remained, Death Valley and Sequoia & Kings Canyon. I had tried for a few year to make it to Death Valley, but no one would go with me. Finally I convinced my wife to go, and so we began to plan our adventure. Death Valley has hit 130 degrees twice in the last few years. This of course was during the summer…

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From Sunset to Winds at White Sands National Park

White Sands National Park is one of the newest National Parks in the US. Originally a National Monument, Congress changed it to a National Park is 2019. However, as we drove up to the park, some of the signs still said White Sands National Monument. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s start back at the beginning of Saturday. White Sands had been one of my prime destination for this trip. However, getting there turned out to be more…

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Descending into the Depths of Carlsbad Caverns

When I was a kid, my dad mentioned visiting Carlsbad Caverns and what a unique experience it was. Since then I have always wanted to visit it. While I said that visiting White Sands National Park was the reason for this trip, Carlsbad Caverns National Park was definitely a part of the reason as well. About 20 years ago my wife and I had visited Albuquerque. At that time I realized Carlsbad Caverns was quite far south so we didn’t…

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A Spring Hike in Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Guadalupe Mountains National Park was never on my bucket list. In fact it wasn’t even on my radar. When I began to do planning for our trip to White Sands National Park, I saw a dot on the map indicating a National Park. I was surprised as I didn’t know of one there. That’s how I discovered Guadalupe Mountains National Park. It fit perfectly into our travel itinerary so I added it to our list of things to do. The…

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More Than Just Redwood Trees

Redwood National and State Parks is more than just the redwood trees in its names. While the trees are often the star, the parks covers a lot of territory so a visit will allow you to see more than just trees. On our second day in the park we saw trees, but we saw more as well. During our first stop of the day, we saw no redwoods. We would take a fairly short hike around the Yurok Loop. The…

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US National Parks: A Look at History

The National Park Service was established in 1916 to take care of the nation’s many parks. While most people only think of the 63 National Parks, the agency cares for other parks as well. The National Parks such as Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Glacier focus on nature. These parks preserve the land, plants and animals that provide unique landscapes. On the other hand US National Historical Parks seek to preserve important historical locations throughout the nation. Currently the National Park…

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