National Parks

October 18, 2009 Aspens, Rocky Mountain National Park, September 2006 Garden bloggers love the great outdoors and are an adventurous bunch. That’s what I learned this week while reading about visits we’ve made to national parks, national monuments, and other special places that have been set aside for the enjoyment ...

October 18, 2009 Aspens, Rocky Mountain National Park, September 2006 Garden bloggers love the great outdoors and are an adventurous bunch. That’s what I learned this week while reading about visits we’ve made to national parks, national monuments, and other special places that have been set aside for the enjoyment ...

October 16, 2009 Before I ever went on safari in Tanzania’s national parks, I traveled with my family to Yellowstone in mid-May of 2000 and saw so many large mammals that I felt as if I were on safari in the American West. Winter had only just released its grip ...

October 14, 2009 Grand Teton National Park in northwestern Wyoming If you can widen your window, please do so you can see the whole image. Grainy though these scanned prints are, their panorama width gives a much better feel for the immensity of Grand Teton than a regular-size photo could ...

October 13, 2009 Bierstadt Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado After Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which figured prominently in my childhood travels, Rocky Mountain National Park is the one I’ve visited most often. New Yorkers head for Florida in the summer, right? Well, Texans head for Colorado. If you ...

October 12, 2009 The world is full of beautiful places, and proclaiming one the most beautiful is, I’ll admit, as capricious as crowning one person the most lovely. Still, Yosemite National Park has to rank near the top. My husband and I visited in October of 1995, on a side ...

October 11, 2009 The mule doesn’t want to die either. That’s what I keep telling myself as I ride Buttermilk down Bright Angel Trail to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, 4,000 feet and 5-1/2 hours below. Her sides are broader than the trail itself, so when I lift my ...

October 11, 2009 Aspens along Alberta Falls trail, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado Last week I invited other bloggers to post their favorite stories or pictures of a national park they’ve visited. I’d just watched Ken Burns’ series The National Parks, which illustrates how America’s attitude toward its national parks ...

October 11, 2009 Aspens along Alberta Falls trail, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado Last week I invited other bloggers to post their favorite stories or pictures of a national park they’ve visited. I’d just watched Ken Burns’ series The National Parks, which illustrates how America’s attitude toward its national parks ...

October 07, 2009 Golden thryallis (Galphimia glauca) Last week, as my family and I watched the celebratory Ken Burns series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, I thought back over all the visits to national parks that I’ve made with my parents, my husband, and my children over the years ...

October 07, 2009 Golden thryallis (Galphimia glauca) Last week, as my family and I watched the celebratory Ken Burns series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, I thought back over all the visits to national parks that I’ve made with my parents, my husband, and my children over the years ...

July 16, 2008 View Larger Map 4,650 miles. 20 days. One car. Two kids. A ton of luggage. We just returned from a three-week road trip—an early-U.S. history tour, you could say. We wanted our kids to learn about the colonial era, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War, and ...

July 13, 2007 Masai mother and child The friendliness of the people we met in Tanzania transcended language barriers and cultural differences. Admittedly, we were sheltered from meeting people on the street, due to the fact that we were part of a large tour group, and most of our interactions ...

July 13, 2007 My favorite African animal Just now, at midnight, I walked down my dark driveway to drop a bag into the garbage can. The tree shadows and my imagination made it seem a little creepy out there. It reminded me that while visiting the national parks of Tanzania, ...

December 31, 2006 Ridge view at Big Bend. Photo by Dave and Shelley. Over Christmas, my friends Shelley and Dave and their daughter drove 10 hours to Big Bend National Park, located in remote southwest Texas and tucked into a wide curve of the Rio Grande. Four hundred and seventy-four ...

December 31, 2006 Ridge view at Big Bend. Photo by Dave and Shelley. Over Christmas, my friends Shelley and Dave and their daughter drove 10 hours to Big Bend National Park, located in remote southwest Texas and tucked into a wide curve of the Rio Grande. Four hundred and seventy-four ...