Mount Rushmore musings during Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
September 14, 2018 When my daughter and I set off on a hastily planned, pre-college road trip through the Great American West, we didn’t know thousands of motorcyclists participating in the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally would be accompanying us, roaring along the scenic highways in their black tees, denim, and leather, ...
After the volcano blows: Crater Lake National Park
September 04, 2017 Mt. Mazama spilled its guts in a massive volcanic eruption 7,700 years ago, emptying itself out to such an extent that the mountain collapsed in on itself, creating a 3,900-foot-deep caldera. As the centuries ticked by, the caldera partially filled with snowmelt and rainfall, transforming into a ...
Playing among giants at Redwood National Park and a hike in Fern Canyon
September 03, 2017 Want to feel ant-sized and incredibly young? Any number of national parks will have you marveling over nature’s immensity and your own small place in it. But Redwood National Park, located along the northern coast of California near Oregon, shrinks you right down to bug size as ...
Going underground at Carlsbad Caverns
August 30, 2016 With the 100th birthday of the U.S. National Park Service this month, I’m pleased we were able to visit two National Parks on our recent road trip: Mesa Verde in Colorado and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. We’d visited before with our eldest when he was little ...
Cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park
August 26, 2016 Yesterday the U.S. National Park Service celebrated its centennial. My family and I love visiting national parks, and during our recent road trip through New Mexico and up to Durango, Colorado, we couldn’t pass up the chance to see a new one (to us): Mesa Verde National ...
Tanzanian safari: Tent camp on the Serengeti, crocodiles, and soaring over volcanoes
January 14, 2014 We made several more game drives while visiting the western corridor of Serengeti National Park (June 2007), seeing many, many elephants — and I took so many photos of them that my family got elephant-fatigue when viewing them later. I’ll only show you a few, and not ...
Tanzanian safari: Serengeti National Park and sunrise hot-air balloon ride
January 13, 2014 We left the Maasai village (June 2007 trip to Tanzania) and got back on the dirt road heading to Serengeti National Park. The drive in our open-roofed cars was long, dusty, and jolting. Open grasslands gave way to a savanna with flat-topped acacias and occasional spring-fed watering ...
Tanzanian safari: Ngorongoro Crater
January 12, 2014 After our visit to Mto wa Mbu (June 2007 trip to Tanzania), we returned to the lodge for lunch and then hopped back in the vehicles for the drive to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The road climbed, the air cooled, and when we stopped at an overlook to ...
Tanzanian safari: Maasai school and Lake Manyara National Park
January 12, 2014 On our fourth day in Tanzania (June 2007) we visited a local school on the way to Lake Manyara. An English-language world map was painted on the school building. The only city noted on it is New York, which is of course how New Yorkers see the ...
Tanzanian safari: Elephants, lions, and baobabs in Tarangire National Park
January 10, 2014 On our second full day in Tanzania (June 2007), we drove to Tarangire National Park, a 1,000-square-mile preserve located 75 miles away from Arusha. On the drive there, my face was pressed to the window, and I grew increasingly excited to see zebras and gazelles grazing in ...
Celebrating Our National Parks: A bloggers’ meme reprise
September 28, 2013 Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona Today is National Public Lands Day, the “largest, single-day volunteer effort for public lands” in the U.S., which includes free admission to U.S. national parks, monuments, and forests. It’s my goal to see as many national parks as possible — and I ...
Rocky Mountain National Park: Bear Lake, wildlife, and tundra
July 12, 2012 My family and I recently enjoyed a nearly two-week vacation in Colorado, and I’d love to share some photos from Rocky Mountain National Park, a favorite destination for this Texan looking to escape the heat for a little while. Bear Lake Trail is an easy hike around ...
Canyons, river, and sky: Big Bend country (Days 2-3)
March 20, 2012 Following up on my overall impressions of Big Bend National Park, today I’ll take you on a tour of the sights. Our first morning we drove up into the Chisos Mountains to hike the Chisos Basin Loop Trail. At an elevation of 4,500 feet over the desert ...
Big sky, scorched earth at Big Bend National Park (Day 1)
March 19, 2012 Lured west by the mystery of one of America’s lesser known national parks, we packed broad-brimmed hats, sunscreen, and several gallons of water in the trunk and left behind the crowds of SXSW last Wednesday, driving for 8 hours through increasingly open country to Big Bend. Traveling ...
Majestic Mount Rainier National Park
August 27, 2011 During our vacation in Seattle at the end of July, we rented a car and drove to Mount Rainier National Park, about 2-1/2 hours southeast of the city. Snowcapped even in summer, Mt. Rainier is the highest peak in the Cascade Range at 14,410 feet. The day ...
Everglades National Park: A beautiful, mysterious waterworld
March 23, 2010 Anhingas and flowering bromeliads in the Everglades, Florida On telling friends that we were planning to visit Everglades National Park, my husband and I found that raised eyebrows and wrinkled noses were the most common responses. Why visit a bug-infested swamp, they asked. We have a thing ...
