January 7, 2012
Canyonlands is a magnificent National Park that’s split in three: one part of it just north of Moab, Utah, and two parts of it substantially south. Either end of the park that you explore results in amazing rock formations, beautiful views, and children with open mouths, wondering at the magical feel of the place. Of ...
November 24, 2011
I remember the first time I saw Yosemite National Park. My children and I were staying in Mammoth (Mammoth Lakes California). It was a steamy July, and I was still so new to the navigation of mountain roads with my kids along that I opted not to navigate them into the park. Instead, I took ...
October 11, 2011
While exploring the national parks of Utah, Dad and I decided to base camp at an RV resort in Hurricane, just over the Utah border in the extreme southwest corner of the state. We had a few extra days in Hurricane, so we decided to explore the area. On the advice of a friendly local ...
October 10, 2011
The national parks of Utah were high on our list of must-sees when Dad and I visited the American Southwest this summer. Due to some unexpected delays, we did not actually make it to Utah until September. As it turns out, the weather was perfect for our visit to Zion National Park. About Zion The ...
October 9, 2011
When Dad and I decided to spend the summer of 2011 exploring the American Southwest, we had a few specific destinations in mind. Near the top of the list were the best-known national parks in Utah — Zion, Arches and Bryce Canyon. For a variety of reasons, our visit to Utah was significantly delayed, but ...
August 26, 2011
The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is served by one major highway–US 64 from Williams, Arizona, an hour to the south. Although the road is well maintained and served by several tiny towns with gas and food, it can get quite crowded during the major tourist seasons. While we made the drive later in ...
August 5, 2011
What’s sweet as fudge, gooey as cotton candy, has as many tourists as Disneyland, is on the edge of a major national park, and pretty far off a major highway? Why that would be Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Ringed by the Le Conte and Sugarland Mountains, the Big Ride and Grape Ridge, Gatlinburg is in a lush, ...
July 9, 2011
The Three Rivers Petroglyph Site is in the middle of nowhere, along Highway 54 between Carrizozo and Tularosa, New Mexico. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the site’s tiny budget does not leave room for a Visitor Center, gift shop or restaurant. But there are clean restrooms and a small ranger station staffed by ...
July 8, 2011
New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park is the third largest cave system in the United States and arguably one of the best-known. I am a bit of a cave nut, so when Dad and I planned a Southwestern adventure, Carlsbad Caverns was one of my must-do attractions. We visited just days before a wildfire raged ...
July 7, 2011
Southern New Mexico is an interesting study in contrasts. Barely had the Old West died out, its outlaws and lawmen dead or too old to continue fighting, before the atomic age began. Although the atomic age officially started with the detonation of the first nuclear bombs in Japan during World War II, the groundwork was ...
