Category: National Parks
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Paint me a picture
The destination has always been Big Bend National Park. 13 days would be more than enough to get there. A night here, a weekend there, a concert, a reunion, a fishing anniversary … more than enough time. Until it wasn’t. When we pulled into Southwinds Marina at Amistad National Recreation Area it felt like stay….
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Rocky Mountain High, Cuyahoga Valley Low
If Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is less known to the general public, then the parks on the other side of the Rocky Mountains – those that butt up against Denver – are known far too well. The cooler fall weather gets the Aspen trees to changing colors, the elk to migrating, and…
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Fade to Black Canyon
Utah’s Mighty Five National Parks is an ad campaign. Arizona’s Grand Canyon as a summer vacation destination is a product of a tourism bureau. State borders have been politically penciled in on a map. Western states separately promote their respective greatest natural wonders in a cut-up, disjointed series of signs, pamphlets, commercials and promotions. A…
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Trippin’ through Taos
Taos, New Mexico is a high desert arts community in the foothills of the Carson National Forest below the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. A four season destination, Taos is the temperate hub to access Rio Grande water sports, Rocky Mountain black diamond ski slopes, historical Indian Pueblos and the future of off-grid sustainable housing at…
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True Grit at Great Sand Dunes National Park
If you’re thinking Sand Dune, you might be thinking long-ass walk to the beach or riding a camel while wearing a white robe and Aladdin headwrap. At Great Sand Dunes in central Colorado it’s neither. A prevailing westerly wind whips across the sprawling south central Colorado plain sitting more than 7,000 feet above sea level….
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Smoke Gets in Your Eyes at Grand Teton
Our first National Park was a drive by. Yosemite, 2011, after a three day whitewater rafting trip on the wild and scenic Tuolumne River. We had a steak dinner in The Mountain View Dining Room, snapping photos of Yosemite Falls from our table near the window. Our feet never touched a trail. For us, the…
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Yellowstone on a Whim
Three hundred miles east of Ritzville, WA is Drummond, Montana. Peak outdoor season meant that the Montana State Parks were booked from Butte to Billings. When that happens, it is often the small town parks you can depend on. Drummond is another small town in a railroad dominated community where people live spread out and…
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Washington Wrap-up, No Lie!
Washington’s Badlands It’s been almost two months exploring the Evergreen State, showing up at the Grand Coulee Dam on June 22nd where we discovered the Badlands of eastern Washington. Sunny, dry and 70 degrees, it was a long sleeved hiking, biking, golfing and, if we only had one, boating dream. We spent our days at…
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Olympic Unplugged
While in Pacific Beach, we discovered that our full-hookup Navy MWR facility had strong, fast WIFI. We made use of Roxie’s built-in high gain router to put all of our devices online. We were so immersed that in no time we were signing up for Showtime free trials and binging Homeland. Back at full-hookup Joint…
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Hi Hoh, Hi Hoh, It’s off to Forks we go
We never read the books and we didn’t see the movies but our daughters were Twilight teens an when we heard the setting of Forks was a dozen miles from the second most visited site in Olympic National Park, we decided to go vampire and werewolf with a tenting trip in the Hoh rainforest. Following…