In 2016 we traveled to all 59 National Parks in the United States to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the National Park System.
“They wound this way and that, far down into the secret depths of the cave” – Mark Twain (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) Hanging out in Mammoth Cave with my beautiful new wife I couldn’t help but be reminded of Tom and Becky’s time in the cave. Granted our paths weren’t lit by candles and … [Read more…]
Our time in The Great Smokey Mountains was indeed, very smokey. A huge amount of the park was on fire when we arrived. Some of the road had been closed off in order to help protect visitors and allow wildland firefighter crews easy access to fight the flames. We had heard before hand that … [Read more…]
As we planned our trip, hitting the seasons just right was our biggest concern. The ultimate goal would be to time every park to be as close to 70 degrees as possible. We knew that some parks would be hotter, and some would be colder, but if we took our average temperature throughout the whole … [Read more…]
We have seen a lot of waterfalls this trip, but on our way to Maine, we decided to see THE Falls! We drove across to the Canada side of Niagra Falls to partake in the full glory. I had been there before and was telling Madison how massive they were. When we first laid eyes … [Read more…]
Cuyahoga is probably the hardest National Park to pronounce. And to tell the truth – we still aren’t entirely sure we are saying it right! We heard it said a number of ways; we stick to the kai-ho-ga… it seemed the locals almost dropped the middle “a”. Going to the Cleveland area with my … [Read more…]
Well, this is super sad. Because of complications with our RV, we didn’t make it in time to catch the boat over to Isle Royale this season. The park is technically open until the end of October, but the boats stop taking trips in the first week of October! But hey, we got a sign … [Read more…]
We were preparing for the ice age when we got to northern Minnesota in mid-October. We were behind schedule by at least two weeks and thought for sure it would be freezing. We were pleasantly surprised to find beautiful autumn weather and not another soul in sight. Voyageurs National Park is named after the French-Canadian fur … [Read more…]
Badlands? Try RADlands! This place was beyond cool. We try our best to be completely honest in our posts. I will admit that we tend to focus on the BEST parts of our trip, but I think that has to do with our personalities; we try and focus on the positive around here. But, I have … [Read more…]
On our way to Wind Cave National Park, we decided to hit up Mr. Rushmore. Mt. Rushmore is a National Memorial. It is managed by the National Park Service, but it isn’t a National Park. There are 413 NPS units. We would be at this for years had we decided to get to all of … [Read more…]
Leaving the comfort of family and familiarity in the West was a little intimidating. But, we made it to North Dakota! We were greeted by open, flat land as far as the eye can see, frigid wind, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park! When Theodore Roosevelt was a young New Yorker in 1883, he came to the … [Read more…]