Como Park Zoo & Conservatory hosts a breathtaking collection of plants and animals from around the world. In visiting, we were immediately drawn to the Ape enclosure where one of the largest Gorillas in captivity reclined with an understated authority. That being said, it seems like the Como Park Zoo & Conservatory is a place to be seen, not described. So, here we go:
Seven miles down a moderately managed dirt road in the Ouachita National Forest is the Little Missouri Falls. The drive is pretty doable for any car in the proper conditions—there is a creek crossing that could cause trouble after a heavy rain—but the reason to drive this road is the swimming hole at the end.
Cars cruise past our campsite, methodically crunching the gravel. It initially seemed odd to have a parade of vehicles regularly circle through the group camping area. Now we know better.
I bounce in my chair as we turn into Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park. The name, however, is a misnomer. These massive man made Mounds were originally attributed to the Toltec because locals believed that regional Indians were too savage to achieve such great earthworks. We now know that assumption to be wrong for multiple reasons.
Harpeth River State Park is composed of an archipelago of public islands in a sea of private land. Hiking to the top of the Harpeth River Narrows reveals miles of farm land as far as the eye can see. We had just gotten a new care package, courtesy of Duluth Trading Company, and decided this would be the time to take it for a spin.
My dress smells of campfire smoke, my hair is tangled by the wind, and my boots are caked with mud. And I couldn't be more content. We are visiting Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, straddling the Tennessee and Kentucky border for a weekend of camping, cooking, and hiking with friends.
After spending days in South Padre Island, here we are on the northern tip. While there are still sand dunes, they are smaller and quickly give way to grassy wetlands. As Padre Island National Seashore is to South Padre Island, Mustang State Park is to Corpus Christi. Here, the bayside residents can get in the wilderness to camp, swim, fish, and kayak. There is an extensive parking lot for RVs. I can only imagine how crowded this place gets on the weekends. We were there, though, to get our feet wet.
Thousands of miles from Death Valley yet only a couple weeks later, we wander a new collection of dunes. Very little of South Padre island is developed. The rest is rolling sand dunes for the crabs and clams and birds.
As far as I can divine, March on South Padre Island is an extended period of debauchery known as Spring Break. Wave after wave of college students descend onto the small spit of land along the Gulf Coast for each of their respective weeks off to experience everything that their parents earnestly told them not to do in the last eighteen years of their lives.
Big Bend National Park is 1,252 square miles of mountains, desert, and river in south east Texas. It sits in a niche along the Mexico border where the Rio Grand sweeps around half of the park's border. It is host to magnificent cliffs, breathtaking expanses, and vibrant wildlife.