Cathedral Lakes Trail
Hiking Cathedral Lakes Trail from Tuolumne Meadows to Lower Cathedral Lake, surrounded by Cathedral, Echo, and Tresidder Peaks in Yosemite National Park.
Category National Park Service
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Boondocking In Dixie National Forest
Bryce Canyon National Park has a campground, but for boondockers like us, we were delighted to find campsites off a forest road in Dixie National Forest.
Sunrise Hiking
It's 5am and I lie in bed contemplating sleep. It would be so nice, but it seems to be avoiding me. To my right, Chris stirs. "Can't sleep?" Part of it is the sleeping. Part of it is the opportunity. We are parked right outside of Bryce National Park. The sun will be coming up in an hour or so. We have time to get there to see the sunrise. But it means facing the below freezing temperatures outside of our cozy bed. Even so, this very well may be a once in a lifetime opportunity. We are both tired, but even Chris doesn't grumble as we layer on ski pants, heavy coats, and dash for the truck cab.
Highway 63
Hit all the major vista points in Bryce Canyon National Park with Highway 63, skirting the rim of the hoodoo filled ampitheater.
Andrews Glacier Trail
Andrews Glacier Trail is a 9.3-mile in-out hike in the Bear Lake Area of Rocky Mountain National Park. It is one of a series of iconic hikes sprouting from the core Glacier Gorge loop. The hike itself is considered so minor among the group that, in a list of 17 Bear Lake Corridor Trails, it isn't even listed. But, that's part of the reason we chose the trail. Because when everything is as awe inspiring as Rocky Mountain National Park, the popular trails are clogged with traffic and the lesser trails—only lesser in the most relative of senses—are practically empty.
Old Fall River Road
Rocky Mountains National Park’s Old Fall River Road traverses 11 scenic miles from the valley floor to alpine heights. Built back in 1920, this road was early visitors automobile introduction to Rock Mountain National Park. Since its creation, the paved Trail Ridge Road has become the parks main thoroughfare. Yet, Old Fall River Road remains a scenic back road through the park, bypassing much of the congestion and chaos of the popular paved alternative.
Shafer Trail
Driving the Shafer Trail between Canyonlands National Park and Moab is absolutely hair raising. The descent from the park's visitors center to the canyon floor is a heart stopping collection of narrow switchbacks. Better yet, the narrow trail is flanked by a sheer, 1,000-foot cliff on one side and a rock wall on the other. And if that is not enough disincentive, there is little between you and a precipitous drop other than a few tenacious sage brush.
Grand Canyon National Park – South Rim
Seventy-miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona is one of the most iconic National Parks in the United States: the Grand Canyon. A drive along Highway 64 will travel between many iconic stops along the Grand Canyon's South Rim. Even as a day trip from Flagstaff, it is absolutely worth the trip.
Bombs, Dune Running, And Sun In White Sands National Monument
White Sands National Monument has been high on my list of places to visit for quite a while. It was also high on another list: a tentative list of new World Heritage Sites. You know, like the Pyramids of Giza, Galápagos Islands, and other major cultural or natural sites in the world.
Painted Desert, Petroglyphs, And An Ancient Rainforest In Petrified Forest National Park
When we pull off I-40 for Petrified Forest National Park, I expect to be looking at rocks. Yet, it takes us a while to get to the rocks. We are so distracted by the breathtaking views! The Painted Desert is result of the Chinle Formation. It is a mineral deposit from river beds over 200 million years ago, during the Late Triassic Period.