There are many ways to explore Mesa Verde, be it by car, hiking trail, or guided tour. Like many National Parks, Mesa Verde boasts a dramatic scenic route with numerous vista pullouts and interpretive displays. Even visitors with severely limited time can enjoy a quick taste of the park by driving the Mesa Top Loop to wet their appetite for a longer visit. Hiking trails across the park highlight not only the remarkable structures in the park but the beautiful landscape.
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.
As if to underscore that these missile bases were truly in the middle of nowhere, a herd of cows and calves graze by the parking lot of the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Delta-09. Not much has changed here from the 1960s when the silos were still in operation.
The bluffs, spires, and gorges of the Badlands National Park are thanks to delicate rock which is easily eroded by wind and rain. One of the locations that these dramatic formations are best experienced is along the Window Trail.
Notch Trail is not for those afraid of heights. It doesn't help that the rope ladder to the butte shelf is easier to climb up than down. But for those with the constitution to scramble the 1.5 mile loop along a butte outcropping, there are magnificent and exclusive vistas to be experienced
The Badlands National Park has a wealth of short hikes for visitors to enjoy. The Cliff Shelf Nature Trail is only a half mile boardwalk loop trails through a small juniper forest and sporting views of eroded sandstone buttes.
Badlands National Park can get remarkably hot in the summer. Granted, it's no Death Valley, but the idea of an extended hike in the midday heat is unwelcome. So, the quarter mile loop of the Fossil Exhibit Trail is an opportunity to get out and stretch ones legs without working up a sweat.
Buffalo may wander through Sage Creek Campground. Tent campers are warned that buffalo may try to scratch themselves against the tends. It's all fun and games, though, until the buffalo roles.
Cracker Lake Trail is a 12 mile hike deep into Glacier National Park through grizzly territory. The 1,400 foot elevation gain may be less than half of what we experienced in Big Pine but is still considered "strenuous" by many hiking metrics. In the course of the hike, we encountered waterfalls, glaciers, a wide range of ecosystems, a bull moose, and a grizzly bear.
Some people think that bacon makes everything better. I maintain that prosciutto makes everything better. Tonight, I wrapped chicken thighs in prosciutto to cook in the cask iron skillet. Having learned from my time consuming first experience of cooking chicken over a campfire, I bought boneless chicken. It was skinless—the prosciutto would make a more flavorful replacement. While I did add some salt and pepper, truly, the prosciutto was what defined the meal.