All tagged National Park
Any visitor to Florida's Ocala National Forest needs to include the Alexander Springs Run on their list of things to see. This first-magnitude spring discharges over 60 million gallons of spring water daily, with a boil strong enough to be easily observed from the shoreline.
Picking only five paddle fishing trips to take in Florida? Ha! You’ll find hundreds, no, thousands, of such trips to take here. However, if we had to pick five, these would not be a bad start.
At the north end of the Mosquito Lagoon a labyrinth of islands, channels, and shallow ponds hosts loads of wading birds, dolphins, redfish, and seatrout. Canaveral National Seashore administers a dozen National Park Service campsites here.
The Tacoma rolled into Stephen C. Foster State Park, not stopping until we reached the marina. Mike and River went looking for alligators while I checked in to our campsite. Then Mike was talking to a park employee. "I don't know that I'd bring a dog out there," he said. "Alligators have gone into boats to get at dogs here."
On our trip around the USA, which lasted 153 days (give or take one or two), Susan and I traveled a total of 15,783 miles in our Sienna van. The van used 702.5 gallons of gasoline to do that, which cost me $2,271.91. The fuel economy for the entire trip came out to 22.5 miles per gallon.
he hills in southeastern Ohio were unexpected. We crossed the terminal moraine left by the last glacial advance shortly after passing Canton. Without the grinding action of the glaciers, the topography was relatively unaffected. The soils and groundwater were not affected either.
After an hour's drive from Rapid City on the interstate, we reached Badlands National Park. Bison greeted us first; then the ranger at the park's entrance station did. She gave us a park map, and said, "The first pullout you'll come to is the one for the Pinnacles."
One of the places I wanted to visit during our trip was the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Here the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes combined forces in a last-ditch effort to protect their homes and way of life. Pitted against them was the US Army's Seventh Cavalry, led by General George Custer.
Anyone who loves the outdoors has been told, "You HAVE to visit Yosemite!" I'd certainly heard it, over and over. Enough people follow the advice that one needs reservations just to enter the park. It has gotten that crowded the past few years.
A volcanic national park? What the heck is that? Will I see volcanoes blowing up? When you visit Lassen for the first time, you don't know what to expect. It slaps you in the face pretty quickly! After leaving the visitor center, a short ride puts you at Sulphur Works. Here, numerous vents in the ground emit sulfur-stinking steam.
We got off of I-70 onto Utah Highway 24. This was as desolate a piece of road as we had seen. I was glad I had filled up at the last gas station! We got to Hanksville, and were surprised by not one but two gas stations. We continued west, headed to Capitol Reef.
