Author's posts
Sep 30 2024
Dark Hollow Falls in Shenandoah National Park
Dark Hollow Falls is one of the most popular waterfalls in Shenandoah National Park—and one of the easiest major falls in the park to reach from Skyline Drive. The trail descends through a cool, wooded hollow alongside a tumbling mountain stream before arriving at a beautiful series of cascades culminating in the roughly 70-foot waterfall. …
Sep 30 2024
The Top Hikes in Shenandoah National Park
Shenandoah National Park is one of the great hiking destinations of the eastern United States. More than 500 miles of trails cross Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, leading to rocky summits, Appalachian forests, tumbling waterfalls, quiet streams, historic sites, and viewpoints overlooking the Shenandoah Valley and Virginia Piedmont. The variety is one of Shenandoah’s greatest strengths. …
Sep 29 2024
Where is Sequoia National Park?
Sequoia National Park is located in California’s southern Sierra Nevada, east of the San Joaquin Valley and roughly midway between Los Angeles and Yosemite National Park. The park lies primarily in Tulare County and protects an extraordinary range of landscapes, from hot foothill canyons near 1,400 feet above sea level to alpine wilderness surrounding some …
Sep 29 2024
The Best Sequoia National Park Trails
Sequoia National Park is famous for the largest trees on Earth, but hiking reveals a much bigger landscape than the giant sequoia groves alone. Trails lead beneath ancient trees, around quiet Sierra meadows, beside rushing rivers and waterfalls, across enormous granite domes, and high into alpine country overlooking the Great Western Divide. The variety is …
Sep 29 2024
Sequoia National Park’s General Sherman Tree
The General Sherman Tree is the most famous giant sequoia in Sequoia National Park and one of the most extraordinary living organisms on Earth. Standing in California’s Giant Forest, the immense tree rises nearly 275 feet above the forest floor and contains more wood in its trunk than any other known living tree. General Sherman …
Sep 29 2024
Best Hikes in Saguaro National Park: Trails, Difficulty & Hiking Guide
Saguaro National Park offers some of the most distinctive desert hiking in the United States. Trails wind through forests of towering saguaro cacti, cross sandy washes, climb rocky ridges above Tucson, pass historic homesteads and mines, and eventually rise from the Sonoran Desert into surprisingly cool mountain forests. The park is divided into two separate …
Sep 29 2024
Saguaro National Park Wildlife: Javelinas, Coyotes, Birds, Reptiles & More
Saguaro National Park may be named for its towering cactus forests, but the wildlife living among those saguaros is every bit as fascinating. Javelinas travel through desert washes, coyotes hunt across cactus-covered slopes, bobcats move quietly along rocky canyons, roadrunners race after lizards, Gila woodpeckers excavate homes inside saguaros, and desert tortoises emerge when temperature …
Sep 29 2024
Redwood National Park Wildlife: Roosevelt Elk, Bears, Birds & More
Redwood National Park is famous for containing some of the tallest trees on Earth, but the ancient forests of Northern California protect much more than giant redwoods. Roosevelt elk graze in coastal prairies, black bears wander through forests and river valleys, marbled murrelets fly between the Pacific Ocean and old-growth trees, and banana slugs slowly …
Sep 28 2024
Petrified Forest National Park Wildlife: Pronghorn, Coyotes, Reptiles & More
Petrified Forest National Park may be best known for brilliantly colored petrified wood and the striped badlands of the Painted Desert, but the park also protects a surprisingly rich community of living wildlife. Pronghorn move across open grasslands, coyotes hunt along washes, golden eagles soar over the badlands, and colorful collared lizards bask on sun-warmed …
Sep 28 2024
Petrified Forest National Park & Painted Desert: Scenic Drives, Hikes & Visitor Guide
Petrified Forest National Park is one of the most unusual landscapes in the American Southwest. Brilliant pieces of petrified wood lie scattered across rolling grasslands and eroded badlands, while the colorful hills of the Painted Desert stretch toward the horizon in bands of red, orange, purple, blue, gray, and white. Yet petrified logs are only …
