Author's posts
May 28 2026
National Parks by State: Complete Guide to All 50 States & 63 National Parks
From glacier-covered mountains in Alaska to coral reefs off Florida, ancient desert canyons in Utah, Appalachian forests in Virginia, and volcanic landscapes in Hawaiʻi, America’s national parks protect an extraordinary collection of landscapes, wildlife habitats, historic places, and cultural stories. There are currently 63 sites carrying the official “National Park” designation, but that number tells …
May 28 2026
Acadia National Park
Acadia National Park brings mountains, forests, freshwater lakes, rocky Atlantic shoreline, islands, historic carriage roads, granite summits, and working coastal communities together within one relatively compact corner of Maine. Rather than protecting a single geological wonder, Acadia preserves an entire coastal landscape where pink granite mountains rise directly above the sea and glacial valleys hold …
May 27 2026
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park is a landscape of extremes: boiling geysers beside snow-covered mountains, enormous waterfalls cutting through volcanic rock, vast forests shaped by fire, high-elevation lakes, broad wildlife-filled valleys, and an active volcanic system still heating thousands of hydrothermal features beneath the surface. Spread across more than 2.2 million acres of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, …
May 26 2026
Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park protects more than one million acres of jagged mountains, glacier-carved valleys, turquoise lakes, alpine meadows, waterfalls, old-growth forests, and some of the wildest remaining landscapes in the northern Rocky Mountains. Located along the Canadian border in northwestern Montana, the park contains more than 700 miles of hiking trails, hundreds of lakes, extensive …
May 25 2026
Scotty’s Castle
Hidden in Grapevine Canyon in the remote northern reaches of Death Valley National Park stands one of the park’s most unusual landmarks. Scotty’s Castle, officially known as Death Valley Ranch, is a sprawling Spanish- and Mediterranean-influenced mansion surrounded by gardens, workshops, water systems, historic outbuildings, and the remains of an ambitious desert estate. Despite its …
May 14 2026
Yellowstone National Park 7-Day Itinerary: Best Things to Do Each Day
Seven days in Yellowstone National Park gives you something most visitors never have: time. Instead of rushing from Old Faithful to Yellowstone Falls to Lamar Valley in a frantic attempt to see the entire park in two or three days, a full week allows you to explore Yellowstone region by region. You can spend several …
May 12 2026
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park protects one of the steepest, darkest, and most dramatic river canyons in North America. In western Colorado, the Gunnison River slices through ancient Precambrian rock, creating sheer cliffs that plunge more than 2,000 feet in places while narrowing to only a few dozen feet near the river. The …
May 10 2026
Carlsbad Caverns Cave Guide: Big Room, King’s Palace & More
Beneath the Chihuahuan Desert of southeastern New Mexico lies an underground landscape far larger and more complicated than most visitors realize. Carlsbad Caverns National Park protects more than 119 known caves, ranging from enormous systems extending for more than a hundred miles to small passages that remain almost entirely untouched. Yet most visitors experience only …
May 05 2026
The Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns: Trail, Formations & Visitor Guide
The Big Room is the centerpiece of Carlsbad Caverns National Park and the underground experience nearly every first-time visitor should make time to see. Located roughly 750 feet beneath the Chihuahuan Desert of southeastern New Mexico, this immense chamber covers about 8.2 acres and contains an extraordinary collection of stalactites, stalagmites, columns, draperies, flowstone, pools, …
Apr 30 2026
Texas National Parks Guide: Big Bend, Guadalupe Mountains & More
Texas is so large that its national park landscapes can feel like they belong to entirely different parts of the country. In far West Texas, Big Bend National Park protects more than 800,000 acres of Chihuahuan Desert, rugged mountains, Rio Grande canyons, desert springs, historic sites, and some of the darkest night skies in the …
