Sep 11 2024
Death Valley National Park may be famous for extreme heat, salt flats, sand dunes, and some of the lowest elevations in North America, but it is also one of the most varied hiking destinations in the desert Southwest. Trails and cross-country routes lead through narrow marble canyons, golden badlands, volcanic craters, shifting sand dunes, hidden …
Sep 08 2024
The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail is the thread that ties much of Cuyahoga Valley National Park together. For roughly 20 miles, the nearly level path follows the historic canal route through forests, wetlands, old canal towns, locks, river valleys, and some of the park’s most popular wildlife areas. Visitors can walk, run, bicycle, …
Sep 08 2024
The Ledges Trail is one of the most distinctive hikes in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, replacing the park’s familiar river valleys and canal landscapes with towering sandstone walls, narrow passages, moss-covered boulders, cool ravines, and one of the best sunset overlooks in northeast Ohio. Although the main loop is short enough for a casual afternoon …
Sep 08 2024
The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad offers one of the most unusual ways to explore an American national park. Instead of driving from trailhead to trailhead, visitors can settle into a vintage passenger car and travel through the forests, wetlands, historic communities, and river corridor of Cuyahoga Valley National Park while the landscape passes outside the …
Sep 08 2024
Brandywine Falls is one of the signature landscapes of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, where Brandywine Creek plunges approximately 60 feet over resistant sandstone and layers of softer shale into a deep, wooded gorge. A boardwalk leads from the parking area to viewpoints facing the cascade, while the surrounding Brandywine Gorge Trail allows hikers to descend …
Sep 08 2024
Cuyahoga Valley National Park contains more than 125 miles of hiking trails winding through forests, wetlands, sandstone cliffs, ravines, old farm fields, canal corridors, waterfalls, and the rolling hills surrounding the Cuyahoga River. Although the park lacks the towering mountains associated with many western national parks, its trails are surprisingly varied. A morning hike can …
Sep 08 2024
Autumn may be the most beautiful season to visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Forests covering the hills between Cleveland and Akron gradually turn from summer green into a patchwork of crimson maples, golden tulip trees, orange sassafras, bronze oaks, and bright yellow understory shrubs. Waterfalls become framed by colorful leaves, the Towpath Trail disappears beneath …
Sep 07 2024
Congaree National Park can look like a vast swamp when floodwater spreads among enormous bald cypress trees, tupelos, loblolly pines, and towering hardwoods. Water reflects the forest canopy, cypress knees rise above flooded ground, and dark sloughs disappear between the trees. Yet calling Congaree simply a swamp misses what makes this South Carolina national park …
Sep 07 2024
For a few remarkable nights each spring, the darkness beneath Congaree National Park’s towering forest canopy begins to pulse with light. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of tiny flashes appear close to the forest floor, gradually falling into overlapping rhythms until large portions of the woods seem to blink together. These are the synchronous fireflies of …
Sep 07 2024
Small enough to be mistaken for an unusually large house cat, the island fox is one of the most remarkable animals found in Channel Islands National Park. It trots through coastal scrub, searches campgrounds for opportunities to scavenge, hunts insects and deer mice, eats fruit from native plants, and sometimes wanders casually past hikers as …
