Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for national parks
Bolivia’s Oldest Park
By Linda Tancs
Bolivia’s highest point is the extinct stratovolcano Sajama, rising to 21,463 feet. Naturally it’s the centerpiece of Sajama National Park, the country’s oldest national park. Hiking and mountain trekking are popular ways to engage with the natural, cultural and historical features of the park. One of its prized highlights is the Quenoa forest, recognized as one of the highest forests in the world. In fact, the preservation of this prized treasure is a primary reason why the area became a national park. You’ll also find historic burial buildings, cave paintings and remnants of colonial architecture along with native wildlife like the Andean mountain cat.
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Argentina’s Oldest Park
By Linda Tancs
Located in Argentina’s fabled Lake District, Nahuel Huapi National Park is the country’s oldest national park. Established in 1934, it’s named for Nahuel Huapi, the park’s largest glacial lake. The expansive environment is ringed by the Andes, featuring Mount Tronador, a dormant volcano. You’ll also find dense forest areas that provide cover for pudu, the world’s smallest deer. January is a popular time for hiking and lake rafting.
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Painting the Sky
By Linda Tancs
Legend has it that the gods dipped their paint brushes into Costa Rica’s Rio Celeste (Blue River) while painting the sky. The river gets its amazing blue hue from sulfur emitted from volcanic activity courtesy of Tenorio Volcano, which lends its name to Tenorio Volcano National Park. Located in northern Costa Rica, it’s one of the country’s youngest national parks, prized not only for the volcano but also for Rio Celeste waterfall. You’ll find an abundance of natural hot springs, along with mud pots and a beautiful cloud forest at the summit of the volcano. A trek through the entire park will take four or five hours.
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An African Amphitheatre
By Linda Tancs
A hikers’ paradise, Royal Natal National Park in South Africa is best known for its Amphitheatre. Park of the Drakensberg escarpment, it’s a massive cliff face that spans 3 miles and reaches nearly 1,700 feet. One of the world’s tallest waterfalls cascades from the clifftops, feeding the Tugela River below as it heads east to the Indian Ocean. You’ll find an abundance of trails to explore on foot and on horseback with a comprehensive guidebook available for visitors, so take your time. Accommodations include a lodge, cottages and chalets.
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Where Prairies Meet Peaks
By Linda Tancs
There’s no such thing as a bad time to visit Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada. It just depends on your taste. This time of year the wildlife viewing is best, especially for black bear, elk, bighorn sheep and deer roaming around larch and aspen groves sporting brilliant shades of yellow and gold. If springtime color is your pleasure, then you’ll love the wildflowers exploding in the prairies, including Waterton’s signature beargrass. Summer brings the thickest crowds and recreational experiences, whereas winter promises more solitude framed by snowy backdrops of the Rocky Mountains. The park borders Montana’s Glacier National Park.
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A Place of Spirits
By Linda Tancs
Fewer than 1,000 people visit Canada’s Torngat Mountains National Park each year. It’s the nation’s newest national park, but its freshman status isn’t the reason for the low numbers. Located on northern Labrador’s Atlantic coast between Northern Québec and the Labrador Sea, it’s quite remote. In fact, the park is accessible only by boat, charter plane or helicopter during the summer. This is the land of the Inuit, named for the Inuktitut “Tongait,” or “place of the spirits.” Most visitors stay within the bear-fence-enclosed Torngat Mountains Base Camp and Research Station located outside the park on Saglek Fjord, where Inuit guides lead excursions. Take advantage of that opportunity because there are are no roads, trails or signs in the park. There are, however, unmarked hiking routes and traditional Inuit travel routes. You’ll likely see polar bears, whales and caribou in their pristine natural environment, an untamed wilderness framed by towering peaks and glistening fjords.
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To the Heights in Korea
By Linda Tancs
Near Chungju-si (where a martial arts festival takes place each year), Woraksan National Park in South Korea is a hiker’s paradise. The highest peak (at 3,600 feet) is Yeongbong, a steep ascent aided by stairs with railings bolted to boulders. Ma-aebong Peak is just below at 3,150 feet. It’s called a false summit because it’s commonly mistaken as the ultimate peak, but there’s nothing fake about its glorious vistas. While you’re in the park, keep an eye out for the nodding lily, an indigenous species with leaves like pine tree leaves.
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The Gorge of Samaria
By Linda Tancs
Open for hiking from May to October, Crete’s Samaria Gorge is the focal point of Samaria National Park in Greece. Although strenuous and rugged, the 10-mile hike offers rewarding mountain views and 16 endemic species, most notably the feral goats (kri-kri, the park’s official icon). You’ll find plenty of like-minded adventurers on a bus from Hania to a region called Xyloskalo, where the trail begins.
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The Dunes of Dorob
By Linda Tancs
Sea and sand meet at Sandwich Harbour along the Atlantic coast of Namibia. One of the area’s key attractions are the sand dunes backing the coastline, rising in many cases to over 300 feet. Historically a commercial fishing and trading port, legend has it that the name derives from an English whaler, the Sandwich, that operated in the area in the 1780s. The scenic locale is now part of Dorob National Park, a conservation area running from Walvis Bay to the Ugab River.
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Eye of the Sea
By Linda Tancs
The Tatra Mountains form a natural border between Poland and Slovakia and are the focal point for Tatra National Park, so-named on both sides of the border. One of the most indelible images on the Polish side is Morskie Oko, which means “eye of the sea.” Legend has it that the name harks back to an ancient belief that the lake’s bottom has a hole connecting it to the sea. It may lack a hole, but it doesn’t lack a superb reflection of the surrounding Tatras. You’ll find the lake in the middle of the park in southern Poland near the resort town of Zakopane.
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