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
Batting It Out of the Park
By Linda Tancs
Carlsbad Caverns is a national park in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico, an underground wonderland of limestone caves (more than 119 of them documented) discovered by Native Americans centuries ago. The terrain yields fascinating stories about the Ice Age: a stone scraper discovered within view of the entrance goes back to Ice Age Indian hunters, and bones from Ice Age animals like jaguars, camels, lions and giant sloths have been found in the entrance areas of some caves. During summer, another thing you’ll find in the caves is a Mexican free-tailed bat community nearly 400,000 strong. The evening bat flight program takes place from Memorial Day weekend through late October, after which the winged mammals migrate to Mexico for the winter. Preceded by an informative lecture by a park ranger, the seasonal spectacle highlights the mass exodus of the bats in search of an evening meal. Their pre-dawn return to the caves is likewise impressive. During July and August, the herd is increased by newborn bats and migrating bats from northern climes. Photography or other filming at bat flight may be done under a special use permit obtained from the park at least two weeks in advance.
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Croatia’s Legendary Lakes
By Linda Tancs
Croatia’s Plitvice Lakes National Park in the vicinity of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the oldest national park in Southeast Europe. Comprising more than 70,000 acres, it’s also the largest national park in Croatia. Culturally, it’s been inhabited for thousands of years by settlers such as ancient tribes, Romans, Slavs and Turks. The most remarkable feature of this park is its series of lakes arranged in upper and lower clusters, bearing serene hues of azure, green, grey or blue depending on the minerals or organisms in the water at any particular time. For every colorful lake there’s a colorful legend. One popular tale is that the lake system (particularly Prošćansko jezero) was created after a long drought prompted prayers to the Black Queen. Other lakes are associated with stories of hidden treasure, local shepherds, drownings and a resident monk.
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Utah’s First National Park
By Linda Tancs
Located on State Route 9 in southwest Utah, Zion National Park is Utah’s first national park. The 229-square-mile park is rife with history dating back 10,000 years, a land occupied by peoples ranging from prehistoric hunter-gatherers and ancestral tribes to Mormon pioneers. The best way to see an area this vast is to take a classic hike, like the eight mile climb to Observation Point. At 6,508 feet above sea level, you’ll be rewarded with stunning views that may very well include the California Condor. Released in Vermillion Cliffs, Arizona, in the late 1990s, they are increasingly being sighted in the park. Parking is limited inside Zion, and parking lots at the visitor center commonly fill before noon. To avoid parking hassles, park in the town of Springdale and ride the free town shuttle to the park.
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Idaho’s Volcanic Wonderland
By Linda Tancs
Along Idaho’s Snake River Plain a series of eruptions over 15,000 years ago formed a volcanic wonderland known as Craters of the Moon National Monument. And yes, the name does derive from its lunar-like appearance, a moniker popularized by promoter Robert Limbert in a national magazine article. Dormant rather than extinct, the area comprises more than 25 cinder cones, each one a small volcano. This time of year tiny wildflowers in neat little rows adorn the cinder slopes of the monument. Rest assured, there’s no professional landscaping here. The plants space themselves naturally to compete for limited resources in this harsh environment.
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Suspension in San Francisco
By Linda Tancs
Who hasn’t marveled at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, one of the world’s most iconic suspension bridges? However, it isn’t the city’s only suspension bridge of distinction. Just across the bridge in the Marin Headlands is another suspension bridge leading to Point Bonita Lighthouse, the only American lighthouse to be reached by a suspension bridge. Still active, the lighthouse is part of the largest urban national park in the United States, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Think the best photographic views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge are from Battery Spencer in the Marin Headlands? Some say the view from the lighthouse is the real sweet spot.
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Gates of the Arctic
By Linda Tancs
With no roads or trails, Alaska’s Gates of the Arctic ain’t your momma’s national park. But for those pioneering enough to brave nature’s elements, it offers spectacular opportunities to discover a premier wilderness. Four times the size of Yellowstone, the park and preserve lie entirely north of the Arctic Circle, straddling the crest of the Brooks Range (the northernmost extension of the Rocky Mountains). This land is home to the Athabascan and Nunamiut, who hunt the caribou herds that migrate through the park in the spring and autumn. The park was named by intrepid explorer Robert Marshall, citing two mountains paired opposite the North Fork. A lake named in his honor is about 33 miles from Anaktuvuk Pass, an Eskimo village within the park borders and a popular entry point into the preserve. Scheduled flights from Fairbanks serve the area.
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The Trail of Tears
By Linda Tancs
Following the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, President Andrew Jackson engineered the forced relocation of the Cherokee nation east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the Mississippi. Forced to flee their homeland with little more than the clothes on their back, the exodus across nine states, marked by disease and death, came to be known as the trail of tears. This somber journey is commemorated in the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. One of 19 national historic trails, it passes through the present-day states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. A series of signs throughout the region alerts travelers to important markers such as documented original trails and historic sites or segments.
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Grand, Gloomy and Peculiar
By Linda Tancs
Grand, gloomy and peculiar. That’s what cave guide Stephen Bishop said in the 1800s about south central Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave. Spelunkers might not agree with that assessment, but mammoth is certainly an apt description, considering it’s the world’s longest known cave system, the oldest part of which began forming over 10 million years ago. Over 400 miles of this national park have been explored; the main passageway alone is seven miles long. Short on time? Take the popular two-hour Domes & Dripstones Tour. As for that cave guide? He’s buried at the park’s Old Guide’s Cemetery.
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Free Flowing Yellowstone
By Linda Tancs
Yellowstone National Park contains most of the world’s geysers, Old Faithful a great favorite among them. Its regular, billowing eruptions are not the only thing that’s free flowing in America’s first national park, though. The park is also home to the longest free flowing river in the United States, Yellowstone River. From there it glides 676 miles to its confluence with the Missouri River without a single dam to break its stride. Along its many points of access you’ll find plenty of recreational opportunities, including some of the best trout fishing ever and some cool Montana agate to add to your collection.
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The Center of an Ancient World
By Linda Tancs
New Mexico’s ancestral Native American culture is the highlight of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a World Heritage Site with the densest concentration of pueblos in the Southwest. During the ninth century, massive stone buildings known as great houses were constructed by the Chacoan people, influenced by lunar, solar and cardinal directions. This thriving ancient civilization is central to the origins of several Navajo clans and ceremonies. Equally as thrilling is the park’s designation as one of the world’s newest International Dark Sky Parks, which means that the site is a mecca for stargazers.
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