Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for U.S. travel
Apache Tears
By Linda Tancs
Thanks to its monument status granted in 2001, New Mexico’s Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument is a popular, otherworldly attraction featuring teepee-like rock formations arising from volcanic eruptions that occurred 6 to 7 million years ago. You’ll find a three-mile trail used for hiking, walking, nature trips and birding, where sandy washes are littered with black obsidian (volcanic glass) known locally as Apache Tears. Forty miles west of Santa Fe, the area is signposted starting from exits 259 (NM 22) or 264 (NM 16) of interstate 25 between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
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Desert Conservation in the Southwest
By Linda Tancs
The Desert Botanical Garden is a 140 acres-wide botanical garden in Phoenix, Arizona. A pioneer in desert conservation, it’s an indispensable resource in the Southwest for helping individuals learn about Sonoran Desert plants as well as desert plants elsewhere in the world. One of only 24 botanical gardens accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, it boasts over 50,000 plant displays showcased in beautiful outdoor exhibits. The garden includes five unique desert trails as well as temporary exhibits and seasonal events highlighting desert life and its preservation.
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History in Rapid City
By Linda Tancs
Memorial Park is the pulse of Rapid City, South Dakota. A typical family-friendly public park on Rapid Creek, you might be surprised to learn that it’s also home to one of America’s largest Berlin Wall exhibits. The wall segment, formerly located between Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie from 1961 to 1989, was donated in honor of the citizens of Ratingen, Germany (the sister city of Vermillion, South Dakota), who fostered German-American relations.
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Seclusion at Blue Knob
By Linda Tancs
Located in the northwestern tip of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, Blue Knob State Park has the distinctive advantage of seclusion. The park is named for its dome-shaped mountain, the second highest mountain in the state (after Mount Davis) at 3,146 feet above sea level. Open year round, its 18 miles of trails on 6,128 acres of woodland are ideal for viewing the scenic Ridge and Valley Province to the east of its location on a spur of the Allegheny Front.
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Across the Cumberland Plateau
By Linda Tancs
Regarded as Tennessee’s largest and most visited state park, Fall Creek Falls State Park features 26,000 acres of woodlands, gorges, waterfalls and streams across the eastern portion of the Cumberland Plateau. As the name implies, falls are a signature feature of the park. Fall Creek Falls, at 256 feet, is one of the highest waterfalls in the eastern United States. Other waterfalls within the park include Piney Falls, Cane Creek Falls and Cane Creek Cascades. More than 34 miles of trails can be explored, including two long distance overnight trails. The park is located 11 miles east of Spencer and 18 miles west of Pikeville and can be entered from Highway 111 or Highway 30.
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Chrome in Chino
By Linda Tancs
Enveloped in chrome and shiny aluminum, Yanks Air Museum is an aircraft lover’s dream. Located in Chino, California, the facility is a showplace for carefully restored historical aircraft and boasts legends like the P-40 Warhawk and the F-86 Sabre. Its collections range from early aviation (1903 – 1918) to modern jets. The site also has drones, helicopters, vehicles, missiles, model airplanes and aircraft in the boneyard currently being restored to flight-worthy status using period materials.
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Take Your Valentine to Valentine
By Linda Tancs
How do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? Maybe with some chocolate and a candlelit dinner. Well, there’s so much more awaiting you in Valentine, Nebraska, where of course you can obtain a postmark to commemorate the day of love. But most visitors travel there to start a float trip or to tour the river valley, a good starting point for the 76 miles of the Niobrara National Scenic River that winds through bluffs, waterfalls and fossil resources along a largely undisturbed shoreline. Less than one percent of U.S. rivers have received a scenic river designation by the National Wild & Scenic Rivers System, an honor reserved for those that are flee flowing with clean water and a largely undeveloped shoreline. The area features notables like the Allen Bridge; listed on the National Register of Historic Structures, it’s the longest single span bridge across the Niobrara. You can paddle among sandstone cliffs and visit public landings like Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge and Smith Falls State Park, both of which have beautiful views of the river.
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History, Horses and Hospitality
By Linda Tancs
Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville, Tennessee, is the land of history, horses and hospitality. Historically, native tribes used the woodlands and meadows as a place to hunt wild game, carving a trail over time that was eventually known as the old Natchez road by European settlers. John Harding, a skilled farmer and businessman, purchased some of those hunting grounds in 1806 for farming and thoroughbred breeding, calling the property Belle Meade (beautiful meadow). Harding expanded the family home in 1853, introducing the Greek Revival style mansion seen today. In its heyday, the old Southern plantation was a popular destination for luminaries like President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland, Robert Todd Lincoln, General U.S. Grant, General William T. Sherman and Adlai E. Stevenson. Belle Meade Plantation is open daily, with mansion tours starting every 30 to 45 minutes.
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An Epic Tall Ship
By Linda Tancs
A living testament to the “Age of Sail,” Elissa is a three-masted, iron-hulled sailing ship built in 1877 in Aberdeen, Scotland, by Alexander Hall & Company. According to a descendant of her builder, the tall ship’s name was taken from the epic Roman poem The Aeneid, which follows the story of Dido (originally a Phoenician princess named Elissa), who fled from Tyre to Africa and founded Carthage. Like her poetic counterpart, the barque is a survivor, securing a second life (following decades as a freighter) as a fully-functional vessel that continues to sail annually during sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico. She’s located at Texas Seaport Museum, Pier 21, in Galveston, Texas.
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Miracle Water in Georgia
By Linda Tancs
Aptly named, Providence Spring in Andersonville, Georgia, is a matter of divine providence in Civil War lore. The story goes that thousands of Union soldiers were dying of thirst in the summer of 1864 at a prison camp in Andersonville, one of the largest Confederate military prisons during the war. The cries of thirst ended when a spring mysteriously erupted in the stockade. The site is covered with a memorial house and is accessible via a road behind the National POW Museum, part of Andersonville National Historic Site.
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