You are here

Home » Exploring the Parks

Exploring the Parks

Trails Into History: Walk Into The Past On A National Historic Trail

It was 50 years ago that the National Trails System was designated. Today there are 30 trails under that designation, and they range from the path followed by Lewis and Clark into history to the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. Choose any one of the 19 National Historic Trails and you can walk, or paddle, into history.

Scotts Bluff And Fort Laramie: Is The Oregon Trail In Your Family History?

Stratton family lore has my ancestors migrating west on the Oregon Trail. I’m not entirely sure if I believe it, since trail use greatly declined when the Transcontinental Railroad was finished in 1869 and my relatives didn’t arrive in Oregon until the 1880s. But there are accounts of the trail being used through the 1890s, so it is possible. Either way, the Stratton clan ended up in eastern Oregon operating a stagecoach station on the road between John Day and Burns.
  • By stratto - August 1st, 2024 1:24am

Seeking Winter Solitude In Grand Teton National Park

As my wife and I got out of our car in front of the visitor center at Colter Bay, we looked around the expansive parking lot to find--no one there. We were entirely alone at one of Grand Teton National Park's most popular summertime destinations. In just four months, hundreds of cars, trucks, and RVs will fill this and other lots at Signal Mountain, Jenny Lake and Jackson Lake lodges, but this was mid-week in February, and only the heated bathroom at the visitor center was open.

Exploring The Parks: Dingmans Falls At Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area

Straddling the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is a 70,000-acre swath of forests cut by a river, with tributaries flowing in throughout the parkscape. It offers a quick and easy escape from urban areas of the metropolitan New York-New Jersey, as well as from the Philadelphia area.

Big Hole And Little Bighorn Battlefields: Thoughts On Cultural Tolerance And Understanding

People respond to unfamiliar cultures with a range of emotions, from curiosity to condemnation. It was curiosity (and a couple more stamps in our National Park Service passports) that recently took me and my girlfriend Craig to Big Hole National Battlefield and Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana. It was condemnation by the U.S. government of both the Nez Perce and Sioux ways of life that precipitated the tragedies remembered at these two sites.

Musings From Death Valley National Park

November sun sets at 4:35 p.m. in Death Valley. Early because we’re on the eastern edge of Pacific Standard Time. It’s only 6:30 p.m. and I’m already tired of reading. All around my campsite there are others sitting in the dark. Most are sitting beside campfires. Quiet talk fills the evening along with delicious odors of cooking food. Somewhere not too far away, someone quietly plunks on a guitar.

Musings From Cabrillo National Monument

Cabrillo National Monument is one of the little gems of the National Park System. Located at the tip of Point Loma, a peninsula that’s on the northwest side of San Diego Bay. Only 160 acres and surrounded by a major Naval base and Coast Guard station, Cabrillo is nevertheless a tiny treasure — and because of its proximity to one of America’s largest urban areas, it’s one of the most heavily visited pieces of the park system.

INN Member

The easiest way to explore RV-friendly National Park campgrounds.

The Essential RVing Guide to the National Parks

Here’s the definitive guide to National Park System campgrounds where RVers can park their rigs.

Our app is packed with RVing- specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 national parks.

You’ll also find stories about RVing in the parks, tips helpful if you’ve just recently become an RVer, and useful planning suggestions.

The Essential RVing Guide to the National Parks

FREE for iPhones and Android phones.