On a warm summer day, under calm blue skies, the Railroader's Festival came off without a hitch, but a lot of steam, at Golden Spike National Historic Site.

While there are about 600 cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, Cliff Palace is the most stunning and significant one of all.

Nightmarish parking conditions might dissuade all but the most resolute from visiting Muir Woods National Monument, but it’s absolutely worth the hassle. Once you leave your rig behind you will disappear into the coolness of the tall trees. Meld with the moss; it’s a great way to spend a fall day. As for parking, help is on the way.

It’s a winding drive through Idaho fields of corn, grain, sugar beets and potatoes. Out into the middle of a vast plain of irrigated fertility. But just 74 years ago, it was a spreading plain of sagebrush squatting beside a large irrigation canal carrying Snake River water to farms further west. It was a desolate, nearly empty place. A perfect place for a prison camp.