Grand Canyon National Park is breathtaking. Standing on the rim, either the north or the south, and gazing into that big colorful maw of geology billions of years old can be transformative...or daunting. For some, that first glance convinces them they need to either hike all the way down to the Colorado River or, better yet, join a river trip for two weeks to soak in the significance of this place.

There’s a lot to see in our national parks and historic sites, including some pretty interesting things underwater. Lynn Riddick takes a look at the Submerged Resources Center, the arm of the National Park Service that locates underwater resources -- whether sunken ships or planes, old ranches or train tracks, coral reefs or kelp forests -- then documents and interprets them. Always with an eye toward their preservation.

My first visit to Cape Hatteras National Seashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina came quite a few years ago, when I was in college and a friend and I drove down from New Jersey in his tiny and cramped Chevy Vega to do some fishing. It was a wonderful trip, and the seashore a great destination if you love surfcasting.