Underground Railroad Network to Freedom sites appear in most unlikely places. Here are four in eastern North Carolina.

Ahab had his white whale, Moby-Dick, which drove him to his death. I had the Common Loon, a fish-loving, deep-diving waterfowl that mocked me with its tremolo call as I stood on the shore of Shoshone Lake in Yellowstone National Park.

Haven't heard of AirVenture National Park? Well sit back and let Lee Dalton tell you all about it.

Visitors can now climb the Bodie Lighthouse at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Though shorter than its more famous cousin, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Bodie Light offers guided tours with a ranger.

Last month I joined up with Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris for a tour to photograph the coastal brown bears (Ursus arctos) of Katmai National Park, Alaska. It was an experience of a lifetime for me and one I so enjoyed that I am hoping to return in 2014.

They may be separated by a few hundred miles of prairie, but Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota and Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming share parts of a common story. Both hold sacredness for the Indians who once lived and roamed freely across these wide and beautiful lands.

Wind never seems to stop blowing at Badlands. But in summer, that’s a good thing because it provides a little relief from the heat.

One of our newest, and perhaps one of our most unusual, national historic sites is located alongside Interstate 90 in South Dakota just outside the northeast entrance of Badlands National Park.

Driving the Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park is a classic introduction to the park. You can navigate it in a few hours, or take the entire day.

One of the first thoughts I had upon rolling through the gate at Devils Tower was that Teddy certainly got it right when he used the Antiquities Act to designate this tall stump of rock as America’s first national monument.

The Jimmy Carter National Historic Site tells the story of President Carter's humble rural beginnings and his life after his presidency. Plains, Georgia is also a fun place to visit.

The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site takes up several city blocks in downtown Atlanta. Several buildings, gardens, statues, walkways tell the story of the Civil Rights icon.

Hidden within the sagebrush covered hills and badlands of eastern Oregon is evidence of past worlds covered by ancient forests and inhabited by strange looking beasts.

There are hybrid cars, hybrid corn, hybrid cattle, so why not a hybrid park? City of Rocks in south central Idaho is one. City of Rocks National Reserve is part of the national park system, but there are no NPS personnel there.

Summer is a perfect time to explore Cape Lookout National Seashore. A visit to the Cape Lookout Village Historic District rewards you with fascinating structures from a bygone era. Located only two miles from the cape's lighthouse, village visitors are almost guaranteed solitude.

Antietam battle was the single bloodiest battle in the Civil War. The landscape, which is the most important artifact, is being protected almost like it was in the 1860s.

Ocracoke in Cape Hatteras National Seashore is a jewel on an island with many attractions. If you want to camp on the beach, you should make reservations now.

Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, located in a suburb of Charleston, South Carolina, offers a look at lowcountry life in our country's early history. Though modest in size, the site is a treasure-trove of archeological artifacts.

The old school bus rumbles to life with a painful metallic grinding and we roll forward, our chariot rocking side to side down a rutted, muddy street of a small crossroads town called Dumre in central Nepal. Angling down a hillside, the bus lists heavily to starboard and moves too slowly to escape its own cloud of choking exhaust, which drifts in through the open windows.

Canaveral National Seashore and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge show off the best of Florida wetland habitat. Canaveral also may hold the key to the Timucuan Indian culture.