Jointly managed by the National Park Service and the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the four-park Redwood National and State Parks complex protects evergreen forests, oak woodlands, prairies, rivers, and almost 40 miles of Northern California coastline. Of course,…
Where the mighty Columbia River spills out into the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Oregon, American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark made history in mid-November of 1805 when they ended the first half of their historic journey. The expedition had covered…
Despite our excitement about visiting Crater Lake National Park — which many people throughout the year had told us was their favorite park — we somewhat dreaded our arrival there in early October. The forecast had called for rain, snow…
On a clear day, you can see the imposing, snow-topped Mount Rainier from Seattle some 50 miles away. But the 14,410-foot white monster of a peak is even more humbling when it stares you in the face along Mather Memorial…
There’s no denying that water is the lifeblood of Olympic National Park, whether it crashes in from the ocean, falls from the sky in sheets of rain, collects in tranquil lakes or tumbles down forest cascades. On our third day…
In the far northwest continental United States, the Pacific Ocean caresses — and sometimes wallops — the shores of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. A vast swath of land on the peninsula is protected wilderness as part of Olympic National Park, which…
With more than 300 glaciers still intact, North Cascades National Park has more glaciers than any other park in the Lower 48 states. But the its magic goes well beyond rugged Cascade Mountain Range scenery. Together with the adjacent Lake…
A major storm with freezing rain scuttled our plans in Glacier National Park for an entire day. The following day, however, we were determined to make up for lost time by getting a very early start. Our plan was to…
Montana’s Glacier National Park sat high on our Project 100 wish list because, with climate change models predicting the disappearance of the glaciers there by as early as 2030, we wanted to see some of these thickened masses of ice…
Thankfully, by the time we were ready to leave Grand Teton National Park, the road north to Yellowstone National Park had reopened from August’s Berry Fire. It didn’t take long to get to Yellowstone’s south entrance, from which we passed…