Monsters of the Midway

For our last full day in Katmai National Park, we spent most of our time hanging out with the bears. I had asked the lodge about the possibility of a flightseeing tour to visit Alagnak Wild River, Aniakchak National Monument & Preserve, and the preserve portion of Katmai, but nothing could be arranged for today. Guess we'll have to come back to Alaska another time to check those units off my bucket list!

Another sign pic

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

After checking out of the hotel and returning the rental car this morning, we started the second leg of our trip with a one-hour Alaska Airlines flight from Anchorage to King Salmon. 

Cook Inlet

Anchorage Away

We didn't have much on the schedule for today, so that gave us the opportunity to explore the area around Anchorage at a more leisurely pace. From Wasilla, it took less than 30 minutes to drive to Chugach State Park. We paid the $5 day use fee at the kiosk in the parking lot of the trailhead and started the hike (~1 mile, one way) to Thunder Bird Falls.

100-foot elevation gain in the first 0.1-mile

Into the Wild

Because our Tundra Wilderness Tour wasn't scheduled to depart until 3:00PM, we had more than half a day to explore Denali National Park on our own. So, we took our time getting out the door this morning.

Another view of Otto Lake from our room at the inn

The Tall One

The original plan for today was to check out of the hotel, grab breakfast from Biscuitclub in downtown Anchorage right when it opened at 9:00AM (biscuits and gravy is my fave!), and then hit the road for the 4+ hour drive to Denali National Park. But after we parked the car (and paid in the ParkMobile app), we saw the sign on the door that they were closed for Labor Day weekend. 🤦🏻‍♀️ At least we'll have another chance to try it out when we come back to Anchorage in a few days...

By George

The first stop on our tour of the DMV was Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, VA. Although the performance season ended in September, we were still able to access the park and hike the grounds this morning.

☑ Unit #191

Lava, Lava Everywhere

We got another early start this morning, because we were moving to another hotel on the Hilo side of the island and spending the day at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park along the way. 

But in reality we were late. Eleven months late, to be exact. Erupting nearly continuously since 1983, the last time Kīlauea actively emitted lava at the surface was in early September 2018. How cool would it have been to see molten lava?! From a very safe distance, of course. Bummer.

Get to the Point

Of the 28 NPS units in the state of California, we have visited 26 of them. Today we checked Point Reyes National Seashore off our list, leaving only Redwood National Park and Castle Mountains National Monument to go.

Land of Fire

Another recently designated unit was our first stop this morning. Valles Caldera National Preserve was added to the National Park Service in October 2015. Because most activities are in the backcountry (hiking, biking, horseback riding, etc.) and only 35 vehicle permits are available each day in the summer, I hadn't planned on spending much time here.

 

Arkansas Travelers

We left George Washington Carver NM around 10:30AM, and headed south down I-49 to Arkansas and our next stop, Pea Ridge National Military Park. We grabbed lunch on our way through town and headed straight out to the park.

Pea Ridge was the "battle that saved Missouri for the Union." Fought on March 7-8, 1862, it involved some of the same commanding officers who had faced off at Wilson's Creek, such as Maj. Gen. Sterling Price (pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard), Confederate Brig. Gen. Ben McCulloch, and the Union second-in-command Brig. Gen. Franz Sigel. 

Get Your Kicks...

Well, if you ever plan to motor west,

Take my way, it's the highway, that's the best.

Get your kicks on Route 66.

Well, it winds from Chicago to L.A.

More than 2000 miles all the way,

Get your kicks on Route 66.

When we decided to drive one-way back to CA from IL for our summer vacation, I had originally entitled this our "Route 66" trip. But after planning out our itinerary to visit national park units along the way, I realized that we would be detouring from the Mother Road for a good portion of the time. So, it was rechristened as the "Help Me, I'm Melting" road trip because most likely it would be obscenely hot everywhere we went. That's been the case so far. Boo!

Texas Two-Step

M and J have been keeping track of how many states they've ever visited and were debating whether or not to count Nebraska (slept through it overnight on the Amtrak California Zephyr) and Texas (layover at DFW). Even though we only spent a little time here today in West Texas, I think they should definitely be able to count it now.

From Las Cruces, it took us less than an hour to reach El Paso - gotta love 75 mph speed limits! We headed straight for the border and Chamizal National Memorial.

OCD Madness

Throughout 2016, the National Park Service is celebrating is 100th year. In honor of this milestone anniversary, Eastern National has issued a commemorative centennial stamp to nearly all of the 410 units in the NPS. Our current tally of units visited as a family is 115. So while we didn't check off any new units today, it was a successful day of stamp collecting for me!

Bumpass Hell

For our second day of exploring Lassen Volcanic National Park, we started at the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center first thing this morning. M and J worked on completing the activity page for this location, while I stepped outside to snap some pictures.

Brokeoff Mountain, part of the remnants of Mount Tehama

Mount Diller (left) and Point Pinnacle (right)

Tame the Volcano

After our super fun kayak tour at Whiskeytown NRA this morning, we drove about an hour east to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Our first stop was the Loomis Museum, which is located near the northwest entrance to the park and by Manzanita Lake. We went through our usual visitor center routine - watch the park movie, work on junior ranger activities, and get the passport stamp.

Run for the Border

To visit Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, you have to really want to go there. It's not on the way to anything, and quite a detour from any major interstate, so I don't think anyone would go there just on a whim. Clearly, count me among those who really wanted to visit (and my lucky family got to come, too!)

From Tucson, it took us about 2.5 hours on a small, two-lane highway to get to Why, where we turned south on AZ State Route 85. The park entrance was just a short distance from the junction.

Wonderland of Rocks

From the trailhead parking lot at Fort Bowie, it was 8 miles of gravel road back to AZ State Route 186, where we turned south for the short drive to reach our next destination...

Ancient Ruins

What do you do when Christmas break is approaching, you have a Best Western free hotel night voucher about to expire, and you're itching to get away? If you're me (and last time I checked, I am), then you look at a map to see where the closest national park units are that you haven't been to yet *AND* you price hotels for the most expensive place to cash in the voucher. That narrowed down the choices to...

Jelly Beans and John Muir

Yesterday our friends mentioned that they were planning to visit the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield today, so we hopped on their good idea and headed up there first thing this morning after breakfast and checking out.

The Longest Day

Because our flight home didn't leave until late afternoon, we checked out of the Marriott and left our bags at the bell desk. After breakfast (Dunkin' Donuts, what else?!), we went back to the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial to start off on the Black Heritage Trail. The State House is right across the street from the memorial. While we were waiting to cross the street, the buses transporting the Boston Pops to rehearsal for the Fireworks Spectacular drove past, complete with their police escort. You would have thought it was a presidential motorcade! Haha!