with Dr. Nancy Watson
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Southeast Region

Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and U.S. Virgin Islands.

Southeast Region

Alabama

  • Not yet: Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
  • Not yet: Horseshoe Bend National Military Park
  • Not yet: Little River Canyon National Preserve
  • Visited: Russell Cave National Monument
  • Not yet: Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail
  • Visited: Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
  • Visited: Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site

Florida

  • Visited: Big Cypress National Preserve
  • Visited: Biscayne National Park
  • Not yet: Canaveral National Seashore
  • Not yet: Castillo de San Marcos National Monument
  • Visited: De Soto National Memorial
  • Visited: Dry Tortugas National Park
  • Visited: Everglades National Park
  • Not yet: Fort Caroline National Memorial
  • Not yet: Fort Matanzas National Monument
  • Not yet: Gulf Islands National Seashore
  • Visited: Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve

Georgia

  • Not yet: Andersonville National Historic Site
  • Visited: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area
  • Visited: Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park
  • Visited: Cumberland Island National Seashore
  • Not yet: Fort Frederica National Monument
  • Visited: Fort Pulaski National Monument
  • Not yet: Jimmy Carter National Historical Park
  • Visited: Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park
  • Visited: Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park
  • Visited: Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park
  • Visited: Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park - Ebenezer Baptist Church

Kentucky

  • Visited: Abraham Lincoln Birthplace
  • Visited: Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
  • Visited: Mammoth Cave National Park

Mississippi

  • Visited: Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site
  • Not yet: Gulf Islands National Seashore
  • Not yet: Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
  • Visited: Natchez National Historical Park
  • Visited: Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail
  • Visited: Tupelo National Battlefield
  • Not yet: Vicksburg National Military Park

North Carolina

  • Not yet: Blue Ridge Parkway
  • Visited: Cape Hatteras National Seashore
  • Visited: Cape Lookout National Seashore
  • Visited: Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site
  • Visited: Fort Raleigh National Historic Site
  • Visited: Guilford Courthouse National Military Park
  • Not yet: Moores Creek National Battlefield
  • Visited: Wright Brothers National Memorial

Puerto Rico

  • Visited: San Juan National Historic Site

South Carolina

  • Visited: Charles Pinckney National Historic Site
  • Visited: Congaree National Park
  • Visited: Cowpens National Battlefield
  • Visited: Fort Sumter
  • Visited: Kings Mountain National Military Park
  • Visited: Ninety Six National Historic Site
  • Not yet: Reconstruction Era National Historical Park

Tennessee

  • Visited: Andrew Johnson National Historic Site
  • Not yet: Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area
  • Visited: Fort Donelson National Battlefield
  • Visited: Great Smoky Mountains National Park
  • Not yet: Manhattan Project National Historical Park
  • Visited: Obed Wild & Scenic River
  • Visited: Shiloh National Military Park
  • Visited: Stones River National Battlefield

U.S. Virgin Islands

  • Visited: Buck Island Reef National Monument
  • Visited: Christiansted National Historic Site
  • Visited: Salt River Bay National Historical Park
  • Visited: Virgin Islands National Park
  • Not yet: Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument

Recent Posts

Biscayne National Park

Biscayne National Park

Just south of Miami’s skyline lies a park that is nearly entirely water.   Biscayne National Park was established in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter to protect one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country: mangrove shorelines, seagrass beds, coral reefs and the northernmost keys of the Florida Reef Tract. Nearly 95% of the park is […]

Homestead, Florida
Cape Lookout National Seashore

Cape Lookout National Seashore

Cape Lookout National Seashore stretches along the southern Outer Banks of North Carolina, protecting 56 miles of underdeveloped barrier islands. It feels wonderfully remote where ocean, dunes and marsh create a landscape that moves with the wind and tide. The seashore was authorized by Congress in 1966 and officially established in 1976, preserving the fragile barrier […]

Harkers Island, North Carolina
Wright Brothers National Memorial

Wright Brothers National Memorial

When visiting the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Erin and I spent a day at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, the very place where powered flight first lifted off the plane and changed human history. Set in Kill Devil Hills, the memorial preserves the windswept dunes where Wilbur and Oliver Wright achieved the world’s first successful, […]

Manteo, North Carolina
San Juan National Historic Site

San Juan National Historic Site

Walking through the San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico feels like stepping into four centuries of Atlantic world history. Perched above the waters of San Juan Bay, these massive stone fortifications stand as reminders of an era when empires fought to control the New World. Spain poured enormous resources into protecting this small island […]

San Juan, Puerto Rico
Dry Tortugas National Park

Dry Tortugas National Park

What an adventure it was to reach Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. I made this journey with Erin in 2012, as a way to celebrate our birthdays. This was an unforgettable trip to one of the most remote places in the National Park System. Located about 70 miles west of Key West, the Dry Tortugas sit […]

Key West, Florida
Obed Wild & Scenic River

Obed Wild & Scenic River

When I traveled through Tennessee, I found myself moving through the landscape of the Obed Wild and Scenic River. Unlike many places we visit and clearly arrive at, this was a landscape you enter without gates or formal entrances. At the Obed WSR there are miles of creeks and rivers. This remarkable river system came […]

Wartburg, Tennessee
Charles Pinckney National Historic Site

Charles Pinckney National Historic Site

In 2018, while traveling to Charleston for a wedding, I took a side trip across the Cooper River to a place connected to the founding of our nations: Charles Pinckney National Historic Site. This site in Mount Pleasant, S.C., preserves Snee Farm, land once owned by one of America’s Founding Fathers. Charles Pinckney was born […]

Sullivan Island, South Carolina
Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Cape Hatteras National Seashore

On our vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, we visited the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. This site was established in 1953 as the first national seashore in the United States Cape Hatteras protects more than 70 miles of barrier island coastline. Rising above the landscape is the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse which was completed in […]

Manteo, North Carolina
Big Cypress National Preserve

Big Cypress National Preserve

Big Cypress is not exactly a national park, but a national preserve. A national preserve allows certain traditional uses to continue while still protecting the land. When Congress established Big Cypress in 1974, it became one of the very first two national preserves in the country, Big Cypress protects nearly 729,000 acres of land, making […]

Ochopee, Florida
Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield is just one of many national park sites set aside to honor the battles that shaped our nation.  Across the United States, the National Park Service preserves dozens of historic battlefields, forts and military landscapes.  These places were chosen not only for the events that happened there, but also for the stories they continue […]

Kennesaw, Georgia