Our National Parks
Every National Park tells a story, from breathtaking landscapes and ancient forests to historic landmarks that preserve our shared past. Each visit offers a chance to pause and reflect, to feel gratitude for what endures and to witness how nature and history together remind us of the beauty worth protecting.
Recent Posts
Homestead National Historical Park – Nebraska
Homestead National Historical Park in Beatrice, Nebraska preserves the story of one of the most transformative legislations in American history: The Homestead Act of 1862. Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, the Act allowed citizens to claim 160 acres of public land if they lived on it, built a dwelling and farmed it for […]
Great Falls of Paterson National Historical site – New Jersey
Driving back from an event in New Jersey, I spotted the familiar brown National Park sign for Great Falls of Paterson. Recognizing that unmistakable marker, I asked Marty to pull off the highway for a newer national park. What we found was the Great Falls of the Passaic River plunging about 77 feet. We learned beyond the […]
Tonto National Monument – Arizona
National Monument preserves dramatic cliff dwelling built by the Salado people in the late 1200s and early 1300s. The site is located in central Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert. The monument protects two primary cliff dwellings constructed within natural limestone alcoves high above the valley floor. The multi-room masonry homes were built on local stone and adobe, […]
Voyageurs National Park – Minnesota
I have explored many National Parks on solo driving tours. There is something about the quiet rhythm of the road with long stretches of highway and time to think. Driving to Voyageurs in northern Minnesota was one of those journeys. I followed the North Shore of Lake Superior for part of the trip, marveling at its vastness. […]
Vietnam Veterans Memorial – Washington DC
The monuments around Washington, D.C. are all designed with purpose, each capturing a person, a war, or an event worthy of being remembered in our nation’s capital. None is more captivating than the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The memorial was authorized by Congress in 1980 and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on July 1 […]
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site – New York
Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, in a brownstone home on East 20th Street in Manhattan. Though the original house was demolished in 1916, it was reconstructed in the 1920s on the original site, using photographs, family memories and original furnishings to recreate the homes it would have appeared during his childhood. The house reflects the […]
Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site – Massachusetts
Long before Massachusetts became synonymous with textile mills, industry was already taking root along the Saugus River. In 1646, a group of English investors organized as the Company of Undertakers of the Iron Works in New England established what would become the first successful integrated ironworks in colonial North America. Their goal was to reduce the […]
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park – California
Walking along Aquatic Park in San Francisco, I made my way to the Hyde Street Pier and the visitor center of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. San Francisco’s identity was forged by the sea. When gold was discovered in 1848, ships began arriving from everywhere: New England, South America, Europe, China, Australia. The sea routes brought […]
Salem Maritime National Historic Site – Massachusetts
In Massachusetts, many visitors come to Salem searching for the echoes of the 1692 witch trials. But along the waterfront stands another Salem story, older in infrastructure, broader in reach and foundational to the young nation’s economy. The Salem Maritime National Historic Site preserves nearly nice acres along the harbor that reflect Salem’s extraordinary maritime […]
Rosie the Riveter National History Site – California
Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park was another place I visited during our time teaching in California. This one I did on my own, getting there early when it first opened. Located in Richmond, California, along the San Francisco Bay, the park captures the extraordinary war mobilization that transformed this shipbuilding town almost overnight during […]
Biscayne National Park – Florida
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 […]
Glacier National Park – Montana
One of our most majestic national parks is also one of the few I have only been fortunate enough to visit once. Glacier National Park, located in northern Montana along the Canadian border, is part of a larger protected ecosystem that extends into Canada as Waterton Lakes National Park. Together they form the Waterton-Glacier-International Peace Park. This […]
