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
Cape Lookout National Seashore – North Carolina
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 […]
Craters of the Moon National Monument – Idaho
Another solo driving tour took me through Idaho. There were early mornings on those roads when the light stretched across open land and I found myself wishing someone else could see what I was seeing. Some landscapes feel almost too vast to keep to yourself. I knew there was no way I could fully describe it. […]
Dinosaur National Monument – Colorado
When I visited Dinosaur National Monument, I couldn’t help but think of all the young boys who come into our office talking about dinosaurs. They know the names and, and to them, dinosaurs are larger than life. Standing inside this monument, I realized how unforgettable it would be for them to see the real thing. […]
Minute Man National Park – Massachusetts
On numerous acres stretches Minute Man National Historical Park. As a Massachusetts resident, we have visited this park several times. The park encompasses approximately 1,000 acres across the towns of Lexington, Lincoln, and Concord, preserving the landscape of April 19, 1775. This date was the opening day of the American Revolution. It was established as a National […]
Wright Brothers National Memorial – North Carolina
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, […]
White Sands National Park – New Mexico
White Sands is one of those landscapes that feels almost otherworldly as there is wave after wave of white dunes stretching across the Tularosa Basin in southern New Mexico. What surprised us most was these dunes are not sand but are made of gypsum. Gypsum is a soft mineral that usually dissolves in water, but here, because of the […]
Tuzigoot National Monument – Arizona
Rising above the Verde Valley in Central Arizona, Tuzigoot National Monument is one of those places where the land and the past feel inseparable. Tuzigoot preserves the remains of a large prehistoric settlement constructed by the Sinagua people, who lived in this region between the 1100s and early 1400s. Over time, what began as a smaller cluster of […]
Sandy Hook Lighthouse/Gateway Recreation – New Jersey
The Sandy Hook Lighthouse is an extraordinary landmark along the Atlanta coast because of its age and the countless ships it has guided safely past the shoreline for more than two and a half centuries. Standing at the tip of Sandy Hook in New Jersey, within Gateway National Recreation Area, the lighthouse was first lit in 1764, […]
Pony Express National Historic Trail – Nebraska
In the wide-open landscapes of the American West, communication was once slow, uncertain, and often perilous. Long before telegraph wires stretched across the continent, letters were the only way to stay connected across the plains, deserts and mountain ranges. Carrying the mail by horseback became one of the boldest experiments in frontier logistics ever attempted. This […]
Morristown National Historical Park – New Jersey
The Morristown National Historical Park is a Revolutionary War landscape, not a single battle but a place of endurance and survival. Located in Morristown, New Jersey, the park preserves land and structures tied to three winter encampments of the Continental Army between 1777 and 1780. Most famously, it includes Jockey Hollow, where thousands of soldiers endured the brutal […]
De Soto National Memo – Florida
While vacationing in Florida, I took a quiet morning drive to the De Soto National Memorial, which is a peaceful stretch of shoreline along Tampa Bay. While in this quiet spot, it is hard to imagine the historical weight of what unfolded here five centuries ago. Located in Bradenton, the memorial marks the area where Spanish […]
Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site – Pennsylvania
While traveling in southeastern Pennsylvania, we visited this early industrial landscape of American history: Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site. Walking around this site brings us back two centuries with stone furnace stacks, workers’ houses and the ironmaster’s mansion. Hopewell Furnace began operation in 1771, founded by ironmaster Mark Bird at the time when the colonies were […]
