Lake Mead National Recreation Area – Nevada
Lake Mead National Recreation Area stretches across the Nevada/Arizona border and surrounds the vast reservoir created by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. It is a landscape of desert mountains, open water and red rock shoreline.
Lake Mead was formed in the 1930s when Hoover Dam was completed during the Great Depression. The project brought electricity, water storage and jobs to the Southwest, reshaping the region’s economy and growth. The reservoir became the largest in the United States by volume and has long supplied water to millions in Nevada, Arizona and California.
The area was designated as the nation’s first National Recreation Area in 1936, established by the National Park Service to protect the newly formed reservoir and surrounding desert landscape while allowing public recreation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt supported the development of Hoover Dam, and the creation of the recreation area reflected the New Deal era’s vision.
Today, Lake Mead offers boating, hiking, fishing and exploration among desert canyons.
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Indiana Dunes National Park – Indiana
On our cross-country family road trip in 1995, we stopped at the Indiana Dunes National Park. The massive sand dunes stretch along the southern shore of Lake Michigan and they are interwoven with wetlands and beaches. The dunes were formed over thousands of years as glaciers retreated in the wind and water shaped the sand into ridges […]
Big Cypress – Florida
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 […]
Glacier Bay National Park – Alaska
Alaska is just a massive state, and it was on our second visit that we set our sights on traveling into Glacier Bay National Park. Stories of John Muir traversing the same area inspired us to want to journey where he also traveled, into the waters and fjords he once explored by canoe. It […]
