Author: JEAN

We have seen two National Parks that have a volcanic past. The first one was Lassen Volcanic National Park in Mineral, California. Despite the fact that the temperatures were in the mid 70 to lower 80s, this parks still had snow! Lots of snow! In fact, the scenic route through the park, had only been…

Next up on the list of National Parks was Sequoia. Once again, we headed out early in the morning to beat the crowds and see the park in the early morning light. We were greeted by a beautiful sunrise, although is was somewhat muted by the smoke from wildfires near Fresno and some prescribed burns…

Before you ask, yes, it was hot. But hey, it was summer time. Death Valley was more than I expected, the most interesting part was the diversity of the park. I thought that it was just a big, hot valley, but not so much. There is actually a lot of diversity to the terrain. We…

After beautiful Bryce Canyon, we headed to the last of the ‘mighty five’ National Parks in Utah, Zion National Park. This park is a little different from many of the ones that we have been to so far. Most of the parks have a scenic route with various pullouts and parking areas showcasing the beauty…

So we thought we had seen the best that Utah National Parks had to offer, and then we went to Bryce Canyon. I can not even begin to describe the beauty in this National Park. The park has an 18 mile scenic drive, with the first 3 miles of the drive called the Bryce Amphitheatre….

We continued our journey through southern Utah over to Capital Reef NP. Looking at the map below, our travels took us north of Arches and Canyonlands up to Interstate 70. We headed south and traveled along the western side of Canyonlands NP. On our way over to Torrey, UT, we passed through the small town…

Canyonlands National Park is also in the Moab area. Although close in proximity, this park could not be more different from Arches. As towering as many of the rock formations are in Arches, the Canyonlands views are hundred times deeper. The contrast of these locations is just amazing. Canyonlands is actually made up of 4…

Moab, Utah is an outdoor lover’s dream. There is so much to do and to see you will definately be on sensory overload. There are two National Parks in the area and hundreds if not thousands of trails for walking, hiking and offroading in a 4 wheel drive Jeep or a side by side UTV…

From New Mexico, we headed north to Colorado to see Mesa Verde National Park. This park encompasses over 52,000 acres. From most of the park, you can see gorgeous views that extend for miles from the top of the mesas. In case you were wondering, a mesa is a flat-topped mountain or hill with steep…

Before we left New Mexico, we took a ride over to Arizona to check out the Petrified Forest NP. The park has a 26 mile scenic road that opens up to many beautiful areas. Just a mile from the south entrance and visitor center, the area known as the Painted Desert begins to unfold to…