Tag Archives: NPS

Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks in Winter

16 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by in National Parks, Travel Destinations

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

National Park sights in winterMost travelers think of summer as the best time to hit national parks – but winter also offers several spectacular sights that make for memorable visits.

So when the snow starts falling, consider a road trip to one of the following parks.

Birders paradise

Winter marks the best time to hike Florida’s Everglades National Park, as the subtropical climate means unbearably hot and muggy summers. Indeed, a number of birds already know this and spend their time in the Everglades after migrating from a northern clime. Among those you can spot on the Anhinga Trail are the double breasted cormorant, great egret, great blue heron, snowy egret, tricolored heron, white ibis and woodstork; turkey vultures congregate during the early morning hours.great blue heron

Wildlife sightings

Leafless trees and snow’s white backdrop makes sighting large wildlife a lot easier in winter than summer. The Warner Point Nature Trail on the south rim of Colorado’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park offers the chance to spot elk and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. Look for the elk in clearings and the bighorn sheep on the rocky cliff sides.

Bighorn Sheep

Heavy waterfalls

At most parks, waterfalls are most active in spring and early summer, thanks to snow melts. Not so at Washington state’s Olympic National Park. Rain is more likely there during winter, meaning the water flow is higher, making for amore spectacular creeks and falls. One good trail through the park’s lush, old growth forest that ends at a waterfall is the Marymere Falls Trail.

Olympic National Park waterfall

Bearable heat

During summer, unbearable heats makes California’s Death Valley National Park at best a pass through seen from a motor vehicle. The park’s average high in January is a pleasant 67 degrees making winter the perfect time to walk the foreboding desert landscape. Among those sights is the lowest point in North America. Badwater Basin sits 282 feet below sea level and can be accessed in a mile-long round trip hike.

Badwater Basin

 Avoid the crowds

Visitation drops during winter at most parks, so the trade-off for bundling up in coat, cap and gloves is seeing the great scenery without all of the crowds. A good bet is Yosemite National Park’s spectacular Yosemite Valley in California. The Lower Yosemite Fall Trail offers a number of fantastic views of Yosemite Falls in a 1.2-mile loop with the added coolness of falling water frozen in mid-flight on the granite rocks.

Yosemite Falls

About the author:

Rob Bignell is the author of several hiking books, including the bestselling “Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks.”

RV Protect

Aww Shucks!

Craig S. FL~ “I am extremely pleased with the service I received. Your representative kept in constant contact with me to make sure everything was going as planned. I never felt like I was in this by myself. Thank you!!!!”

Key West and Dry Tortugas National Park

04 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by in National Parks, Travel Destinations

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Key WestKey West is your gateway to Dry Tortugas National Park, one of the most incredible parks in all of America. Journey through time, from the 18th century to the 20th, explore maritime history, meet a few ghosts, and eat some delicious Key Lime Pie. A walled-in island oasis located in the Florida Keys, Dry Tortugas National Park features a plethora of diverse marine life and a variety of water sports for kids and adults of all ages to enjoy. On your way to the park, only accessible by boat or plane, you can enjoy many of the attractions that Key West has to offer.

Higgs Beach And Pier

A wonderful beach with clean water and a sprawling pier, Higgs Beach is a great place to stop and relax on your trip across Key West. Beachgoers can rent chairs and umbrellas for reasonable prices, and even swim and snorkel in the sea. An area often frequented by locals, Higgs Beach is considered to be one of the best beaches in Key West. It’s like a real-life Kokomo!

Higgs Beach and Pier

Boyd’s Key West Campground

Boyd’s Key West Campground has everything you need for a perfect FL camping trip. There’s a tiki bar, a pool, shady sites, even a boat launch and kayak rentals so you can get out on the water! Plus, it’s pretty close to everything Key West has to offer– most attractions are a short taxi ride away!

Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe

Key lime pie is considered to be one of the ultimate vacation treats, and Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe is a great place to get your sweet fix on your trip. Not only is this shop known for its key lime pie, but it also offers a variety of other goodies, such as key lime cookies, salsa, taffy, tea, olive oil, and more.

Key Lime Pie

Captain Tony’s Saloon

Over the years, Captain Tony’s Saloon has been frequented by the likes of Jimmy Buffett, Ernest Hemingway, and even our favorite childhood author, Shel Silverstein. What many guests don’t know, however, is that the saloon started out as an icehouse and morgue! Now, Captain Tony’s is a must-see spot for Key West visitors. Make sure to put a quarter in the mouth of the giant Jewfish hanging outside (if you can reach it)—it’s considered to be a good-luck charm!

Ghosts & Gravestones

A “frightseeing tour on the Island of Bones,” the Ghosts & Gravestones tour of Key West is not for the faint of heart—but it is worth every penny. You’ll go on a spine-tingling night ride across the city, passing by famous landmarks of murder and misfortune from Key West’s past. The tour even takes you to the East Martello Fort, where you can catch a glimpse of the haunted Robert the Doll.

Ghosts and Gravestones tour

Shipwreck Historeum

Formerly known as the Shipwreck Historeum, the Shipwreck Treasure Museum offers a look at old shipwreck artifacts, which call to mind a decadent past when the rich dealt in gold and jewels. From 1820 to the 1850s, Key West was the richest city per capita in the USA, all due to treasure found from shipwrecks around the island. You’ll even get an opportunity to try to lift a bar of silver recovered from a Spanish shipwreck. Are you strong enough?

Mallory Square

Mallory Square is a waterfront plaza best known for its nightly Key West Sunset Celebrations. Vendors, local musicians, magicians, clowns, and more gather for the event—but nothing can compete with the spectacular colors of a Key West sunset.

Mallory Square

Fort Jefferson

Fort Jefferson is one of the most iconic sights in Dry Tortugas National Park. The largest masonry structure in the Americas, the unfinished fortress is made up of more than 16 million bricks! Its construction began all the way back in 1847, and even though the six-sided, four-tiered, 1,000-heavy-gun fort was never completed, it remained in active use from the Civil War until the 1930s.

Dry Tortugas National Park

Dry Tortugas National Park itself has plenty of activities to offer. You can reach the park via a daily ferry or by seaplane. Seaplanes allow you to get a beautiful view of the island and surrounding sea, so consider chartering one from Key West Sea Plane Charters. After you’re inside the park, you can swim, snorkel, explore the fort, stargaze, and even dive down to explore shipwrecks.

Dry Tortuga National Park

With beaches, celebrity saloons, famously tasty pie, shipwreck treasures, a magnificent park only accessible by boat or plane, and much more, Key West is a great place for your next camping trip.

RV Protect

Aww Shucks!

Steve S. ~ “We were stranded in our motorhome along I-75 in south Georgia.  I called Coach-Net and the representative went to work arranging a tow and a repair shop. Both the tow and repair went smoothly and made a very unpleasant situation as good as it could have been.  Thank you!”

 

 

Haunted National Parks

26 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by in National Parks, The Great Outdoors, Travel Destinations

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

 

Haunted National ParksWhat are the scariest places in the world? Transylvania? A New Orleans cemetery? An abandoned, haunted asylum?

If traveling through the continental United States, try a national park. Though national parks are mainly thought of as places to get back to nature, they’re also great spots to raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Among the frights awaiting are haunted caverns, woodland witches, alien skies, and even stalking bigfoots.

Ghosts

Mammoth Cave National Park

Sightings at the Kentucky caverns date to before the Civil War. They range from apparitions of slaves to the phantom coughs of tuberculosis victims buried at a park cemetery. But the most common sighting is of Stephan Bishop, a former slave who explored the cave and whose remains rest at the Old Guide Cemetery. The best chance of seeing Bishop’s ghost is on the Violet City Lantern Tour, in which you walk through the caverns with only kerosene lamps to light your way.Mammoth Cave

Witches

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Cherokees who once resided on the foggy ridges now making up the national park often told the story of Spearfinger, a witch who lured children into the woods and sang them to sleep. Then with her long finger made of sharp obsidian, she’d cut out and eat their livers. She is said to have walked a number of paths on the park’s eastern edge, including what is now the Norton Creek Trail. That trail also is famous for being the site of where a settler was murdered – and of a strange light that leads one safely out of the dark, foreboding woods.Foggy Trail

 Little Grey Men

 Great Sand Dunes National Park

Most visitors who head up the park’s Star Dune so do for the glory of scaling the 750-foot high mountain of sand. Those hikers definitely will want to keep their eyes to sky rather than to their ground below, though. For more than 60 years, numerous flying saucer reports have been made in the San Luis Valley where the sand dunes are located. Among the UFOs reported over the dunes are black triangles, cigar-shaped craft, and hovering multicolored lights. Great Sand Dunes National Park

Mysterious Moving Rocks

Death Valley National Park

In a remote section of Death Valley across a playa known as the Racetrack, large rocks continue to move, leaving tracks in the clay. No one has ever seen them move, but one far-out theory suggests aliens use telekinesis to race the hefty boulders. Though there’s no designated trail, about two miles south of the Grandstand parking area you can walk a half-mile toward the playa’s southeast corner to see the rocks and the paths they’ve meandered. A high-clearance vehicle is needed to reach the parking area.Death Valley Racetrack

 Bigfoot

Yellowstone National Park

The famous sasquatch has been reported at a number of national parks, but recently not one but four were allegedly filmed at this heavily visited park. A 2015 video shows the hairy beasts apparently stalking bison that have just arrived at Old Faithful Geyser for winter. Walk the Old Faithful Boardwalk to follow in their steps.Yellowstone Boardwalk

 Bats

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

OK, Carlsbad Caverns is not haunted, but what would Halloween be without spooky bats? Every sunset from June through October, hundreds of thousands of bats fly out of Carlsbad Cavern’s natural entrance in a tornadic-like spiral to feed for the evening then return at dawn. You can either get an up-close seat at an amphitheater where the bats leave their cave or hike the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Trail, a half-mile loop, and watch the bats disperse across the New Mexican desert.Carlsbad Caverns

About the author:

Rob Bignell is the author of several hiking books, including the bestselling “Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks.”

Hazard Protect

Aww Shucks!

W.B., Green Cove Springs, FL ~ “We didn’t need a tow but needed a new tire brought to our location. Coach-Net coordinated it very well.”