Perspectives from the Sideview Mirror
Just two national-park-lovers traveling the USA in a 22-foot travel trailer.
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15. Under Cover: Secret Redwoods
Hyperion is the world’s tallest tree. Don’t bother trying to find this record-breaking tree though… this elusive redwood is in the NPS’s version of the Witness Protection program…
14. Sapphire of the Cascades
Contrary to popular belief, Crater Lake was not created by a monster meteor from outer space… the colossal depression was created by a volcanic eruption. The collapse of Mount Mazama…
13. Mt. Rainier: Fire Mountain
For hundreds of years, this sleeping giant was known as Tahoma (snowy mountain) or Ti’Swaq (sky wiper). White snow-caps shroud one of the most dangerous active volcanoes in the world…
12. Mossy & Salty Olympic
Few places in the world harbor rugged coastlines, foggy temperate rainforests, steaming hot springs, and snowy mountain peaks all in one place. The Pacific Northwest is a beguiling place… it is truly home to the unexpected. Like flying goats for instance…
11. Crown of the Continent:
Glacier
Nature has adorned Glacier National Park with the finest living gemstones. Her pointed peaks are studded with dazzling opal snowfields, blue topaz lakes, emerald spruce trees, and amethyst wildflowers.…
10. Bizarre & Extraordinary Yellowstone
Warm, humid air hisses from angry fumarole steam vents. Sulfurous, rotten egg odors waft from rainbow-hued hot springs. Thundering waterfalls rush through the painted pink-tangerine sands of the grand canyon…
9. Towering Tetons
The Teton Range undeniably commands the skyline in Jackson Hole. Many mountain ranges are rough and uneven, with rolling foothills which obscure views of the mountain tops. Not here. Forty miles of jagged peaks…
8. Otherworldly Grasslands
The broken expanse of the Badlands almost appears to be extraterrestrial. Walking through the pale, eroded canyons feels like walking on the surface of a strange moon. The unforgiving sun scorches the clay soils…
7. Helicopters in the Black Hills
Crystalline veins of pale pink rose quartz. Sparkling silver mica flakes scattered on the ground. Craggy rock outcroppings dotted with vivid wildflowers. The 700 foot scramble up to Little Devils Tower…
6. Teddy Roosevelt’s Badlands
Theodore Roosevelt came to the harsh badlands to heal after a sudden tragedy. His mother and wife died within hours of each other on the same day on February 14, 1884. His diary entry from that day features a large “X” and the painfully brief inscription…
5. What The Fargo (WTF)
The scariest 11 seconds of my life struck me on the windy prairies of North Dakota. We were driving through Fargo, when sudden >40 mph gusts, combined with suction from a rushing semi truck…
4. Voyageurs: The Boundary Waters
Voyageurs National Park is mostly underwater. This striking mosaic of rocky islands, southern boreal forests, temperate deciduous forests, and freshwater lakes hugs the boundary between Minnesota and Canada…
3. Duluth & Lake Superior
“The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down. Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee. The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead. When the skies of November turn gloomy.” The lyrics from Gordon Lightfoot’s masterful ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” are timeless...
2. Sand & Steel: Indiana Dunes
Indiana Dunes National Park contains 15 miles of preserved Lake Michigan shoreline. The rugged windswept sand dunes that hug the Great Lakes region are just as dynamic as the waters themselves…
Cuyahoga: The Burning River
The Cuyahoga was once described as the river that “oozes rather than flows.” Tainted by decades of unregulated sewage and industrial waste, the polluted river infamously caught on fire at least 13 times…