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You are here: Home / Archives for National Parks

National Parks

Best Family Day in Wind Cave National Park

June 14, 2020 By Ross Nelson Leave a Comment

We enjoyed the best family day in Wind Cave National Park! This is a fun park that can be enjoyed in a 1/2 day, full day, or more. Note: We receive a small commission for purchases made through links in this post.

Day in Wind Cave

Wind Cave, like Mammoth Cave, is named after the cave but includes a number of activities that are above ground and beautiful in their own right. While Wind Cave is a small park, it is close to a number of great parks in the Black Hills, South Dakota area including the Badlands National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Mount Rushmore, and the excellent Custer State Park. We stayed right in Custer and enjoyed down time at a great home VRBO home rental!

A long weekend is perfect for the area and gives you plenty of time to spend in each park. Wind Cave won’t take you all day unless you do some extended hiking, of which there are more than 30 miles of!

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Filed Under: National Parks, South Dakota National Parks, Wind Cave National Park Tagged With: Badlands, Bison, Boland Ridge Hike, cave tour, Custer State Park, family day hikes, Natural Entrance Tour, Rankin Ridge Trail, scenic road

How to spend 1 day in the Badlands National Park

June 9, 2020 By Ross Nelson Leave a Comment

Note: We receive a small commission for purchases made through links in this post.

How to spend 1 day in the Badlands National Park

We spent a great day in the Badlands on a long-weekend trip from Minneapolis! Here’s how to spend a memorable day in the Badlands – tips for those of you who are just driving through or ideas for spending a bit more time. Our first stop wasn’t even in the park, but rather in the adjacent Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, which is worth stopping into to learn about these important assets during the Cold War.

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Filed Under: Badlands National Park, National Parks, South Dakota National Parks Tagged With: Badlands, Badlands overlook, Bison, Jewel Cave, Minuteman missile, Mt. Rushmore, notch trail, Roberts Prairie Dog Town, Rocket Motel, Sage Creek Rim Road, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Wind Cave

1 Quick Day in Congaree National Park

June 3, 2020 By Ross Nelson 2 Comments

Quick day in Congaree National Park

Congaree National Park is fairly small with one main attraction – the swamp – so it is easy to spend a quick day in Congaree on the way to something else. I see why they didn’t name it Congaree Swamp National Park (its prior name was Congaree Swamp National Monument until 2003) as anything with “swamp” in the name brings a certain disdain. But, a little spit and a polish and a swamp transforms into…er, wait, it’s still a swamp…

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Filed Under: Congaree National Park, National Parks Tagged With: Andersonville, bugs, Charles Pinckney, Congaree National Park, Congaree River Blue Trail, Congaree Swamp, Cumberland Island, family hike, Fort Sumter, Georgia Aquarium, Great Smoky Mountains, Martin Luther King Jr., national park with kids, river, south carolina, spring break, trees

The Good and Bad of the Popular Biscayne Boat Tour

June 1, 2020 By Ross Nelson 2 Comments

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Biscayne Visitor Center
Biscayne Visitor Center

In researching what to do in Biscayne National Park, there wasn’t a lot that we felt would work well for our family and the time we had allotted for the park. We eventually settled on a Biscayne boat tour to Boca Chita Key. We took one day to visit Biscayne while in the area visiting Everglades National Park, Marco Island, and Key West. Our rental home in nearby Homestead was the perfect place to see these areas from!

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Filed Under: Biscayne National Park, Florida National Parks, National Parks Tagged With: birds, biscayne, boat tour, florida, guide, island, lighthouse, picnic, tour

The Best 1 Day in the Mojave Preserve

May 31, 2020 By Ross Nelson Leave a Comment

Best 1 day in the Mojave Preserve

The Mojave Preserve is a vastly under-appreciated gem of the National Park System in California.  We visited on a trip that had us fly into Las Vegas before hitting the Mojave, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite, and Death Valley National Parks. We had the best 1 day in the Mojave Preserve by doing some great hikes and appreciating the beauty of the park!

Tucked between I-15 and I-40 and touching the border with Nevada, this huge park (1.6 million acres and the third largest site in the contiguous US) encompasses abandoned mines, lava tubes, sand dunes, train depots, arguably more Joshua Trees than Joshua Tree National Park, mountains, and so much more that we were unable to do it all in a day!  What we were able to do was enjoy some beauty and have a good visit as a family.  And sweat… So, how do you have your best 1 day in the Mojave Preserve?

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Filed Under: California National Parks, Mojave Preserve Tagged With: californianationalparks, day hikes with kids, family day hikes, family hikes, joshua tree, junior ranger, kelso, Las Vegas, mojave preserve, mojavepreserve, sand dunes

Best Family Tour in Mammoth Cave National Park

May 30, 2020 By Ross Nelson Leave a Comment

Our pick for the best family tour in Mammoth Cave

Caves are an odd thing but people have been fascinated by these holes in the ground for a very long time. I suppose early on it was for shelter, but more recently the fascination has been the mystery of where they may go, how big they may be, and what is down that next passage.

Mammoth Cave has all of those hallmarks and the superlatives to go with a name like Mammoth. Thankfully Mammoth Cave lives up to its name as it is part of the longest cave system in the world since it is connected to the broader Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System of central Kentucky. Imagine 400 miles of known and surveyed passageways – more than two times the size of the next largest cave!

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Filed Under: Mammoth Cave National Park Tagged With: Bottomless Pit, Historic Tour, Mammoth Cave National Park, Mammoth Dome, national park with kids, Rotunda, travel with kids

4 Best Dog-Friendly Hikes in Cuyahoga Valley National Park

May 30, 2020 By Ross Nelson Leave a Comment

4 best dog-friendly hikes in Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Sometimes plans don’t work out. We had planned to go on a summer trip to Colorado and visit a few parks, but life threw us a curveball. Instead, we headed east to Cuyahoga and Indiana Dunes National Parks as the consolation prize. Our pup, Jasper, also came along because we couldn’t find a dog-sitter so last minute. Each of the following are our picks for the 4 best dog-friendly hikes in Cuyahoga Valley!

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Filed Under: Cuyahoga Valley National Park Tagged With: Blue Hen Falls, Brandywine Falls, Canal Exploration Center, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, Dog-friendly National Parks, Everett Covered Bridge, First Ladies National Historic Site, hiking with dogs, hiking with kids, James A Garfield, Ledges Overlook, Loop Trail, national park with kids

4 Fun Hours in Indiana Dunes National Park

May 29, 2020 By Ross Nelson Leave a Comment

4 fun hours in Indiana Dunes National Park

If you have a short amount of time available for this park, this is your guide to 4 fun hours in Indiana Dunes National Park! We stopped on our way from the very interesting (still under development) Pullman National Historic Site to Cuyahoga Valley National Park (see our post here!) and had just 4 hours to spend and wanted to use it wisely! We left with mixed feelings about the Park, but if you are coming from Chicago you can catch the train and be here fairly quickly without driving!

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Filed Under: Indiana Dunes National Park Tagged With: Century of Progress Homes, Indiana Dunes National Park, junior ranger, West Beach

The Mighty 5 Utah National Parks in 7 Days

May 29, 2020 By Ross Nelson Leave a Comment

Mighty 5 Utah National Parks in 7 Days

Can you do the Mighty 5 Utah National Parks in 7 days?  If you do so, will you actually be able to enjoy the time and see enough of the parks to feel like it was worthwhile?  Simply put, Yes!  One of the hardest aspects of travel planning for me is prioritizing what to see and what can be missed. 

I will not lie to you – you will make compromises in seeing these parks in seven days.  But, you will see enough to feel like you had a good time and were able to get out and active in the parks.

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Filed Under: Utah National Parks Tagged With: Arches, Bryce Canyon National Park, Canyonlands, Horseshoe Bend, mighty 5, Mighty 5 itinerary, mighty five, Pipe Spring National Monument, road trip with kids, utah itinerary, Utah National Parks, Vermillion Cliffs, zion national park

Top 9 Things to do with Kids in Great Smoky Mountains

May 26, 2020 By Ross Nelson 2 Comments

Our family’s picks for the top 9 things to do with kids in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Top 9 things to do with kids in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Of the national parks east of the Mississippi, Great Smoky Mountains is, well, the greatest! This beautiful park is, especially at sunset, a sea of hills that layer stunningly and distinctively. Mountains? Umm… Not in the western mind, but for the east it is a “yes!”

For families, Great Smoky Mountains should be considered solidly on the list of “top 5” national parks. It is easily accessible and has many kid-friendly programs and hikes. With Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg directly next to the park you can easily blend nature hikes and wildlife with mini golf, laser tag, wax museums, and a legitimate amusement park with a good dose of twang!

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Filed Under: Great Smoky Mountains National Park Tagged With: alum cave, blue ridge parkway, cades cove, clingmans dome, dollywood, great smoky mountain national park, grotto falls, laurel falls, national park with kids, National Parks, newfound gap, oconaluftee visitor center, roaring fork, spruce flats falls

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About Us

Hi everyone! In 2015 our family set a goal to visit as many National Park sites as we could in the Contiguous US before the kids graduate from high school. This blog is our way of sharing what we do and helping others learn from our plans (with some fun extras thrown in as well)! Join our family as we passionately pursue adventuring beyond through travel, food, and more. Read More…

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