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Fun 2 Days in Saguaro National Park

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Saguaro National Park. www.adventuringbeyond.com #nationalparkswithkids #saguaro #getoutside #nps #travelwithkids #MyNationalParks #familytravel

Sunshine, check. Cactus, check. Desert, check. Mountains, check. City, check.  Er wait, City?  Yes, Saguaro National Park is both in Tucson but in fact the two sections of the park are divided by the whole of the city.  I know this may sound like a detractor, but in both the Rincon Mountain and Tucson Mountain districts you will find that it is quiet, isolated, and feels wild enough to qualify as a National Park. 

Once you are done with your hike you can grab a great lunch or dinner or choose to return to your luxury resort and soak in the pool.  Or, you can camp, boondock, rent a home, or sleep in a cheap motel.  Obviously, one of the best parts of Saguaro is that it is so approachable and easy to visit.  

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4 Practical Tips for Planning a Houseboat Adventure in Voyageurs National Park

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Planning tips for taking a houseboat vacation in Voyageurs National Park. Tips include where to rent, which boat to rent, navigating, and what to expect for the cost. It makes for an amazing family National Park adventure! www.adventuringbeyond.com #nationalparkswithkids #voyageurs #getoutside #nps #familytravelblog #travelwithkids #MyNationalParks #familytravel

This summer we spent 3 fantastic days in Voyageurs National Park exploring the most beautiful National Park in our home state of Minnesota! Voyageurs is really like the Swiss Army knives of parks in that you can explore this area in many ways including houseboat, fishing boat, canoe, kayak, snowmobile, car on an ice road, hiking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and more!

We chose one of the best, and to my knowledge unique to this National Park, ways to explore – by houseboat! Yes, for those who are going to ask, you can rent a houseboat in National Recreation areas such as Lake Mead or Glen Canyon/Lake Powell, but not in a fully designated National Park.

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A Quick Visit to Great Sand Dunes National Park

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Great Sand Dunes National Park

We, like I expect many others, are often driving near a National Park, like Great Sand Dunes, and decide to do a quick visit even if we don’t have time to see everything the park has to offer. Small parks are perfect for this type of visit and we have had some memorable and quick visits to Indiana Dunes, White Sands, Congaree, Badlands, Petrified Forest, and Theodore Roosevelt National Parks. Not everything has as much to see as one of the marquee parks like a Yellowstone, Death Valley, Big Bend, or Yosemite! I’d be quick to point out that this doesn’t diminish the special nature of a small park as it is often focused on a particular sight.

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An Unforgettable 1 Day in White Sands

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White Sands Visitor Center
White Sands Visitor Center

It is hard to believe how many National Park sites have sand dunes — Great Sand Dunes, Guadalupe Mountains, Death Valley (with 2 separate dunes!), Indiana Dunes, the Mojave Preserve, and many more in National Monuments and other federal lands. We have been to so many of them that one of Joy Joy’s classmates thought she went to the beach every time they have a break at school when in fact we go to the dunes!

I originally visited White Sands as a kid, so it was nice to be able to return and bring the rest of the family who had never been before! Thirty or so years ago I was distracted by the newfangled stealth bombers flying over our heads but this time the scenery and threat of rain was all we could focus on.

These dunes are well deserving of the recent upgrade to National Park status (signed on December 20, 2019) as they protect just over 40% of the world’s largest gypsum dunefield that is otherwise part of the White Sands Missile Range. While we would have liked to get to tour the nearby Missile Range Museum to learn more about the testing that is performed here, it is really tough if you aren’t in the military.

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