Category: USA
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The Photo-Friendly Kodachrome Basin State Park
The bright blue sky and deep reds and oranges of this park were so inspiring to the National Geographic Society that they petitioned Kodak Film Corp to name this Utah park after the popular Kodachrome film of the time. Kodachrome Basin State Park is a small park located just past Bryce Canyon National Park, so…
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What’s So Bad About Badlands National Park?
The Badlands National Park is what I affectionately like to call a “flyover park”. It’s actually one of my favorite Midwestern parks but it gets constantly overlooked due to its location in relation to the more popular Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks! While it’s technically possible to do all three of these parks as…
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What the Heck is Wall Drug?
Anyone who has been on a roadtrip of the American Midwest has surely seen the billboards advertising free iced water at Wall Drug and after a few dozen signs, one can’t help but wonder- what’s that all about? Originally purchased in 1931, the Wall Drug Store made its claim to fame when the owner’s wife…
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Let’s Take a Step Back to 1964
Since the mid 1800’s the world at large has had multiple celebrations designed to showcase national achievements. While the US tends to refer to these events as World Fairs, more modernly they are usually known as Expos- Dubai is just wrapping up their Expo 2020 this month. This World’s Fair was themed “Peace Through Understanding”…
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Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Jackson Hole is a fairly touristy city, popular mostly for its proximity to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks as well as several ski resorts in the area. I used this city as a launching point for my visit to Grand Teton National Park, but there are plenty of points of interest within the city…
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Devils Tower National Monument
America’s first National Monument, Devils Tower is famous for its incredible granite sculpture reminiscent of an enormous stone tree stump. Movie fans may recognize this National Monument from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This striking monolith is only two hours away from Mount Rushmore and is extremely popular for casual views and avid climbers…
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Valley of Fire State Park
Valley of Fire State Park is one of my favorite excursions out of Las Vegas. Just about an hour outside the city strip, Valley of Fire features some incredible red rock formations- and I say this as someone who’s spent a significant amount of time around red rocks! We made a quick cell service-related pit…
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Skidaway Island State Park
Regular readers of my blog can probably take a guess that I’m not much of a city person. As much as I enjoyed my visit to Savannah, Georgia, I did make sure to take the opportunity to get out of the city to explore the surrounding areas. Skidaway Island State Park is just about a…
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Angry Orchard’s Cider House
Having cornered the market on American hard ciders, Angry Orchard’s Cider House in Walden New York is endlessly popular with visitors- and with good reason! Having only incidentally driven past the Cider House, it was fairly late in the afternoon and extremely crowded- we got one of the last spots available in the overflow parking…
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North South Lake State Park
As one of the biggest and most popular campgrounds in the Catskills of New York, North South Lake State Park hosts over two-hundred campsites clustered around the Northern-most of it’s namesake lakes. This campground is the perfect launching point for many nearby hikes and viewpoints. A popular and relatively easy hike to the Catskill Mountain…