• On the Water Again

    On the Water Again

    Since I started this journey about nine months ago, I have had the privilege to douse my toes in the Atlantic Ocean, swim with sea turtles in the Caribbean Sea, collect shells from a beach at the Gulf of Mexico, dip my hand in the Rio Grande River and ride the waves at the Pacific […]

  • A Walk Through the Trees

    A Walk Through the Trees

    I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting to see when I entered Joshua Tree National Park, but it was way beyond my expectations! With elevations from 536 to 5,814 feet there are two distinct desert ecosystems contained in its 794,000 acres. The western half of the park is in the higher cooler Mojave Desert, […]

  • Grand Canyon

    Grand Canyon

    Forging ahead on my National Park hunt, I made the choice to stop at the Grand Canyon. The National Park Service has created collectable tokens for National Parks, National Monuments, National Historic Sites, etc. I started collecting them last September with my first one being from the Dry Tortugas National Park. I was so close […]

  • Colors Everywhere

    Colors Everywhere

    When you think of a petrified forest, do you think of a painted badlands? I didn’t, but that is what I found at the Petrified Forest National Park. Unexpected, but beautiful! Those of you who know me well, know how I feel about trees and how they feed my soul. That said, there was no […]

  • White Sand Dunes Everywhere

    White Sand Dunes Everywhere

    Have you ever visited a place that is strikingly white everywhere you turn? White Sands National Park in New Mexico is just such a place. But I had the privilege to witness it both in storms and in sun. White Sands National Park was a National Monument for 86 years, and was designated a National […]

  • A Trip Underground

    A Trip Underground

    Carlsbad Caverns National Park is right across the border into New Mexico from Guadalupe Mountains National Park. In fact, and this I did not know, Carlsbad Caverns National Park is in the Guadalupe Mountains range, and there are more than 300 caves within the Captain Reef fossil reef of the park. I had been to […]