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 Carlsbad years ago, when my children were small, but since it is so close, I had to stop. The discovery of the cave entrance, and the first to enter, is unknown. Native Americans have known about the cave for hundreds, if not thousands of years,…

The last two National Parks I visited in Texas were Big Bend National Park, located in southwest Texas along the Rio Grande River, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park, located in western Texas on the border of New Mexico. I’ll start with the 801,163-acre Big Bend National Park. The name is appropriate because of the big U-turn made by the Rio Grande on the south border of the park, which also is the border between the United States and Mexico. The Santa Elena, Mariscal, and Boquillas canyons and the areas around them became the Texas Canyons State Park in the 1930s.…

As most of you know, I am on a National Park hunt, and as I am moving about the country, I am finding exceptional historic parks and monuments under the National Park Service. One of them is the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park, a group of four missions built by the Spanish in the 1700s with labor from Indigenous South Texans. They also constructed a fifth mission, which is in the middle of downtown San Antonio that is not part of the National Park. We know this one as the Alamo. It is a privilege to be walking through…

Louisiana. Where do I start with my adventure to Louisiana? I guess my adventure started with researching National Parks in the state. Did you know there is a National Park and National Park Visitor Center in the French Quarter in New Orleans? The French Quarter, and the Mardi Gras, has always intrigued me, but I had only seen it in movies or shows. The architecture, and street musicians, and jazz, and art, and horse drawn carriages… And the cemeteries… I had to go, though I missed Mardi Gras by a couple of weeks. I’m really glad I went, but honestly,…

And the journey begins. I left Minnesota just over a week ago and, honestly, I don’t miss the cold at all!! Though the variety of weather I experienced the month I was there was a typical Minnesota winter/spring – about 19 below when I arrived to nearly 50 degrees about three weeks later, to a snow storm about 4 days before I left. Weather was neurotic! My first destination was Missouri, where I spent a few days with my high school friend, Laurie. She has a small homestead in the Ozarks in southern Missouri near the Arkansas border where she…

While visiting Big Cypress National Preserve I got lost in the woods. Figuratively. I found out about Big Cypress while at Biscayne National Park and decided I had to visit before I headed back to Orlando. It was going to be a quick visit, so I decided to drive the 24-mile loop road, stopping just at places of interest. Two hours later, I wasn’t even half way. There was too many things to stop and see! I got lost in the woods! One of my first stops I was the only vehicle in site either direction. Stepping from the car,…