As 2021 dawned, we became optimistic about outdoor trekking opportunities this summer. So we created a multi-day “traverse” around the northwest Mojave Desert portion of Joshua Tree National Park, linking together 60 miles of trails, dirt roads, and overland sections.
One of the practices that Darren and I follow is to maintain a master packing list. This practice makes it easy to tailor our list for a particular trip, including backpacking, international travel, car-camping, or simply an overnighter at a friend’s house.
We just returned from our National Park Tour. During our travels we visited 27 National Parks (plus other National Monuments) over 136 days. We covered about 17,000 miles in our 2003 Toyota 4Runner 4WD, visiting 34 states. And we hiked over 400 miles while in the parks, including several overnight backpacking trips. Take a look.
Up for a challenge? Here is a collection of the best U.S. and National Park Geography Quizzes that we published during our recent TTP National Parks Adventure. Try the 20 different geography tests and games here!
Our ‘Best of’ Trekking the Planet wallpaper features 46 of our favorite photos from the national parks, national monuments, national memorials and national seashores we visited on our recent journey. The photos in this theme will automatically be rotated every 30 minutes.
We recently completed an interview, summarizing our favorite parks, challenges we faced, what worked well and our final thoughts from our Trekking the Planet National Parks Roadtrip Adventure. If you …
Off the coast of California, between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, lie the Channel Islands. There are eight islands in the 160 mile archipelago, and five of those comprise Channel Islands National Park. Our visit to the 27th and final park on our Trekking the Planet NPS journey was an overnight adventure.
America’s newest national park is Pinnacles, established in 2013, and located about 80 miles southeast of San Jose, California. During our two days in the park we hiked 17.2 miles, scrambled in two talus caves, and scanned the skies for the endangered California condors that glide over the peaks in the early morning and late afternoon.
The Cascade Mountains run from south British Columbia to Northern California. The highest peak in the Cascades is Mount Rainier. At 14,410 feet, it is the fifth tallest mountain in the lower 48 states and the 17th highest in the entire U.S. We spent time driving through the park and hiking in two popular locations: Sunrise and Paradise.
Theodore Roosevelt in North Dakota is the only one of America’s 59 national parks to be named after a person. While in the park, we spent time in all three units, united by the Little Missouri River flowing through them.
Wind Cave, in the southern Black Hills of South Dakota, was created as America’s eighth national park in 1903 and was the first to protect a cave. During the three days that we visited, we took two tours in the cave, unique in its abundant boxwork formations, which are found virtually nowhere else in the world. We also spent time on a safari of sorts, tracking animals, including herd of bison, along Wind Cave’s backcountry roads.
Seventy five million years ago a shallow sea covered today’s Great Plains area. Sea creatures that died sank to the bottom of the sea and became fossils, as well as a gray-black layer of sedimentary rock. This layer is just one of the bands of rock comprising today’s Badlands National Park area, formed as the sea retreated and the climate dried. We spent three days in the park exploring the badlands rock formations and viewing fossils, while hiking on several trails under the ancient sea.
