a former gymnast with a neverending case of wanderlust
Despite our best efforts, we moved away from Connecticut with quite a few things left on our east coast to-do list. We just ran out of time to see everything. But Pat’s family still lives there, meaning we head back at least once a year for one reason or another. This year, it was for… Continue reading A winter encampment – Valley Forge National Historical Park, Pennsylvania
Located on the western edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico, hidden amongst the jumbled landscape, are more than 20,000 (not a typo!) historic rock carvings called petroglyphs. This area is part of the Rio Grande rift, formed over millions of years by the movement of tectonic plates. This rift stretches from central Colorado to central New… Continue reading Indigenous inscriptions – Petroglyph National Monument, New Mexico
By far, most people who visit Dinosaur go to the Utah half of the monument. It’s the side with the dinosaur bones for which the monument is most famous. It’s also the more accessible part of the monument, with developed campgrounds and easy river access. However… what the Colorado half lacks in dinosaur fossils, it… Continue reading Canyon Country – Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado
Bent’s Old Fort was in fact not a fort in the traditional sense. It may have resembled military fortifications, but it was actually a trading post. Brothers Charles and William Bent and their business partner Ceran St. Vrain built the fort a few miles outside La Junta in 1833, choosing this particular place because it was fairly centrally-located between the fur trappers of the Rocky Mountains, the native lands of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Comanche tribes, and people traveling between the US and Mexico on the Santa Fe Trail. It quickly became a key location for trading and the main stop on the Santa Fe trail for travelers in need of rest, repairs, and replenishment.
When I mention giant redwood trees, Sequoia National Park and California are probably two of the first places that come to mind. But if I’d mentioned giant redwood trees about 34 million years ago, you’d most likely be thinking of Colorado instead! Thirty-four million years ago, what is now the Florissant Valley in the Rocky… Continue reading Shadows of the Past – Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Colorado
There are only two National Park Service sites in the US that are devoted to art – one celebrates a famous sculptor, and the other a famous painter. Without really doing any research, my mom and I coincidentally ended up visiting both of them in the same week. In late June of 2017, my mom,… Continue reading An Homage to American Art – Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, New Hampshire & Weir Farm National Historic Site, Connecticut
When I think of Texas, mountains certainly isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But there are in fact mountains there, and they’re decently large. Guadalupe Mountains National Park is located in west Texas, just south of the border with New Mexico and 2 hours east of El Paso. From Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico,… Continue reading Everything is bigger in Texas – Guadalupe Mountains National Park (part I)
In honor of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, I've put together a list of my favorite National Park Service sites: NATIONAL PARKS #1: Glacier National Park, Montana I’m probably always going to be biased towards my home state, but I think just about anyone would agree with me that Glacier is one of… Continue reading Happy Birthday to the National Park Service!
Handstands Around the World 