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Wild Days and Dark Nights: Big Bend National Park

Texas may be the Lone Star State, but there are 2,000 more stars visible in the sky on any given night in Big Bend National Park than there are in most mid-sized cities around the country. This is dark sky country. I don’t know about you, but I feel that seeing stars shine brilliantly in the […]

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Seeing an Old Friend in a New Light: Shenandoah National Park

Guest post by Jonathan Irish, for The Greatest Road Trip. When we arrived to Shenandoah National Park in February, it was very much a world without color. A recent cold snap had blanketed snow on much of the mountains and trails. It had also frozen the waterfalls, and conjured high winds that were bitter cold when […]

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Knee-Deep in Nature: Congaree National Park

On photography, Jon once gave me a tip I’ll never forget: “sit, wait, and let the photo happen in front of you. Then capture it.” I was told basically the same thing about experiencing Congaree National Park by a plain-clothed volunteer ranger I sniffed out while walking on the boardwalk. “See any wildlife?” I asked as […]

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park: The Joy’s of Off-Season Traveling

It’s easy to see why the Great Smoky Mountains are the most visited National Park of them all. The park is located in a crossroads of sorts through the American southeast, straddling the Tennessee and North Carolina state line. Winding through the heart of it is one of America’s most famed and prized scenic byways, the […]

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Volunteer for a Day, Biscayne National Park

Living 95% under water, Biscayne National Park is certainly one of the most unique and unusual parks in the system. You don’t enter through a gated entrance as you do at so many other parks, but by sea. If you are not paying attention, you might miss the moment when you first dip your toe […]

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Backcountry Camping: Everglades National Park

Islands covered in mangrove trees, with their wrangling and tyrannical roots, are not made for walking on or pitching a tent if you get lost among them. They are also very difficult to navigate—even with a nautical map, compass, GPS, and coordinates to guide you. We decided our GPS didn’t work crossing mile 8 on […]

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What To Do With A Few Days In Santiago, Chile

I didn’t do a whole lot of research of what to do in Santiago before I got on a plane to go there because I didn’t have a whole lot of time to spend—just 2-and-a-half days and 2 nights. I showed up with a multitude of devices loaded with apps that I rely heavily upon when I travel (e.g. TripAdvisor); […]

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Pablo Neruda’s House in Santiago, Chile

On the way to Easter Island I stopped off in Santiago, Chile, and happily found my way to the eccentric house of artful poet great, Pablo Neruda. He has three homes in and near the Chilean capital. I got lost inside his home, now a museum, in Santiago. It is a series of houses actually–each dedicated to […]

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Beach Camping on Maryland’s Assateague Island

First Published on RootsRated.com It almost sounds mythical—wild horses, campsites just steps from the shore, permission to build fires inside the perimeters of a U.S. National Park—but on Maryland’s Assateague Island, this is just what you’ll find. It’s easy to fall in love with this island. Who wouldn’t bask in the joy of building a post-dinner bonfire […]

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