47) Saugus Iron Works

Visited: Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

At some national parks, the tours are more important than at others. Such is the case with Saugus Iron Works. The park is, mostly, a reconstruction of the iron works on the site from ~1646-1670; there is one house from shortly after the time of the iron works on the site, but we didn't visit it. (There's a separate tour that covers it.) The tour we did take - offered only once or twice a day - is rather amazing, showing how the blast furnace, forge, rolling and slitting mill, and a blacksmith shop in action; a ranger made nails, giving one to each of the children. The most impressive sight, though, was either the giant water wheel - or perhaps the smaller one that drove the 500 pound hammer.

All in all, it's very impressive; a much more active site than many of the historic locations. And - incredibly well removed from the city. So much so that a wedding party stopped by the site to take pictures, while we were there. It even managed to get Ben - who, being in surly teenager mode, didn't want to go - to admit that it was interesting.

46) Adams

Visited: Saturday, October 1st, 2011

I'd always thought it a bit odd that the name of the site is Adams National Historic Park, and not John Adams or John Quincy Adams or a combination. But now I understand why; a fair bit of the tour of the old house - the home both men retied to, which remained in the family until given to the NPS - is actually focused beyond those two men.

The Adams NHP is actually two sites (plus a visitor center). The first site is the birthplaces of both presidents Adams. It's very nice that they've been preserved, and they're interesting for their history - but not much beyond that; they're sparsely furnished with reproductions. The highlight then is the Old House, which contains four generations of collected furniture, paintings, books, and _house_, and is much easier to envision as it was used, as a result.

The trolley - which takes everyone from the visitor center to the two sites, and back again - makes for an easy site to visit in spite of the urban location.

45) Saint-Gaudens

Visited: Sunday, September 4th, 2011

Just as Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller is the sole NPS site in Vermont, Saint-Gaudens in the sole NPS site in New Hampshire - though Mount Washington likely would be if it hadn't been so effectively established as a private site prior to the NPS.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens is an American sculptor, who sculpted two works I was previously aware of, even if I didn't realize they were his. The first is the Shaw Memorial on the Boston Common, which I immediately recognized when it was first shown in the film - a connection that really helped me to appreciate the park. The other is the double eagle gold coin, which being a very little bit of a numismatic I was familiar with.

The site is very nicely done - there are a number of models Saint-Gaudens utilizing in his sculpting, as well as copies of some of his famous works.

44) Marsh - Billings - Rockefeller

Visited: Sunday, September 4th, 2011

This park - technically, a National Historic Park; it might be the first so-designated NPS site we've been to - is the only site in Vermont, and not one I understood before visiting. There's a wonderful movie, shown near Billings Farm (which is not park of the NPS site), which does a very nice job of explaining the site and how - over 200 years - it served a common theme.

George Perkins Marsh, the author of Man and Nature, was born at the site, and was an early American conservationist, as well as a scholar and diplomat. He sold the site to...

Frederick Billings, a president of the Northern Pacific railroad, and the gentleman for whom Billings, Montana is named. In some ways, Billings is the odd-man-out; he did a number of things that had positive environmental impacts, but he wasn't really as much of an activist, for his time, as either Marsh or Rockefeller. Speaking of whom, Billing's granddaughter married...

Laurence Rockefeller, who alone among John Rockefeller Jr.'s sons, continued the environmental work of his father, contributing to 20 national parks.

And thus, three different men all lived on this Woodstock, VT property, all having significant positive impact to the environment, through their writings and actions. The film explaining this was _excellent_. The visitor center isn't extensive, but it's nicely done. And the grounds looked nice, though they're still recovering from Irene so we didn't go exploring.

43) First Ladies'

Visited: Friday, August 26th, 2011

We missed out on the tour, though we overheard a little of it - and I'm not sure we missed all that much. Not the most interesting of historic sites - it's the home of McKinley's wife, and doesn't seem to have _that_ much more. I would like to go again, and catch the tour, but it's not at the top of my list.

42) Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial

Visited: Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011

Growing up in Ohio, you learn about Put-in-Bay, and Perry's Victory. But I'd never been, Put-in-Bay being 90 minutes and a 40 minute ferry ride away. So today - en route to Cedar Point tomorrow - we took the (fairly pricey) ferry ride over. Only to discover that we visited during the renovation of the monument, so that we missed out on the opportunity to get to the top of the third highest structure in the NPS. We did get to see the movie (which was very enjoyable; I knew that Perry had won, but nothing more about the nature of his victory) and the visitor center (small, but nice). Ben was amazed by the selection of pins - they had 7 different ones. And two very nice patches for me, and two hiking staff emblems for Ethan. We also got to ride a local wood carousel, which was fun if missing a brass ring machine.

Next time, we'll take the shorter ferry to the South end of the island, and rent one of the omnipresent golf carts to drive up to the site.

41) James A Garfield

Visited: Monday, August 22nd, 2011

While Garfield's home isn't far from where I grew up, I'd never been, and it is a very enjoyable tour; it reminds me a lot of the Longfellow house, actually. And the tour guide mentioned that Garfield visited Longfellow, so perhaps it's not surprising. The tour gives one a much better understanding of who Garfield was - I hadn't realized that he achieved fame for his role in the battle at Chickamauga (which we visited back in February), or that he was such a scholar - his home was filled with books, as much so as Longfellow's.

Overall, very enjoyable, and well worth stopping at if you're around Mentor.

40) David Berger Memorial

Visited: Monday, August 22nd, 2011

The David Berger Memorial has, perhaps, the least to see or do of any NPS site we've visited so far. At the reception desk of the JCC where the memorial is located, you can get your passport stamped. And then you can see the memorial. That's it; the memorial is very nice, and nicely symbolic, but I wish there were more information there.

39) Boston

Visited: Sunday, June 19th, 2011

The Boston National Historic Park actually consists of a number of related attractions along the Freedom Trail. We didn't walk the Freedom Trail today - we have before, though, and undoubtedly will again - but merely visited the Visitor's Center. Which, honestly, isn't the highlight; I was surprised at how sparse the bookstore was. But, we do now have our passport stamped.

38) Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters

Visited: Sunday, June 19th, 2011

For Father's Day, we went to the Longfellow House, which isn't easy to park near but which was well worth the walk. It's unusual among the historic sites we've visited, in that the furnishings all date back to Longfellow; the preservation of the house began early, and this has left the house feeling very much like a step into history. The split history of the house - the original owner, a British sugar plantation owner who fled prior to the revolution, followed by a brief stint as Washington's headquarters, followed later by Longfellow - makes for a somewhat schizophrenic tour, but appropriately so as it's clear that the house's place in history was part of the draw for Longfellow, and was actively enhanced (with a bust, paintings, and the like) during his ownership.

One nice aspect of the house is the preservation of open space in Cambridge; there are no houses between the Longfellow House and the Charles. On the front lawn, they have set up era-appropriate amusements, which really caught Ethan's attention.

37) San Antonio Missions

Visited: Monday, April 4th, 2001

Like many who have been to San Antonio, I've visited the Alamo - but I'd never visited the other four missions, which collectively make up the San Antonio Missions NPS site. The largest, and only restored, mission is San Jose. The mission itself was very nice - save for the church, we we didn't get to see as it's being restored - but what really made the ranger tour for me was the grist mill. It's simply fascinating to see how the the mission inhabitants worked around their distance from the San Antonio river to still run a water wheel. And the ranger explained the phrase "keep your nose to the grindstone", as noticing if the stone is rotating too fast and burning the wheat. No idea if it's the actual origin of the phrase, but it's a fine story.

The other three missions are much less complete, but interesting in their own right. Both San Juan and Espada had multiple church sites, including an incomplete late attempt at a new site at San Juan. Espada also has a separate area to see one of the aqueducts which helped make up the advanced water system. It's an impressive sight - particularly for being over 250 years old. The final mission we visited was Conception, which is much closer to downtown San Antonio and as a result there's really little left save for the church. But the church is in _fantastic_ shape - it's all original, including some very impressive wall decorations.

The most fascinating aspect of our visit was the understanding we gained of how San Antonio came to be; the Alamo was an important step in the history of the city, but it's really the missions which brought together the population to eventually making for the town.

36) Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park

Visited: Friday, April 1st, 2011

It's interesting - the two first presidential sites we've visited, on our quest, are for Johnson and Johnson. And there are a number of parallels between the men; as often as I've heard the comparison between Lincoln's presidency and Kennedy's, I don't think I've ever heard the two Johnsons compared much.

The LBJ park is actually two separate areas, 14 miles apart. In Johnson City, there is the museum and the boyhood home. The museum is very nicely done, in what was once a hospital, with not one but two film showing regularly. The only thing I wish for was more on Lady Bird's life - but we didn't watch the second movie, focused on her, so I guess it's my own fault.

One reason we didn't watch the movie is that the tour of the boyhood home was starting. It's an interesting old home, which particularly helped me to understand how folks dealt with the Texas heat (nearly every room opened to the outside, so that a screen door could let a breeze through). The other striking feature was the small water tower in the backyard, which gave the Johnsons something resembling running water in the house.

We then proceeded to the ranch. The introduction movie was wonderful - it was film of Johnson showing a reporter around the ranch, which made for an ideal introduction. Well, save for the disappointment it caused that we didn't enter the ranch via the original "underwater road" entrance. There is a CD tour freely distributed (to be returned); we've had great luck with these (most recently in Acadia), so we took advantage of it. But because you have to loop around a landing strip, there's a lot of land with nothing much to talk about, so they added songs. The first I didn't recognize - an old Texas song, I believe - but the second was "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head", which I suspect I'll now forever more associate with the LBJ Ranch (just as "We Are Family" instantly brings to mind the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates). Being a working ranch, we had to wait patiently on crossing cows a couple of times, and when we got back to the start of the loop discovered a cow who decided to stand guard over its entrance.

35) Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Battlefield

Visited: Thursday, February 24th, 2011 -> Friday February 25th, 2011

I recently found a list of national parks, and I'm going to start recording visits by the official designations - which means that Jamestowne and Yorktown count as a single site, even though that makes no sense to me, since there's a 150 year gap between the two sites.

But the NPS considers Chickamauga and Chattanooga a single site, so I'll go with it. Chickamauga is, by far, the more extensive site; it is in fact the largest battlefield site run by the NPS. But the site itself is - not the most interesting. Being one of the first US Civil War sites to gain much attention, back in the 1880s, there are monuments _everywhere_. Which are nice - but they also get in the way of showing the story of the battle. The visitor center is fantastic, though, and while the battle was not the most interesting, it was important enough to keep interest.

The Chattanooga site, on the other hand, is fantastic. Small - it's at the top of lookout mountain, which seemed to have a _lot_ of million dollar homes. The incline railway up the mountain is a fantastic ride - with a maximum angle of 72.7 degrees, it's a steeper ride than most roller coasters, but at slow speed. And the views from Point Park, the NPS site, are _amazing_. With Megan's ankle bothering her, only Ben and I went to the visitor center and Point Park, so we didn't spend as long there as we might have liked. But I can't imagine returning to Chattanooga with Megan, and not riding the incline railway again.

34) Andrew Johnson Museum

Visited: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

You know, it feels good when something you say sinks in. Some time ago, Ben got a book about the US presidents - but one with a particular bias. I pointed this out to Ben at the time.

And then, many years later, we visited the Andrew Johnson museum - and Ben remembered the book, and my comment. Because Johnson is typically reduced, in history, to his impeachment; the Andrew Johnson museum gave a much more complete (albeit with it sown bias) picture.

And, even better, preserves two of Johnson's Greenville homes _and_ his tailor shop. Even better, since Megan's ankle was bothering her, we were there alone - and the ranger showed us both the general video _and_ a video tour of the Johnson homestead, so that Megan could avoid the stairs. This is exactly my type of NPS site, and it's very nicely done - and quiet.

33) Antietam

Visited: Sunday, February 20th, 2011

Deja vu. Driving up to the visitor center, I _remembered_ it, very viscerally; I _think_ this might have been where I got my copy of A House Divided. The visitor's center is nice - though honestly the bookstore isn't up to that in many of the national parks. But what really makes Antietam is the driving tour - it's hard to imagine the number of people killed there in but a single day, but it's easy to picture the progress of the battle over the day, and easy to understand how the landscape effected the choices made.

32) Springfield Armory

Visited: Saturday, January 15th, 2011

And finally - caught up.

I had no idea, going in to our visit, just how large a role the Springfield Armory played in US History. The site isn't particularly large - there's a movie, a room showing how weapons were manufactured, and a room showing artillery produced at the Armory. But while the artillery display isn't particularly fascinating (save for the organ, an impressively mounted collection of firearms), the story of how the guns were manufactured is well explained in the movie, and then supplemented by the displays. One element that stood out was the slow acceptance of African Americans, particularly as compared to their ready acceptance in the whaling industry (and the role New Bedford played in the underground railroad as a result).

This isn't a site that takes a long time to visit - but it's time well spent.

31) New Bedford Whaling

Visited: Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

The park site here actually came after the establishment of the non-NPS Whaling Museum. And we spent far more time at the Museum - which is very well done, and very informative. The national park site is well done - particularly notable is the interview with a whaler, done back in the 1990s. But we spent little time at the smaller NPS site, and to be honest the two buildings cover much the same material.

30) Acadia

Visited: Saturday, September 25th, 2010 -> Sunday, September 26th, 2010

In general, the Eastern NPS locations are historical in nature, the Western NPS locations are - well, natural in nature. Perhaps the most notable exception among the Eastern parks is Acadia. It is a beautiful park; one of the loveliest sights I have ever seen is sunset from the top of Cadilac Mountain. But much like Yellowstone, there's a wide variety of things to see and do in the park.

And we only scratched the surface. I'd love to spend a week there sometime - there are a lot of things that look like they would be fun to try, but only if one had enough time to really appreciate the park.

29) Saint Croix Island

Visited: Saturday, September 25th, 2010

The Easternmost NPS site - and the only _International_ historic site - Saint Croix was a must for me to visit, as between Jamestown, Roanoke, and Santa Fe I've developed an interest in early European settlements in the US. Saint Croix isn't a very large site - and it's close enough to Canada that we got warnings about being charged for international roaming charges - but I'm glad to have visited; the site was interesting in particular for how the attempt to settle compares to Jamestown, and how it impacted the settlement of Canada.

But honestly - unless you're trying to hit all of the national parks, it's a long way to go for what you see.

28) Fredericksburg Battlefield

Visited: Monday, July 12th, 2010

Unfortunately, July in Virginia can be quite hot - and this day was no exception. As a result, we primarily enjoyed the visitor's center, and didn't tour the battlefield, as I would have liked to have done.

Growing up, I had the chance to visit a _lot_ of Civil War battlefields, and while I didn't really appreciate them at the time, I did find the differences between the various battles fascinating - and a few sites made an impression. Fredericksburg, while interesting, wasn't really one of them; but I really should get that battle out for my next play of Battle Cry.

27) George Washington Birthplace

Visited: Monday, July 12th, 2010

Getting to Washington's Birthplace is not particularly easy; it's on the Potomic, and honestly it's a beautiful site. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the site is the "home" built there when the site was created - only to discover the remnants of the original home a few years later. It was fascinating to hear about Washington in a very different context than usual; one tends to think of Washington the general, or Washington the president, not Washington the boy and his family.

This was the site where we actually came up with our goal of visiting all of the NPS sites. It's not at all clear to me that it's possible, but honestly that's part of the appeal.

26) Yorktown Battlefield

Visited: Sunday, July 11th, 2010

Both Jamestowne and Yorktown are officially part of the Colonial National Historic Park, but they have the feel of separate parks.

We got to the Battlefield later than we intended, which limited our time in the visitor's center - but we were able to complete a driving tour of the battlefield sites, which was very interesting. The Yorktown Victory Center - the touristy version - is actually rather nice, with a camp reminiscent of the time, but again the NPS site stands out.

25) Historic Jamestowne

Visited: Sunday, July 11th, 2010

Megan and I had visited Historic Jamestowne before, but the boys hadn't, and it had been a long time; our most recent visit was to the far more touristy Jamestown Settlement. But Historic Jamestowne is _much_ better. The ranger who gave us a tour had the presence of a former drill sergeant - and was fantastic. The park itself is a fascinating mix of archeological dig, historical preservation (of the Jamestown church, dating back to the 1600s), and museum. What I found most interesting is how the evidence has changed the conclusion as to where the fort was located over time.

And Now For A Word

I've been trying to catch up this month; my intent is to provide more "just there" thoughts than I've been able to up to this point. And I'm getting there; I've got seven and a half more to go to catch up, and the more recent of these was visited less than a week ago.

24) Minute Man

Visited: October 11th, 2009

Unfortunately, this was the last NPS site we visited for many months, as less than a month before one of Megan's best friends discovered that her husband had what was, ultimately, a lethal brain tumor. And so most of the next 8 months was spent trying to find time for Megan to be with her friend, which didn't leave a lot of time for family trips.

But it was a very positive note to take a break on; the visitor's center has an excellent production (somehow, calling it a "movie" understates matters), and visiting the bridge in Concord really helps to bring the history to life. It's exactly my type of NPS site, and one I feel we gave fair time to.

23) Blackstone River Valley National Historic Corridor

Visited: Saturday, September 5th, 2009

This might be the oddest NPS "site"; there's a visitor's center in Woonsocket (not much to speak of), and then a bunch of _non_ NPS places to visit. We stopped at the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket, a fascinating look at the mill towns of New England. There's not a lot of organization to this NPS site so far; hopefully this will change in the future.

22) Roger Williams

Visited: Saturday, September 5th, 2009

This was our first action in looking to follow up on our Summer fun, and is a fascinating experience - if small. The visitor center and accompanying park are easily traversed, in full, in under an hour, even including the movie at the visitor center. But it's my kind of NPS site - historic, and full of fascinating little facts. And you can see just where the early Rhode Island settlers built their homes.

21) Indiana Sand Dunes

Visited: Thursday, August 13th, 2009

This is the final national park site we visited during our big 2009 tour; we considered trying to hit one more on the way home, but opted for Corning and the Baseball Hall of Fame instead.

We didn't spend enough time at the Indiana Sand Dunes, mostly because we were tired, and in the middle of a _long_ drive (from Wisconsin to NE Ohio). And it was here that we first discovered the difference between the Eastern and Western national parks; our Western national park society membership was reluctantly accepted here, the last time save for an online order) that happened.

(A complete aside - I collect patches, and have since I was a kid. While patches have become a less popular souvenir, they are common at the national parks - and, almost without exception, beautiful. But they're entirely different in the Eastern and Western parks. In the Western parks, they only have official patches for the smaller, less touristy parks; so Hubbell Trading Post and the Mississippi River have official patches, but not Yosemite or Yellowstone or Zion, among others. But they're inexpensive - $2.95. In the Eastern parks, there's a patch for most of the reasonably major parks, they're a little bigger - and they're inevitably $5.95. And, of course, they don't offer any discounts, unlike the Western parks.)

20) Mississippi River and Recreation Area

Visited: Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Yet another unintentional stop. The visitor's center for this area is at the Science Museum in Minneapolis. There's not a lot to the visitor's center, but it's pleasant, and the woman running it suggested a wonderful stop for us, at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha. It wasn't the way we were planning to go - but it actually made for a nicer journey and a great stop.

19) Minuteman Missile

Visited: Saturday, August 8th, 2009

There is nothing to the Minuteman Missile National Park unless you get a reservation for the tour - and unfortunately we failed to do so. Definitely, now that I know it's there, somewhere to get back to.

18) Badlands

Visited: Saturday, August 8th, 2009

Badlands is a fascinating and beautiful park, and a diverse one. In many ways, it's competing with Yosemite and Yellowstone - and it's not as interesting as those parks. But it's also nothing like those parks; the landscape isn't really like anything else. The prairie dogs were great to see - and very loud; it was our best view of them, though Devil's Tower was close.

17.5) Buffalo Gap National Grassland

Visited: Saturday, August 8th, 2009

This isn't run by the NPS, so it doesn't really count, but while looking for the Wounded Knee museum in Wall, SD (and driving by but not stopping at Wall Drug), we happened upon the visitor center for this Forest Service run site.

Interesting place, but not worth going out of your way for.

9) Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Visited: Monday, July 20th, 2009

I completely forgot about this; we hadn't intended to stop here at all, but after being disappointed by Hoover Dam (and not having any great desired to rush back to Las Vegas), we stopped here briefly. Well, at the visitor center, which was quite interesting, as it shows the effects of Hoover Dam better than anything at the site; we didn't explore the recreation area.

Nice visitor center, though - better, methinks, than anything at Hoover Dam.

17) Wind Cave

Visited: Friday, August 7th, 2009

Many of the national parks we visited during the Summer of 2009 were intentional. A number of them were on the "hit" list; others were on the "consider" list. By this point in the trip, though, we were open to stopping at _any_ NPS site; thus, when we stumbled upon Wind Cave, we stopped.

And - not for the first time - I wish we'd planned for the stop. They run little tours of the cave, and I would definitely like to have done one. Still the history of the cave is fascinating, and the wildlife is amazing; we saw nearly as many bison here as in Yellowstone.

16) Mount Rushmore

Visited: Thursday, August 6th, 2009

One of the joys of the national parks is that they aren't, with rare exception, heavily commercialized. Mount Rushmore is an exception; I'm tempted to add "unfortunately", but there's at least one fortune to it (a chance to meet one of the carvers of Mount Rushmore), and it wasn't too showy.

Mount Rushmore was well positioned to disappoint me; I was looking forward to it as much as _any_ stop we made during the course of our trip. But it didn't; the site was well set to handle the large crowd, and the carving is simply amazing.

Even more amazing was the fog that rolled in, completely obscuring the view, and then rolled back out again, all over the course of less than ten minutes.

15) Devil's Tower

Visited: Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

I've never seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind. As a result, I'm not sure Devil's Tower had the draw for me of other sites. It's interesting - but I definitely think I'll appreciate it more if the crowd is smaller. And, at that, I think the display at Pompey's Pillar is much more interesting; Devil's Tower is a fascinating structure, but not a park for a long visit unless you're going to climb it.

14) Little Bighorn Battlefield

Visited: Tuesday, August 4, 2009

When I think of NPS sites from my youth, I'm mostly remembering battlefields. So Little Bighorn felt very familiar - and very sobering. Battlefields have always struck me differently from other historic sites - never moreso than seeing Bloody Pond at Shiloh - in spite of being so far removed from the battles in question. One thing I like about Little Bighorn is the attempt they've made to present both sides of the story.

Any of the national sites are better with a small crowd; unfortunately, visiting Little Bighorn around the time of Sturgis made for a _very_ large crowd. Didn't make the site less interesting, but I would like to visit on a quieter day sometime.

13) Yellowstone

Visited: Sunday, August 2, 2009 -> Monday, August 3, 2009

Yellowstone is very deserving of its reputation; the variety of wildlife, the variety of natural phenomenon, and the divergent beauty of the park really stand out. I missed out on Old Faithful while our tire was repaired, but there are other geysers in the park which are in their own ways every bit as fascinating.

About the only disappointment for me was the hotel, which wasn't air conditioned and our room was situated right above the bus drop-off, making for an unpleasant evening during an otherwise very enjoyable stay.

12) Grand Teton

Visited: Saturday, August 1, 2009 -> Sunday, August 2, 2009

Impressive as all get-out, but this is definitely Yellowstone's little sister. Beautiful - Megan took some wonderful pictures - and some interesting wildlife, but somehow there's just not as much there there. Absolutely worthwhile as a side trip when visiting Yellowstone, but not really a primary destination.

11) Golden Spike

Visited: Thursday, July 30, 2009

Now _this_ is my type of NPS site. Nothing against the sites offering natural beauty - I enjoy them very much - but I love the history one can learn at sites such as Golden Spike. For some reason, history is a lot more interesting when one has been there. The transcontinental railroad never really captured my imagination, until visiting the site of the golden spike.

The site is out in the middle of nowhere - there's really nothing there save for the national park site. The museum is well done, if small; what really makes the site is the trains, which provide a strong visual representation.

Not as strong, however, as the trench that was dug out for the railroad, viewed on a car tour around the site, but never used; both companies were trying to dig as far as they could as fast as they could, and dug well beyond Promontory Point before actually backtracking and lining things up. The unused trench - dug over 140 years ago - remains, an amazing way to see just how much work there was to connect the country even when they weren't trying to deal with the Sierras.

10) Yosemite

Vistied: Monday, July 27th, 2009

Yosemite is a park which really requires multiple days to get the most out of. Unfortunately, we spent only a day there.

The sequoias are fascinating - not the easiest part of the park to get to, but well worth the bus trip. But just as breathtaking is Yosemite Valley - and Tioga Pass has some incredible views as well. And that's just the portion of the park we saw something of; there's a lot more we didn't even begin to investigate.

I had no real exposure to Yosemite before - about all I knew of it was some photos Mark Jackson has posted - and I definitely want to get back.