Virtual Visit: Park Unit 138 James A Garfield National Historic Site

This morning we virtually traveled to Ohio to visit the James A. Garfield National Historic Site. The National Park Service has the visitor's center film online, which is a terrific introduction to the life of James Garfield, the 20th president, the politics and political history of the time, as well as a video of a virtual tour of the Garfield House, which in many ways, is better than being there in person because you get close up views of the items in the house as well as excellent explanations from a variety of rangers. Both of these films are terrific and worth watching!


We learned a lot about the family, but also about the architecture of the time (beginnings of modernism and glimmers of art deco and craftsman styles), life style (writing hundreds of letters, playing piano, entertaining visitors), and family life (children, parents, grandparents). I thought, as I always do, that this is a much better way of learning about history than any textbook in school!

Google also has a 3-D view of the house that is quite remarkable. You can walk around and look in the rooms and it really feels like you are exploring the house.

Our virtual visit also spurred us to read more about Garfield's election as a compromise candidate in the republican party, his 6-month presidency, and his assassination. This was an interesting glimpse into the politics of the day and a reminder that political discord and dysfunction are not unique to our current time period. This virtual visit is highly recommended!!

Virtual Visit: Park Unit 137 - Wrangell- St. Elias National Park and Preserve

We woke up early this morning and decided to adventure virtually to Wrangell-St. Elias to continue our Alaskan exploration this week. The NPS website for Wrangell-St. Elias is excellent in that it provides a clear overview of the importance and nature of the park:

Park Superlatives:

• Largest national park in the United States.
• Largest wilderness area in the National Wilderness Preservation System.
• Designated as a World Heritage Site with Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve, the Canadian neighbors Kluane National Park & Reserve and Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park. (Making this the world's largest international protected wilderness.)
• Four major mountain ranges:Wrangell, St. Elias, Chugach, and the eastern part of the Alaskan Range.
• Mt. St. Elias, at 18,008 feet (5.5km), is the second highest peak in the United States.
• Nine of the 16 highest peaks in the United States.
• Mt. Wrangell, at 14,163 feet (4.3km), is one of the largest active volcanoes in North America.
• The Nabesna Glacier, at approximately 53 miles (85km), is the longest valley glacier in North America and the world's longest interior valley glacier.
• The Malaspina Glacier, larger than the state of Rhode Island, is the largest non-polar piedmont glacier in North America.
• The Hubbard Glacier is one of the largest and most active tidewater glaciers in North America.

After reading the park site, we headed to youtube for video adventures and found three terrific films. The first was a professional film from Go Traveler that showed the grandeur and diversity of the park, as well as a personal story of visiting as a child. Very well done.

The second one was a National Park Service video that must have been made as the film for the visitor's center a few decades ago. This was an excellent overview with incredible scenery - about 30 minutes long. It made us feel like we had really visited the park.

The third video was made by a family with two boys who are on a quest to visit all the national parks before their boys turn 18. This video was fun, charming, and more realistic about what it's like to visit, drive, through, lodge, and hike in the park.


All in all, we spent a couple of hours exploring this amazing park - and discussing our plan of attack for visiting the park when we finally get to Alaska in person! In the meantime, this virtual visit was a great win!

Virtual Visit During Quarantine: Park Units 135-136 - Alagnak Wild River and Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve

This morning we relaxed in bed, not needing to get up early and decided to go on a virtual visit. We Alagnak Wild River  

chose two places that are incredibly difficult to get to in Alaska. The first is the
"The headwaters of Alagnak Wild River lie within the rugged Aleutian Range of neighboring Katmai National Park and Preserve. Meandering west towards Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea, the Alagnak traverses the beautiful Alaska Peninsula, providing an unparalleled opportunity to experience the unique wilderness, wildlife, and cultural heritage of southwest Alaska. " This is adjacent to Katmai National Park.

We discovered that this is a fantastic place to go sports fishing and we watched some fabulous videos of groups who did fishing trips along the river.

In all the videos we saw an amazing amount of bears, just chilling out along the water, or walking along the grassy banks. Truly a wild and beautiful land.

Next, we virtually visited Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, continuing our theme of wild rivers this week! "Given its remote location and challenging weather conditions, Aniakchak is one of the most wild and least visited places in the National Park System. This landscape is a vibrant reminder of Alaska's location in the volcanically active "Ring of Fire," as it is home to an impressive six mile (10 km) wide, 2,500 ft (762 m) deep caldera formed during a massive volcanic eruption 3,500 years ago. Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve is a truly primitive landscape with no federally-maintained public facilities."

We watched a video of a group who visited Aniakchak, which gave us a really good feel for the remoteness, wildness, and beauty of the place:


We also viewed aerial shots that show the amazing caldera that remained from the volcanic explosion in 1500. Surprise Lake in the caldera is the head of the Aniakchak River, which as seen in the video above is a great adventure to travel on.

Surprise Lake in the Caldera

 Since Aniakchak is so difficult to get to, we were happy to be able to visit remotely!

Park Unit 134: Great Egg Harbor Wild and Scenic River

In the depths of quarantine, we decided to take a drive to south Jersey to visit Great Egg Harbor Wild and Scenic River. New Jersey has opened some of the parks with the requirement of socially distancing. This is the only park unit in New Jersey that we hadn't yet visited and it was a beautiful spring day - and Mother's Day so it felt good to get out for a little while. The River gradually widens as it picks up the waters of 17 tributaries on its way to Great Egg Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean. Established by Congress in 1992, nearly all of this 129-mile river system rests within the Pinelands National Reserve.

We grabbed our masks and headed south to the Warren F. Fox Nature Center in Estelle Manor. The Nature Center was closed, of course, but we drove past the cemetery (that was surprisingly crowded) to the parking area by the river. We walked to the river and took in the view and then we drove further along to hiking trails. We explored a few different trails, discovering a frightening mound of wasps, and the historic remains of a power plant that used to be on the river's edge in the 1920s.
There was a lovely boardwalk through the swampy area as well. There are many miles of trails here and you could easily spend a whole day exploring.

Some kind of nasty wasp nest. We ran in the other direction as fast as we could!

It felt good to be outside and we saw very few people, thankfully, so we didn't have to wear our masks that much. It felt like home, and like Long Island. As we do so often, we thought about the reputation of New Jersey stemming from the sights by the airport, and that most people wouldn't believe how beautiful it is in other areas!