Park Units 83 & 84: Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area and Obed Wild and Scenic River

8/22/17. Today was our "river day"! We started out with a drive to the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area which is on the border of Tennessee and Kentucky. Needless to say, the area was lush, green, and beautiful. We really love trees so this was a little bit of heaven.

We found a trail that took us to a lookout over the river and we really enjoyed the forest walk (except when our imagination got the better of us and we imagined being kidnapped or worse on this remote trail with no other people in sight! We realized we had told no one where we were going today, so we quickly texted Jason with our plan).

This park is huge, so we drove up the northern section in Kentucky, called Blue Heron, where there used to be a coal mining company town.

There is now an outdoor museum with information about coal mining and life at the time. The bookstore and concessions were closed today and we were the only ones at the site. 

It was very hot and misty from a recent shower and it gave off an aura of a creepy, ghostlike past!

Park Unit 82: The Total Solar Eclipse at Stones River National Battleground

8/21/17. We flew in last night to Nashville for the opportunity to see the solar eclipse in the zone of totality.

The highways all read "No parking during eclipse"

This morning we stopped at Wal-Mart for chairs, umbrellas, and snacks, then drove to Stones River National Battlefield. As we reached the park, the rangers directed us to a special entrance for the event and they gave us glasses, brochures about the special events and the park unigrid.

Line to get into Stones River NB

We parked and found a shady spot to settle down and wait for the eclipse to start. There was already a big crowd by 9:30 and throughout the morning, more people arrived.

We toured the visitor's center and some of the grounds. The National Park Service had a special stamp made up for the occasion!

Partial eclipse 1

Partial eclipse 2

Almost full eclipse 3

Corona in full eclipse 4

Sun peeking out after full eclipse

The eclipse started at noon and it was fun to chat with other people while we checked the progress of the moon. At the full eclipse, the sky went dark, except for the horizon far off. People cheered and the stunning corona appeared. It didn't last as long as we had expected. When the corona finished and went back into partial eclipse, most people packed up and left. It was truly an amazing event and we were lucky that the large puffy clouds did not fully obstruct the totality. After the totality, we stayed for a while longer, and drove past the national cemetery on our way back to the Nashville area.

This park commemorates many of the Civil War battles in this area. They had good displays for children along with interactive elements. We're not fans of the war stories, but this park did an effective job of describing life during this period and how the war affected the area.

Park Unit 81: Cuyahoga Valley National Park

LA to NJ Road Trip: Day 8

8/4/16. This morning we headed out to visit the last park of our road trip: Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. It was difficult to find the visitor's center at the Hunt House since there are few signs.

Hunt House Visitor's Center

There is also no real entrance to this park, and no fee, which seemed strange until we watched the film that explained the history of the park. It was established in 1978 as a National Recreation Area and later was designated a national park in 2000. There has been a lot of resistance by homeowners and landowners who have not wanted to sell their land to the government to be included in the park. Things are slowly progressing in making this park more like a national park. It still feels like a recreation area with lots of trails for hiking and biking, including the Ohio and Erie canal towpath. The towpath trail follows the historic route of the Ohio & Erie Canal which opened up Ohio to rest of the settled eastern states. It was built between 1825 and 1832, connecting Cleveland on Lake Erie to Portsmouth on the Ohio River.

Views along the Ledges Trail

View from the Ledges Trail Overlook. This is from the top of the large rock walls.

We got good advice from two of the rangers at the Hunt House and spent most of our time at the Ledges which was originally part of the Virginia Kendall Park, a state park that was created in 1921 and includes many infrastructure improvements by the CCC. The Ledges trail was wonderful and really felt like a national park in its scale, it beauty, and the sense of being removed from the real world. The relative quiet was a relief, although it was so different from the western parks that had virtually no sound except the wind. Instead there were the sounds of the woods: cicadas, mosquitoes, crickets, birds, that made it feel alive.

With only a short time to spend in the park, this was a great choice and we highly recommend the Ledges Trail. There are also a lot of historic buildings throughout the park, but it's necessary to have a plan since the park is spread out and interrupted by highways and residential neighborhoods. Hopefully with more funds and good leadership, this park will continue to develop and improve the natural environment in this beautiful valley.

It was very special to be in an eastern park that looks more like home. We tend to think of national parks looking like Yosemite or Yellowstone, so it's great to see that we are also preserving and protecting the beautiful areas of the east.

Park Units 79 & 80: Pullman National Monument and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (National Park)

LA to NJ Road Trip: Day 7

8/3/16. Our first stop today was at Pullman National Monument just south of Chicago. This historical district was just made into a national monument last year (thanks, Obama!). It was the first model, planned industrial community for the Pullman Company which made Pullman train cars. It was the scene of the violent 1984 Pullman strike which led to the creation of Labor Day as a federal holiday. 

We had a wonderful history lesson, brought to life on a walking tour of the town which still has many of the original buildings. Our tour had an interesting group of people, including a woman who just wrote a book about being the first African-American airline flight attendant, and two young girls who were riding bikes in town and decided to join our tour. Interestingly, they lived in Pullman but had no idea of the town's history. I hope the park does more outreach to schools! 

It was a fascinating tour and we learned a great deal. I highly recommend this park unit, especially as they improve and add onto the tour and grounds with the support of the National Park Service now.

Next we drove to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. We arrived early afternoon and explored the educational center and went to one of the many beaches surrounded by the very high dunes. Lake Michigan is immense. We could see nothing but water all the way to the horizon.

It was very interesting to compare this lake ecosystem to the barrier island ecosystem that we are more familiar with. The nice thing was that the lake was being used by many families. What a great use of taxpayer money!

We left late in the afternoon for a 5 hour drive to Ohio. We can tell we're closer to home since the landscape looks so familiar and the traffic is getting very heavy! Looking forward to the last day of our trip tomorrow.

Park Units 77 & 78: Pipestone National Monument and Effigy Mounds National Monument

LA to NJ Road Trip: Day 6

8/2/16. We stayed in an historic inn last night in Pipestone, Minnesota which was so interesting to Catherine after working in historic preservation for the last year. The whole town was charming and so different than the east coast. 

We toured the Pipestone National Monument where pipestone has been quarried by the Native Americans for many generations. The name comes from the use of the stone to make pipes and there were people on site demonstrating how this was done. The trail along the quarries was gorgeous and lush - a welcome sight after so many days in the dry west. We learned that 95% of the tall grass prairie lands in north america is gone, having been predominantly turned into farmland. They are preserving some of the prairie land with original plants in this park.

We then traveled 5 and half hours east to Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa. This park is preserving Native American Effigy Mounds, of which some are burial mounds, some are ceremonial mounds, and others are mysteries. They were created in different shapes depending on the area and purpose. There is a lot that is not understood or known about these mounds which proliferate in the upper Mississippi area but are also found all over North America. 

We took a trail up to see some of the mounds which were bear-shaped and round. We also got a magnificent view of the Mississippi River from the top of the cliffs. It was a beautiful late afternoon hike in lush woodlands and a wonderful relief from being in the dry deserts, mountains, and plains for so long.

We finished our day with three more hours of driving into Illinois. Tomorrow we head for the Chicago area!

Park Units 75 & 76: Wind Cave National Park and Badlands National Park

LA to NJ Road Trip: Day 5

8/1/16. We arrived at Wind Cave about 10 am on Monday morning and we were surprised to see the parking lot quite full already. We were thrilled to have to stop on our way in for a group of buffalo who were making their way across the street and up the hill. There was even a baby! There were also hundreds of prairie dog mounds all over the prairie lands around the park - it really looked fake there were so many little heads popping up!

We were able to get tickets to the 10:40 Garden of Eden cave tour (for sissies). We took an elevator down to the cave and had a wonderful tour of a few of the rooms and passageways.

Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and a great teacher. We had good opportunities to learn and observe how this cave system is unique - especially the boxwork that forms here. This formation is created when calcite is formed in the cracks of the rocks, then the rocks are eroded away, leaving only the calcite in lacy patterns. 

The wind in the airlock entering the cave was also amazingly strong. The cave was warmer than typical: 52 degrees instead of 48 because of thermal activity in the area. Everything at this park is very well done and we're glad we chose this one for our cave tour - the National Parks (as compared to National Monuments) are better funded and it often shows!

Next we drove an hour and a half to the Badlands National Park. We'd seen photos of the park and had been told it's great, but we were blown away by how incredibly unusual the landscape is - like you are on another planet! 

We decided we needed a new scale by which to measure the WOW factor at National Parks after visiting the Badlands. Not only are the formations incredible, but the sheer size of the park is unimaginable. 

We drove slowly, stopping at various look out points and we took about 2 hours to get through the park. Every turn had a new vantage point, or new formation to impress us again and again. It's truly other-worldly and NOT TO BE MISSED!!!

We drove another 5 hours after this wonderful experience to our stopping place in Minnesota. To say we are exhausted and tired of driving is an understatement, but the national park stops keep us going!!