Places I've Been... By State

Scotts Bluff National Monument was one of the landmarks along the Oregon Trail that pioneers used to use to mark how far they've traveled.

It was known as the Nebraska Gibraltar. Also included in this set are Courthouse and Jail Rocks and the Chimney Rock National Historic Site. All of these landmarks were well documented by those travelling the trail.

I visited Great Basin National Park only because I was on my way back from Yosemite and driving The Loneliest Road In America. (US-50 in Nevada.)

The Great Basin Desert stretches from the Sierra Nevada mountains to halfway across Utah. Great Basin National Park is actually a small island of life in the middle of the desert, whose plant life became captive at higher elevations on a mountain when the surrounding area changed from a sub-tropical sea to an almost lifeless, arid desert.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park was my first visit to a major cave, and it was impressive, indeed.

We could have walked down the 75 stories to the main part of the cave, but we were just starting a major vacation, and would need our legs for the next two weeks. :-) The best thing next to the cave here are the elevators. Heh.

White Sands National Monument is wholly contained within the White Sand Air Force Base, one of those top secret bases where they don't even allow cameras.

It's called White Sands because of the specific conditions in the Tularosa Basin that allows Calcium Carbonate to concentrate and crystallize out into a blinding white sand dunes in the sun...

Four Corners Monument is the only place in the U.S. where four States meet, perhaps the ultimate place for a stupid tourist photo in the Southwest. I should know, I've been there twice! If I ever go back, I'm taking my GPS to see if it's really in the right spot. :-)

In addition to the monument (there is an entrance fee), there are stalls around run by (rented by?) the locals selling locally produced merchandise. Oh, try the fry bread. Mmmmmm...

They've built some other attractions on site, so the experience is more than just watching falling water if you so desire. Since I needed a stop for the night in the near vicinity, a stop to see the falls was a no-brainer.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park is the most visited park in America due to its location in the East. It's a scenic park, with the tourist towns of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge just outside the entrance on one side, and the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of my favorite roads in America on the other.

It is a hugely popular park for fall colors.

The Blue Ridge Parkway can be a spectacularly beautiful drive as it follows the crest of the Blue Ridge mountain chain, but that very fact can change low hanging clouds into fog on the parkway. A very common occurrence. Ugh.

I have been on the parkway three times, but never North of the North Carolina border.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park preserves parts of the Little Missouri Badlands, but it's named after TR because TR actually lived and ranched here early in his life. You can even visit the cabin he lived in, which was relocated to the South Unit of the park.

The South Unit is right off of I-94, which makes it very easy to stop in and take a look around. The North Unit takes a little more effort (it's 50 miles to the North), but it has its own history and geology.

Fort Mandan was where the Corps spent their first winter. Or at least someplace around where the replica fort is today, it's true location is unknown.

The interpretive center is new and a couple miles from the Fort, which has it's own visitor's center. I purposely avoided a bus tour, and got me a private tour of the Fort. It was actually a pretty cool tour.

I affectionately describe places like Frontier Village as one of those "Western Interstate Tourist Attractions", something I see less of in the East, probably due to infrastructure and environmental demands.

Frontier Village's claim to fame is The World's Largest Buffalo. Well, that's not exactly true, it's a bison, and it's an anatomically correct male, which means it also has the world's largest... uh... And the National Buffalo Museum is here, too.