Showing posts with label NPS/NHM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NPS/NHM. Show all posts

Friday, January 12, 2018

Muir Woods & Beach

I am going to try something "new" for a weekly post. I will be linking up with The Weekly Postcard, hosted by:

(Please go check out their blogs and the other blogs that are linked up!)



I am also linking up with Veravise
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Today, I am going to cover a couple of sites we visited on our trip to San Francisco this past November.


We had visited Muir Woods on our previous trip to the San Fran area. It was a VERY brief stop last time. This time, we had an afternoon to gawk, relax and walk through these spectacular trees.

It is about 12 miles north of San Francisco, off the 101. Yes, if you are driving from San Francisco, you will drive over the Golden Gate Bridge to get there. (Insert oooo and ahhhh here)



The road into the park. It is FULL of turns and twists. 

Our first look at the redwoods.

Welcome!
The entrance fee is $10/person. In our opinion, entrance fees are worth the dollars to take in wherever you are and to support the National Park Service.



Some of the beautiful nature:



Right after I took this photo (while we were waiting for the Ranger Talk [by the way, stop and listen to these if you have a chance, they are very interesting]), we heard a HUGE crash! A tree had fallen somewhere about 1/2 mile away but it had sounded so close. It was pretty cool to be able to have heard that. 








We spent a couple of hours hanging out among the trees.

We decided since it was still light out, we would drive down to the beach (which is part of the National Park Service also). It was a short walk from the parking lot to the beach. It was SO beautiful! The beach is set up for bonfires in a few different spots.






Thank you for a fabulous afternoon, Muir Woods and Beach!

***Please note: starting with visits on January 16, 2018, you must make a parking reservation to visit Muir Woods. You will not be able to park out there without one. There is also a shuttle that can be taken to the park, but again - make your reservation ahead of time!

Tuesday, February 07, 2017

Travel Tuesday - California, 2016 The One with the National Park

I am VERY behind in posting about our vacation in November/December, 2016. We went to California and toured a lot of southern Cali. The weather was cool (jackets required almost every day). And one day at Disneyland was down right COLD! (And we're Midwesterners...)

Our first couple of days we went to Joshua Tree National Park. It is a beautiful park! We covered most of the park in our time there.

Day 1 we had driven by Skull Rock and it was PACKED!!! We had it to ourselves the following morning. Beautiful spot with amazing views.
 The kids near Skull Rock
 This is the formation behind Skull Rock - you can climb up (see photo above) and see for quite a ways
 
 Joshua Trees
 Posing in front of the San Andreas Fault
 San Andreas Fault is out there (sorry for all the sun glare!)

 Cholla Cacti Garden
It is acres and acres of cacti - it is incredibly impressive


We enjoyed the park and would recommend it as a vacation/travel spot.
Stay tuned for more of our trip in upcoming posts.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Travel Tuesday - Death Valley National Park

May, 2015


We took a family/business trip to Las Vegas. We took a day and drove to Death Valley National Park. We did not realize just how big that park is! We spent the day in the south maybe 1/3 of the park. There is SO much more for us to see there. Maybe another time.




The scenery is mountain/desert but beautiful nonetheless. It was HOT-they are totally NOT kidding when they say make sure your gas tank is full and you bring plenty of water! It was early May and by 11 a.m. it was 103F.

At Zabinske Point:



We drove the Artist's Palette loop - the photos do no justice to the colors in this area.



We stopped at an overlook on the loop to take a few pictures.


Badwater Basin - low and hot!




A couple more views on our way out of the park toward Las Vegas.


Until next time...

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Travel Tuesday

Happy Tuesday! I decided to throw in a Travel Tuesday post this week.


In June of 2013, we took a vacation to the Kansas City area. One of our stops was the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library  It is a beautiful campus




President & Mrs. Truman's final resting place

The eternal flame in the courtyard

Replica of the Truman era Oval Office

One of the Truman statues on the campus

President Truman's preserved working office:

It is worth the trip! (Along with the other Truman sites around the Independence/Kansas City area)