With over 400 miles of surveyed passages, Mammoth Cave National Park is famous as the longest known cave system in the world. We not only ventured into the cave on two occasions while visiting, but also had the opportunity to explore some of Mammoth’s 52,830 acres above the ground by completing hikes on both sides of the Green River, the park’s major waterway.
Hot Springs National Park, in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, has the distinction of being America’s smallest national park at just 5,500 acres. Its protected status predates Yellowstone, commonly considered to be the world’s first national park created in 1872. In 1832, Congress, under President Andrew Jackson, designated a Hot Springs Reservation to protect the thermal springs, which were growing in popularity by those seeking its supposed therapeutic properties.
We were in the state of Texas for 17 days, and most of our time was spent in one place: Big Bend National Park. Big Bend, established in 1944, is the 15th largest national park by area (801,000 acres). We spent six days exploring its desert, mountain, and river ecosystems. There was plenty to do in a park of this size, so in addition to hiking in each area, we opted for several other activities.
Over 200 million years ago, the Guadalupe Mountains were a marine reef under a tropical sea. When the sea evaporated, the Capitan Reef was buried in sediments and mineral salts. Later, an uplift created the mountains that today tower above the Chihuahuan Desert. These mountains include Guadalupe Peak, which at 8,751 feet tall is the “top” or highest point in Texas. We spent five days exploring this remote place.
Carlsbad Caverns, located in the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico’s Guadalupe Mountains, is the first of three “cave” national parks we plan to visit on our TTP NPS journey (the other two parks are Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and Wind Cave in South Dakota). Those two parks require tours to enter their caves. But Carlsbad is unique because we could journey underground to parts of the cave on our own.
When we researched national parks to include on our Trekking the Planet NPS journey, we were surprised to discover sand dunes in the middle of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Great Sand Dunes contains the highest dune in North America, Star Dune (at 755 feet). The park lies at an elevation of 8,000 feet, so we were concerned that visiting in late March could be tricky. But little did we know that we would not only be seeing sand dunes, but experiencing snow.
The Colorado River is a major waterway of the western U.S. It is 1,450 miles long and flows through five states. The Green River is the Colorado River’s chief tributary. Beginning in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, the Green meets the Colorado in Canyonlands National Park. We spent three days exploring the park, including a hike to the confluence of these two rivers.
Our next journey, beginning in March 2017, will take us to 27 of the U.S. National Parks, over a 4 1/2 month period! Most people are aware of the iconic parks of Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. Our goal in visiting 27 National Parks this year, similar to our other journeys, is to focus on their cultural and natural significance. So we plan to visit many of the more obscure and lesser known places.
