Still excited by the meteorological event of last week (the northern lights), we turned our eyes to the sky once again to see a different type of event – a rare comet with a large tail that came within 44 million miles of Earth ...
We have been talking about seeing the aurora borealis off and on for some time. There was a time last winter when I proposed that we book tickets to the Aurora Capital of North America – Yellowknife – because flights from ...
We have always thought about Parkcation as a site about our adventures in the national parks and other sites in the national park system plus related organizations (national forests, national wildlife refuges). But from time to time we ...
On the day after our July 4th celebration we drove up to Grand Mesa with the family to do some trout fishing. Jayne and her brother grew up fishing with their dad on the lakes of the Mesa. Grand Mesa is a 500 square mile flat-top ...
Captain Anthony Awgul took my dad and I out on Lake Nockamixon to go punching for bass – one of the many techniques that he uses to catch fish on this popular Philadelphia lake that is notorious for holding, and being difficult ...
We are pretty fortunate to live a little over an hour from one of the best places to photograph bald eagles east of the Mississippi River. The Conowingo Dam is one of the largest non-federal hydroelectric dams in the United States, ...
We had tentative plans to go to Colorado and Utah this month to visit Arches National Park but that trip was put on hold due to coronavirus concerns. Arches was closed to the public due to the public health crisis in late March. It has ...
It was a beautiful March day in Philadelphia and John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge was full of people enjoying the weather on the trails. We made our way there on Sunday afternoon and picked up a few more waterfowl that we had been ...
It was a sunny day on Saturday (though a bit windy) so we headed over to Wildlife Drive in Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey north of Atlantic City. It is about 90 minutes from the Philadelphia area. Edwin B ...
We decided to head down to John Heinz NWR near the Philadelphia airport with our camera again for some March birding. While we were there, we saw one bald eagle sitting on the nest and the other decided to fly in while we were in the ...
After a brief cold spell in the Philadelphia area, we had another 50+ degree day today and I took the opportunity to walk around the John J Audubon Center at Mill Grove in Audubon with our Canon SX60 camera to take pictures of the ...
We made our first trip down to John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge for a walk and some bird photography this weekend. John Heinz NWR is the nation’s first urban refuge, established in 1972 to protect Pennsylvania’s largest ...
We took an hour in December 2019 to see and photograph bald eagles at the Dafter Dump in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, not far from Sault Ste Marie. We went up north to visit family after Christmas and saw a report that there were ...
We were in Miami for a few days for a wedding in November and decided to complete our visit to Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park. It was a quick trip but we managed to pack in pictures of Stiltsville (on the north end ...
We headed down I-80 into Central Pennsylvania for a weekend of fall foliage, state parks and camping. If you are looking to leave cell phone coverage behind, the PA Grand Canyon is a trip we highly recommend! The Grand Canyon of ...
Jayne booked us a morning bird walk at the Audubon Center in October 2019 because Canon was going to provide some of its premium Canon cameras and lenses to participants. It ended up being a pleasant but overcast October morning in the ...
We had an extra day after a Las Vegas conference at the end of September to do some sightseeing and decided to make a quick road trip out of it to see the Grand Canyon. Since the Hoover Dam is on the way, and neither of us had ever ...
We took the Ford Mustang convertible (rental car) up the Pacific Coast Highway (California Highway 1) and explored Natural Bridges State Beach, Shark Fin Cove and Beauregard Vineyards on our way from Monterey to the San Francisco ...
We visited the West Entrance of Pinnacles National Park on Day 7 of our honeymoon for an hour – and it was action packed! Pinnacles may receive the award for the National Park over which we have argued the most. There are two ...
We spent a day in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park after our stay at Yosemite National Park. We took the tour at the General Grant tree, drove through Kings Canyon to the end of the road at Copper Creek Trailhead, explored the ...
After we spent a day exploring San Francisco, we drove over for three days in Yosemite National Park. We stayed in the canvas tent cabins of Half Dome Village and explored Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point, Taft Point and Hetch Hetchy ...
Our first full day in San Francisco saw us make a whirlwind trip through Fisherman’s Wharf, across the Golden Gate Bridge, to Point Reyes National Seashore and Muir Woods National Monument. We arrived at San Francisco airport on ...
We finished off our trip to Congaree National Park with two days in the Charleston area. We explored historic downtown Charleston, Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, Francis Marion National Forest, Hampton Plantation State Historic Site, ...
We planned a canoe trip down the Congaree River through Congaree National Park from Columbia, SC to the 601 bridge in April 2019. Unfortunately, it was rained out as too many April showers led to flooding throughout the park. We made ...
We have been going to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in the fall for a few years now. Hawk Mountain is a wild bird sanctuary located along the Appalachian flyway north of Reading and west of Allentown. It is known for its spectacular views, ...
We live about 12 hours from the nation’s most visited national park, which is Great Smoky Mountains. More than 11 million people visit it every year. We finally made time to go down there this year in early August for a long ...
We made a quick trip north of Philadelphia to Tyler State Park in Bucks County for July 4th today! We’re still getting used to paddling our new Advanced Elements inflatable kayak so we thought it would be a great opportunity to ...
We were supposed to make a quick trip down to Biscayne National Park during our trip to Florida, but because of uncertainty about the weather due to the forecast (scattered thunderstorms in the forecast), we decided to spend the day at ...
I have been telling Jayne that I would take her up to Ithaca and show her Cornell University (my alma mater) for most of our relationship. So when the first weekend in June rolled around this year and we were facing a rainy weekend in ...
We made a day trip up to Evansburg State Park to celebrate a birthday with family and friends. Evansburg State Park is located in southcentral Montgomery County near Collegeville and Skippack. This 3,349 acre PA park tracks Skippack ...
On the opening day of trout fishing season, March 31, 2018, we headed up to French Creek State Park to fish in Scotts Run Lake, and we visited nearby Hopewell Furnace NHS while we were there. It was the first time we had been to either ...
We spent the morning of December 31st searching the Rudyard area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for our first ever snowy owl sighting. As you can see from the photos, it was a success! We saw four snowy owls in around an hour. ...
We decided to spend the afternoon at Valley Forge National Historical Park today. Located only 25 miles from downtown Philadelphia, it is one of the nation’s most significant historical landmarks from the American Revolution. ...
We picked up some extra sleeping pads and cots from REI this weekend to test and review. We were able to buy a pair of the REI Kingsman Cot 3, an Exped Megamat Duo 10, a Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite, a Therm-a-Rest ProLite Plus, a Sea to ...
We took a trip up to Acadia National Park over Columbus Day Weekend. Neither one of us had ever been to Maine and we were hopeful that the early October trip would be late enough in the year to give us some brilliant fall foliage as ...
We did two days of cave tours at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky last weekend. We were there because Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system in the world with more than 400 miles of explored caves below the surface. It became a ...
We spent a Friday in late June at Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida. Because the park is 70 miles west of Key West, in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, it is one of the more isolated parks run by the United States. It is also one ...
We made our first visit to Everglades National Park this June with a brief stop over there on our way between Orlando and Key West. Since we were only planning to be in the Miami area for a few hours, we decided to forego nearby ...
We realized recently that we visited this site in the national park system and forgot to write about it. So we are going to go back soon and fill in the missing information from our trip. Stay tuned!
President Obama has named three new national monuments and expanded two others in the final days of his presidential term. After creating two new national monuments in December, Obama used his authority five more times in January, ...
President Obama designated two national monuments at the end of 2016, protecting an additional 1.35 million acres of federal land in Utah and Nevada. The new national monuments are Bears Ears National Monument and Gold Butte National ...
On our way to celebrate the holidays in Michigan, we stopped at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We didn’t even know there was a national park in Ohio until a few months ago. And it turns out we had already passed through it many times ...
Thank you for checking out our new website! We’re excited to be sharing information about the national parks with you.
Shenandoah National Park in Virginia is known for spectacular views from Skyline Drive, abundant wildlife, and magnificent hiking on the Appalachian Trail. Only 75 miles from Washington DC, it is a must visit for nature lovers on the ...
We spent four nights camping on Isle Royale National Park in August 2016. It was our first backpacking adventure and this remote island in Northern Michigan did not disappoint. We had a real blast and were definitely looking forward to ...
After concluding two days in Grand Teton, we headed north to Yellowstone National Park. We found it hard to tear ourselves away from the remarkable beauty of the Grand Tetons, but we would soon come to find out why Yellowstone is ...
We stopped an hour short of Grand Teton National Park the night before we entered the park since the sun was setting on our drive from Rocky Mountain National Park. We spent the night camping at the Dubois/Wind River KOA in Dubois, ...
Rocky Mountain National Park is a gem with breathtaking views, abundant wildlife and outdoor recreation opportunities such as hiking, fishing and camping. Located just past Estes Park in the Greater Denver area, it is the perfect place ...
