Day 2 in the books! Awesome growth by all! Great to see our mini chargers (grades 1-4) finish camp week strong! For our Junior Charger (grades 5-8), we had one heck of a dance competition at the end! Congrats to 6th grade winners here! Can’t wait for tomorrow!!! #CTW
The 63 U.S. National Parks offer incredible diversity of environment and recreation but they are not created equal. More than 50% of all hiking trails are in just eight parks (Yellowstone, Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, Yosemite, Olympic, Glacier, and Grand Canyon).
Map Monday: National Parks are full of extremes. Biggest, smallest, oldest, highest, lowest ... you can find all the superlatives.
On one end of the size spectrum is Gateway Arch National Park. It's small. Just 82 acres.
Much to the chagrin of many a park purist, it's also all
Trail Tuesday: Shenandoah's wildly popular Old Rag! There are shorter routes to the top of Old Rag but you really want to take Ridge Trail for fun rock features like this!
Due to popularity a day-use ticket is required from March through November, only available online at
Make the most of your next National Park trip with any of these helpful books.
National Park Maps features large maps for all 63 parks, driving distance charts, favorite lists, and suggested itineraries.
The Dayhiker’s Guide to the National Parks includes 198 trail maps,
I made some die-cut bookmarks, thinking they were kind of fun. Then I noticed there's something a little phallic about them. Anyway, anyone want a bookmark ... I'm sitting on a bunch of forever stamps and would gladly mail them out.
Publishing rule No. 1: don't skimp (time or $$) on your covers!! I wanted to make this book with a list price of $20 or less, so I was excited when the first run's quote came back (especially considering these inflationary/take-what-you-can times). Turns out I didn't have the
Map Monday: Flight 93 National Memorial (Shanksville, PA)
9/11 is one of those you-know-where-you-were-when days. Two hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center. Another hit the Pentagon. Another crashed, inverted at a 45-degree angle, into an abandoned mine site in rural
Map Monday: Yellowstone! A lot of people have heard Yellowstone is a supervolcano (waiting to blow!--only kidding a little bit). But are you aware of its scale?
If you're admiring the early rays of light illuminating Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (or any time :), you're in the
Map Monday: Shawnee National Forest
So, I had Jackson Falls, First Southern Descent, Devil's Backbone, and Natural Arch in mind ... I saw they were on gravel roads, I was pulling a trailer full of books.
It didn't work out well. Ended up backing into an empty campsite near
Trail Tuesday: Bryce Canyon's amphitheater loops!
Yesterday I talked about October being the perfect time to visit southern Utah. While that's true, unexpected things can happen ... like snow! Last time I was out there, I was enjoying 70-80 degree days at Capitol Reef, and then
Map Monday!
National Park visitation varies year-to-year, park-to-park, but one thing remains the same ... Great Smoky Mountains receives the most visitors.
Last year: ~13M
2021: ~14M
2020:~12M
2019:~13M
2015-2018: ~11M
You get the idea. It receives a whole lot of visitors.
Trail Tuesday: Lake Solitude (Grand Teton National Park)!
For a park as popular as Grand Teton, you'd think there'd be more miles of hiking trails (< 100 miles total). Fortunately, the miles it has, are quite spectacular.
The loop to Lake Solitude has become a hiking classic
Map Monday: Let's stay i Hawaii for a bit since it's FREEZING here with snow on the ground. Hawaii is often called the Big Island. Well, how big is it?
It's pretty big. Just about Rhode Island + Delaware big. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park alone is roughly the size of Kauai (the
Trail Tuesday: Kilauea Iki!
Who doesn't want to walk on the floor of what once was a roiling lake of lava???
The only thing better is seeing a raucous lava lake!! Hawaii Volcanoes is said to be the #1 most visited Hawaiian travel destination. And it's no slouch, but it's far
A couple business updates before I spend a few months sleeping in my truck and tent.
Walsworth recognized National Park Maps as one of their Best in Category winners! I cannot say enough good things about the team and quality of work at Walsworth. If you have printing needs,
Currently on a support chat with GoPro Being spoken to as if I’m 10 years old and being told to buy a new battery to troubleshoot this camera I have used 5 times, unsuccessfully, with a battery that shows it’s fully charged.