Five National Parks in Five Days (Day One)
I have been planning to visit the three national parks I hadn’t visited in Colorado since my last trip to the southwestern United States in 2022. Since there are only about 650 miles from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Great Sand Dunes National Park–the closest I am likely to come in the foreseeable future, I decided that the opportunity should not be passed up. This would, of course, mean adding it and the other two parks in Colorado to my trip. Then, I had the chance to finally get to Isle Royale in Michigan and to Wind Cave national, which I didn’t know existed when I visited Hot Springs, South Dakota, in 2018. The boat trip to Isle Royale had to be scheduled in advance, so I would have to go from Tulsa to Copper Harbor, Michigan (Mapquest mapped that as 2,670 miles) in five days. Could I pull it off? Day…
Seven National Parks in Ten Days–Can It Be Done?
I’m not sure exactly when I became a fan of national parks, but I am one. I couldn’t wait to be able to get my senior pass, but now I have it I want to put it to good use. I had visited both Rocky Mountain NP and Zion NP with my mother in 2012, but I knew I’d missed four parks in Utah. What I didn’t know was that I’d missed three parks in Colorado, too. My original plan was to visit the Utah parks, the Four Corners Monument, which is on Native territory and had been closed due to COVID until recently, and the Glass Skywalk at the Grand Canyon. However, in the development of the trip, I discovered that the distance to the Skywalk is far greater than I had originally thought. With the current gas prices (average $4.50/gal. as I write this, I have to take…