— Located in southwest Austin, Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve is an oasis in the middle of the city. Just minutes from downtown, this preserve can make you feel like you are miles from traffic. When you couple that with recent … Read More

— The Amazon rainforest (or Amazonia) covers most of the Amazon River basin in South America and is distributed across nine nations. Brazil contains the largest portion of that rainforest with nearly 60% of its entirety. Not only is the … Read More

— Located just about 1.5 hours from Austin, Texas, the Longhorn Cavern State Park is a cave that offers tours and hiking opportunities to anyone interested in the geology of Texas. The cave facilities are another example of the Civilian … Read More

— On June 8 we celebrate World Oceans Day. The United Nations (UN) proclaimed this year’s theme as “The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods.” To call attention to what covers 70% of the planet is evident in present times. Sometimes people … Read More

— On our last trip to Big Bend NP, the scenery was quite different from previous visits. Even though it was late September, contrary to what one would expect for end-of-summer vistas, we found the park blooming everywhere we went. … Read More

— After six and a half long years, we finally spent a few days revisiting one of the most scenic state parks in Texas: Caprock Canyons SP. Located towards the Texas panhandle, Caprock Canyons SP is known for its rock … Read More

— Certain national parks simply do not get as much attention as others. Take, for example, North Cascades NP. The 20th largest national park in the National Park Service, covering an area of 504,781 acres, is listed by Reserve America … Read More

— Our first visit to Canyon de Chelly (pronounced d-SHAY) National Monument was back in 2006, when we were returning from our Grand Canyon South Rim visit. We had not planned on going by Canyon de Chelly until someone told us … Read More

— Part of our southwest vacation in 2010 included Aztec Ruins NM and Chaco Culture NHP. The first and foremost thing to learn about this national monument is that its name, Aztec, is a misnomer. A nineteenth century erroneous belief, according to … Read More

— Getting to Mariscal Mine in Big Bend National Park may not be easy. High-clearance vehicles with four-wheel-drive are required. When we did our first visit to this area in 2007, the ranger told us that he was not sure … Read More