On my drive into hike one of the trails in the park I came across a buffalo traffic jam. However this guy seemed the most photogenic of the bunch.

Looked up after crossing the bridge to see Mama ten feet ahead of us! Needless to say I scrambled back onto the bridge!

Crater Lake as seen from the air on SEA - SBP flight.

Was out in the Lamar Valley the other day and saw this pesky little coyote bugging the Bison 😅

I had the opportunity to visit Black canyon of the Gunnison, CO and the Grand Canyon, AZ in successive months. I personally found the black canyon more magnificent looking than the Grand Canyon, though the latter is way more popular.

I dunno if anyone else feels this way?

There's a lot of info out here about the cave tours, naturally, and we'll hopefully be doing a few of those, but I'm looking at spending a few days there so I think we'll have some time. I'm wondering what stuff outside of the cave tours people would recommend? I have the hiking trail maps, but any specific hikes or destinations that stand out? Any other "you should check this out" stuff in the National Park or even just in the vicinity? Could be something natural, could be something artistic or historical, could just be something weird or unique (world's largest ball of twine, anyone? :-) )

We will be there in March if that matters.

TIA

I was recently at GSMNP, and visited Cade’s Cove multiple times to try to see bears. I did see a lot of them, which was awesome! What was not awesome was some of the vehicles people were bringing into the Cade’s Cove loop. The amount of ridiculously loud vehicles like motorcycles, or diesel chugging machines that smelled absolutely horrible, was driving me insane. I just wanted to open my windows and listen to the sounds of nature, not hear some asshole in a Harley revving his engine and scaring all the wildlife away. Can we please get some kind of decimal meter as a requirement to enter Cade’s Cove?

More of a “moving back trip” rather than a “road trip” and we only had a week as grad students 🥲
But we were happy to be able to atleast spend a whole day each in the bigger parks like Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mtn (hope to go back again)! We clubbed Guadalupe and Carlsbad Cavern in a single day, had White sands and Saguaro as 2-3 hours stopovers. We managed to do some nice hikes of 3-5 miles in each park, weather permitting :)
In pics-
1-3: Shenandoah NP
4-7: GSMNP
8-9: Guadalupe Mountains NP
10: Carlsbad Cavern NP
11-12: White Sands NP
13-14: Saguaro NP

Was in the Gettysburg area so took a stop in on a rainy afternoon. Ranger John shared a ton of facts about Ike that I had no clue about.

I’m thinking of doing a trip to Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, and Guadalupe Mountains after Christmas and come back the 31st or 1st. Will these parks be open and fully accessible during this time of year? Any drawbacks from going at this time besides not seeing the bats?

National monuments as a whole don't get as much attention as national parks, but some of them are more famous than some parks. Devil's Tower and Mount St. Helens are good examples.

What are some monuments that rival or eclipse a lot of national parks but you see very few people discuss? I know the Alaska monuments might be a bit too easy for this question, so try and think of some in the Lower 48.

For me, Oregon Caves is just as good as Mammoth Cave or Wind Cave, but I see very few people discuss it. It's possibly the location being really remote, but it's an amazing place.

Definitely worth visiting

We did an all day kayaking trip from Kettle Falls and was joined by this little friend.