Our Favorite Places
“What’s your favorite place?’ Is a question we often field when folks we meet learn that we’ve been traveling for months on end, year in and year out since 2008. The answer is often changing and sometimes is honestly wherever we are in the moment. That said, there are some amazing places that knock our socks off and to which we’d return in a heartbeat. Click on the photos to learn more about these totally amazing places.
Rialto Beach
Our first visit to Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park in 2008 was a mind-blowing experience. It felt like an alien landscape from a science fiction story. Our most over the top experience on Rialto was our Hole in the Wall hike when we returned in 2018 and camped at Mora Campground near Forks WA. We encourage you to the lesser traveled parts of Olympic from Hoh Rain Forest and Kalaloch Beach to the Salmon Cascades there’s an incredible diversity. If you choose to go to Hurricane Ridge, don’t do it on a holiday weekend unless you love huge crowds, traffic jams, and jockeying for parking. Instead go to a visitor center and ask a ranger for an away from the crowds recommendation.
North Cascades National Park
We don’t have to travel to Switzerland to experience mind-blowing mountain views around every corner. The “American Alps” in northern Washington State provide this very experience. We didn’t know to visit this amazing park on our trip in 2008 but since our first visit in 2016, North Cascades National Park with more than 300 glaciers keeps inviting us back to explore the history of Newhalem, learn about early settlers, marvel at the incredible turquoise blue of Lake Diablo, hike in the forests, and just enjoy a lesser populated park where we can often enjoy a one on one conversation with a ranger.
Lowell National Historic Park
Yes, we’ll admit that we see the town of Lowell and the Lowell National Historic Park as a Totally Awesome place because we’re fascinated with textiles, big machinery, and the history of The Industrial Revolution. This place is one of the gigantic landmarks in the history not only of industrialization but of labor organizing. And it’s right in the heart of New England near to places like Lexington and Concord, Salem, and much of Colonial and American Revolutionary history.
The CCC Campground
Talk about a dark sky experience! Anytime the subject comes up, we remember the CCC Campground in North Dakota where we truly felt like we could reach up and touch the Milky Way. It’s located on the Little Missouri River in the North Dakota Badlands near to both the northern and southern units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Fort Union and Knife River National Historic Parks, Lewis & Clark’s Fort Mandan, and so many of the worthwhile places in western North Dakota. With amazing scenery, utter peacefulness, and a totally dark sky, it’s one of our most memorable campsites of all time
Split Rock Lighthouse
This place is awesome in so many ways. The scenery is amazing. We are drawn to lighthouses because we love the history and find the technology fascinating. Here the original equipment is intact and fully functional and we could get up close and personal with it. Not only that but the Minnesota Historical Society interpretation of life for the light house keepers and their families is just extraordinary. In fact every Minnesota Historical Society site qualifies as Totally Awesome.
The Museum of the Rockies
This world class museum does a fabulous job of feeding our curiosity not only about the creatures of the Jurassic Period but of multiple realms of history, science, and technology. Put this as a must-see when you are in Montana. And if you are truly into dinosaurs you definitely want to check out Dinosaur National Park. It’s a little more remote on the Colorado-Utah border but it’s astounding in-situ fossils are not to be missed.
The Archway Museum
As we travel around the country we constantly encounter opportunities to learn more about historical ways to travel around the country. Fascinated by stories of the pioneers in the history classes of our youth, sucked in by the computer game The Oregon Trail when our kids were young, and having had incredible interpretive opportunities from The National Road to Oregon Trail Ruts and the creation of the the Transcontinental Railroad and the National Trails Historic Center in Casper there’s so many places to learn more about the early trails but this one is extraordinary in it’s scope and the way it truly immerses you in the history of travel and communication.
Cahokia Mounds
As we travel around the country we constantly encounter opportunities to learn more about historical ways to travel around the country. Fascinated by stories of the pioneers in the history classes of our youth, sucked in by the computer game The Oregon Trail when our kids were young, and having had incredible interpretive opportunities from The National Road to Oregon Trail Ruts and the creation of the the Transcontinental Railroad and the National Trails Historic Center in Casper there’s so many places to learn more about the early trails but this one is extraordinary in it’s scope and the way it truly immerses you in the history of travel and communication.
