In the final installment of my Epic National Park Roadtrips series, I am going to focus on a road trip that highlights some of the best national parklands that the state of California has to offer. Not only is the state of California one of America’s biggest states, but it is also one of the country’s most beautiful. For that reason, it should come as no surprise that California is tied with the state of Alaska for the most national parks in the United States with eight.
If you like wildlife, especially marine wildlife, the state of California in the United States has some absolutely wonderful wildlife viewing experiences available to visitors. One of my favorite of these experiences is seeing the large Northern Elephant Seals along the coast of the state. It really is impossible to appreciate how large and powerful these seals are until you see them on a beach with your own eyes.
With a countless number of breathtaking vistas, some of the most unique and beautiful trees in the country scattering its landscape, and some of the best rock climbing scrambles in North America within its borders, Joshua Tree National Park may just be one of the most underrated national parks in the US National Parks system.
Joshua Tree may not get all of the press that its sister parks in California get, as parks such as Yosemite, Death Valley, and Redwood are well known around the world. However, that doesn’t mean Joshua Tree National Park isn’t every bit as beautiful or exciting. If you ask any national parks enthusiast who is well versed in all of the national parks in the United States and they will tell you that Joshua Tree National Park is one of the premier national parks in the country.
Today we headed Southeast of Santa Barbara, California to visit a national park that I have been wanting to visit for quite some time. Not only does Joshua Tree National Park share my name, but it is also one of the most underrated parks in the Western United States.
I made it into Los Angeles last night, and the difference in weather was quite welcome. It’s amazing what feels warm to you when you are coming from -26 temperatures.
Nick lives in Santa Barbara, which is roughly two hours North of Los Angeles. If you are able to time your drive to miss the Los Angeles traffic it is actually a fairly easy drive.
Seeing as though the temperatures in Milwaukee this week could not be more frigid (with the estimated low temperature tonight to be -56 degrees below zero with wind chill), my trip to see my brother Nick in Santa Barbara could not have come at a better time.
If you have done any international traveling, you are probably familiar enough with the customs and immigration process and you are no stranger to the long lines that often accompany that process. I don’t think anyone in this world enjoys having to go thru the tedious customs and immigration process after having just gotten off of a long haul flight, but most travelers also understand the importance of such security measures.
If you were secretly hoping that the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) would come up with a more convenient and streamlined process to move people thru the customs and immigration process, then I have some really great news for you. They have been working very hard to do just that, and some very big changes are just around the corner.
Other than actually taking the trips, there are few things I enjoy more than planning travel adventures. In case you haven’t read my article on our travel plans for this year, we have decided to visit Australia and New Zealand. Both of these countries have long been on our bucket list and I am very excited to finally have the chance to visit them.
As I did when I planned our trip to Machu Picchu and the Galápagos Islands last year, I am going to share with you my trip planning process. By sharing the process by which I go about planning trips, I hope to give you some ideas on how you can save more money traveling and make your trip planning process a bit easier.
In this fourth part of my Epic National Parks Road Trips series, I am going to walk you thru a road trip itinerary that takes you thru some of America’s most stunning national parklands. The Pacific Northwest is renown for its wildness and its beauty and the national parks that are found in the Pacific Northwest of the United States are no different. They are wild and they are beautiful.
In this third installment of my Epic National Parks Road Trips series, I will be talking to you about an itinerary that takes you thru some of the most remarkable desert mountains and caves in the Southern United States. As you make your way thru the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, you will see one of the largest cave systems in the world, one of the biggest cactus species in the world, and beautiful mountains and rivers that have shaped the American Southwest.
