Happy Tuesday! We’re on the road again in our RV, so we’re seeing and doing lots of NEW things. It’s time to update a few of my lists.
First of all, we’ve been to 3 NEW lighthouses (and are scheduled to visit many more in the coming days). We recently visited Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, and Heceta Head Lighthouse in Oregon.
As for my National Parks list, we visited Crater Lake National Park. It was a clear day and very beautiful!
Next, I’ll update my waterfalls list. We went on a nice, short (3 miles round-trip) hike to Drift Creek Falls, near Lincoln, Oregon. It features a suspension bridge, as well as a waterfall! Can you see our tiny shadows on the bridge as we took the first photo? And the next photo is of the falls together with the bridge.
I love me a good list! Haha! Even more, I love learning, doing, seeing, and experiencing NEW things! I hope you get to learn or do something NEW today too! Have a wonderful day!
Happy Monday! I’ve finally updated my National Parks Bucket List. In the last few weeks, we’ve visited 4 more parks. We’re up to 33 with only 30 more parks to go. The photo above is the New River Bridge in New River National Park in West Virginia.
This is Mammoth Cave National Park. We visited during the government shutdown, so we were unable to take a cave tour, but we were able to go down into the historic entrance to the cave, and we also enjoyed bike riding through the park – so I’m counting it, haha! If we’re ever in the area again, we’ll be sure to take a cave tour.
This is, of course, is Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, Missouri. Even though the government was still shut down, they were still allowing people to take the tram to the top of the arch. It was a clear day, so we were able to see quite far.
Lastly, this is Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. We drove the Skyline Drive. Beautiful! It was a bit nippy for hiking (in the 30’s), so if we come this way again, we’ll try to make it in warmer weather!
Our travels next spring will include the next batch of parks. Little by little, we’re crossing them off our bucket list!
Have a terrific day. I hope you do or learn something NEW today!
Recently, we visited Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. What a unique national park! It’s basically in the middle of some towns and very close to a large city – Cleveland, Ohio. It was made a national park because the beauty of the area was being threatened by development. We rode our bikes on the Erie-Ohio tow path, then made our way to this awesome waterfall. I’ve wanted to go here ever since Nancy at Two Trails One Road recommended it! It did not disappoint! Thanks, Nancy! We rode further on the tow path and saw this awesome bridge. I believe it’s called Station Road Bridge:
After lunch, we hiked to Blue Hen Falls. However, after visiting Brandywine Falls, these falls were a bit underwhelming (especially after a semi-difficult hike), but hey, any waterfall is worth it in my opinion! I’m thinking perhaps there might be more water in the spring rather than the hot days of August!
On the drive back to our campground, we stopped in the cute little town of Chagrin Falls. We bought an ice cream cone and enjoyed their falls right in their downtown.
Toward the end of the week, we hiked the short distance to Minnehaha Falls and Cascade Falls in Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park. The Minnehaha Falls has a glass bridge that you can walk over the large gorge that the waterfall flows through. Again, I’m thinking there would likely be more water in the springtime than there was in August. But I’m counting them both toward my 100 waterfalls!
So, the bucket list stats are at 29 out of 63 national parks and 68 out of 100 waterfalls. We’re getting there. Being retired will likely speed up the progress!
Have a great day! I hope you learn or do something NEW today!
We recently visited our 28th (out of 63) National Park. We explored Indiana Dunes National Park. The weather was perfect. The crowds were small. Yay!
I’m not sure if drones are permitted at this national park (probably not), but there are some impressive photos posted online which were taken from above at some point. Here are a few of mine taken from ground-level. Maybe I should look into getting a drone, haha! (????)
35 more parks to go!
I hope you have a lovely day and learn or do something NEW today!
Read all books by a certain author (I think my best shot at doing this is reading all of Susan Meissner’s books).
Travel challenges:
I already have my travel challenges ongoing. Visiting 100 waterfalls and all of the National Parks. We’ll be doing quite a bit of traveling this year, so I’m sure it will be easy to add to these lists, but here are a few marked for this year:
Visit Acadia NP, New River Gorge NP, Indiana Dunes NP, Cuyahoga Valley NP, Shenandoah NP and Gateway Arch NP.
And of course, visiting Iguazu Falls is happening this year. Yay!
Physical challenges:
Do another (or multiple) 30-day steps challenge (might be easy as we’re hiking to waterfalls!).
Do a 30-day yoga challenge
Ride on 20 (NEW-to-you) bike trails.
And lastly, what am I into???
Junk journals and art journals! I LOVE looking on Pinterest at creative art journals and watching videos about making junk journals. I’ve got one of each started (one art journal and one junk journal). My plan is for the junk journal to be vintage looking and I’ll be answering questions from a book my son gave me a few years ago called, “Tell me your story, MOM”. The art journal will be more vibrant and I will do some decoupage, watercolor, digital art, and other types of art. I created all of the images in this post with AI (Midjourney). I will use the image above as a focal point in one of my collages. That might seem like cheating, but anything goes in my journals, haha!
That’s it for my 2025 plans. My interests might change next week and I might be into something totally NEW and different! I’ll let you know. Maybe sometime I should do a blogging challenge and try to update this site a bit more regularly, haha! Anyway, I hope you have a fantastic day and that you get to learn or do something NEW today! Take care!
We crossed two more National Parks off our bucket list. 21 down 42 to go! Last week we visited Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park. The original plan was to hit all three Florida parks, but the ferry to Dry Tortugas was all booked. Oh, shoot! We’ll just have to go back another time! :o)
We canoed through mangroves, skidded across a river of grass on an airboat, saw crocodiles, alligators, and many many birds, played pickleball near the beach in Key West, ate dinner at a beachfront grill while watching the sunset, hand-fed little fishies to tarpons, got a jolt of panic when our tour bus’ tire blew out, took a boat tour into the backcountry from Flamingo into Coot Bay, heard the mating call of a crocodile, did not get too many mosquito bites and barely scratched the surface of what we could have done!
Again, we’ll just have to go back!
On the plane ride home, I listened to a podcast that mentioned the poem “The Peace of Wild Things”. I previously was unaware of this poem and learning about it right after this trip seemed serendipitous!
The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Here’s a few pics I took of those ‘wild things’:
Here’s my official NP bucket list:
LIST OF US NATIONAL PARKS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER (63 total)
Acadia National Park {done}
Arches National Park {done}
Badlands National Park
Big Bend National Park
Biscayne National Park {done}
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park {done}
Bryce Canyon National Park {done}
Canyonlands National Park {done}
Capitol Reef National Park {done}
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Channel Islands National Park
Congaree National Park
Crater Lake National Park
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park
Denali National Park and Preserve
Dry Tortugas National Park
Everglades National Park {done}
Gates of the Arctic National Park
Gateway Arch National Park
Glacier National Park
Glacier Bay National Park
Grand Canyon National Park {done}
Grand Teton National Park {done}
Great Basin National Park
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
Great Smoky Mountains National Park {done}
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Haleakala National Park
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park {done}
Hot Springs National Park
Indiana Dunes National Park
Isle Royale National Park
Joshua Tree National Park
Katmai National Park and Preserve
Kenai Fjords National Park
Kings Canyon National Park {done}
Kobuk Valley National Park
Lake Clark National Park
Lassen Volcanic National Park {done}
Mammoth Cave National Park
Mesa Verde National Park {done}
Mount Rainier National Park
National Park of American Samoa
New River Gorge National Park
North Cascades National Park
Olympic National Park
Petrified Forest National Park
Pinnacles National Park
Redwood National Park {done}
Rocky Mountain National Park {done}
Saguaro National Park
Sequoia National Park {done}
Shenandoah National Park
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Virgin Islands National Park
Voyageurs National Park
White Sands National Park
Wind Cave National Park
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve
Yellowstone National Park {done}
Yosemite National Park {done}
Zion National Park {done}
I hope you have a terrific day and do or learn something NEW today!
Happy Monday! I have the day off work, so I’m finally dumping the photos off my camera. AND…I’m updating my National Parks Bucket List. We recently visited Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Grand Tetons National Park. Here are a couple of my favorite shots (Tetons above and Black Canyon of the Gunnison below). If I counted correctly, we have 45 more National Parks to visit! We’d better make a plan and get busy.
LIST OF US NATIONAL PARKS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
Acadia National Park {done}
Arches National Park {done}
Badlands National Park
Big Bend National Park
Biscayne National Park
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park {done}
Bryce Canyon National Park {done}
Canyonlands National Park {done}
Capitol Reef National Park {done}
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Channel Islands National Park
Congaree National Park
Crater Lake National Park
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park
Denali National Park and Preserve
Dry Tortugas National Park
Everglades National Park
Gates of the Arctic National Park
Gateway Arch National Park
Glacier National Park
Glacier Bay National Park
Grand Canyon National Park {done}
Grand Teton National Park {done}
Great Basin National Park
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
Great Smoky Mountains National Park {done}
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Haleakala National Park
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park {done}
Hot Springs National Park
Indiana Dunes National Park
Isle Royale National Park
Joshua Tree National Park
Katmai National Park and Preserve
Kenai Fjords National Park
Kings Canyon National Park {done}
Kobuk Valley National Park
Lake Clark National Park
Lassen Volcanic National Park
Mammoth Cave National Park
Mesa Verde National Park {done}
Mount Rainier National Park
National Park of American Samoa
New River Gorge National Park
North Cascades National Park
Olympic National Park
Petrified Forest National Park
Pinnacles National Park
Redwood National Park {done}
Rocky Mountain National Park {done}
Saguaro National Park
Sequoia National Park {done}
Shenandoah National Park
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Virgin Islands National Park
Voyageurs National Park
White Sands National Park
Wind Cave National Park
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve
Yellowstone National Park {done}
Yosemite National Park {done}
Zion National Park {done}
Have a great day! Do or learn something NEW today!
I guess I need to update my National Parks bucket list that I posted after our Mesa Verde trip. One National Park down, many to go! I’m at 16 out of 63. Oh boy…gotta get busy!
The photo above is of the Great Smoky National Park from near Clingman’s Dome. And here’s one with a little ‘smoke’:
The walk up to the top of Clingmans Dome is quite steep…here, wait just a minute and I’ll look up the stats….haha!
“The half-mile trail to the summit of Clingmans Dome is paved, but very steep. During the short hike, you will gain 332 feet, which makes the climb gradient almost 13%!” (per THIS site). On a clear day, you can see into 7 states!
The Appalachian Trail crosses Clingmans Dome, so now I can say I’ve been on a portion of that trail! (They kind of need new signage! :o)
I love thematic bucket lists! Checking off a list is strangely satisfying, right!?
Have a great day today! Do or learn something NEW!
We made a quick trip over to Colorado last weekend and visited Mesa Verde National Park. Perfect weather! Not too crowded! Nice!!! Here are a few more pics:
If you go, DEFINITELY get a guided tour. The park rangers are so knowledgeable and can answer most of your questions. The history of the area is fascinating.
Sadly, a lot of the area had burn scars because Mesa Verde is prone to lightning strikes and can receive up to 100 strikes in a 24-hour period during the summer. 70% of the park has been burned by wildfires since it was established in 1906!
One thing I love about blogging is having posts to reference anytime/anywhere. I’m going to use this post as my National Parks Bucket List and keep track of where we’ve visited and where we still need to go! So many! It will take a while to finish this big bucket list. But so fun!
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