US National Parks & Monuments
Submitted by: Deepti
Impressions: Beautiful — a glimpse of Heaven!
My must-sees: The Tunnel View Outlook, The Mirror Lake Trail, Lower Yosemite Falls Trail.
Yosemite Lower Falls
Deepti also had this to say: The Tunnel View Outlook is extremely beautiful! The interesting thing about it is that no two views are same. It keeps changing as the clouds & fog keep drifting around.
If you love our National Parks, take the time this summer to do something to make sure that the remain a part of future generation lives. With the constant budget battles being waged in Washington DC, it’s important to let Congress know what the National Parks mean to us as a nation. The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) wants to pass your National Parks messages onto the members of Congress and they are asking for your help.
When you visit a National Park this summer (you can start on June 21 when it’s a Free National Parks day), take your camera or video recorder along to document your visit. Then send the NPCA your photos, videos and stories about why National Parks are important to you to [email protected]. The NPCA will be posting select images they receive to the National Parks Protection Project website and passing them onto those in Congress.
In order for National Parks to remain funded, it’s essential for Congress to know that the people that visit them view them as an important part of our history and culture. Your photos, videos and personal stories are an important way to show Congress why America’s natural and cultural heritage should continue to be protected for future generations. For places that give so much to our lives, please consider sharing your story to help ensure that others can have the same experiences decades from now.
You can also lend your voice by signing a petition telling Congress to stop cuts to the national Parks budget.
Even if you don’t enjoy hiking or walking along the beach, it’s worth your time to drive to the Agate Beach parking area at Patrick’s Point State Park (CA) because of the wonderful view. There is no hiking involved — simply get out of your car, walk to the north end of the parking lot (or sit down at a picnic table) and enjoy the view:
For those that do enjoy hiking, there is a foliage filled trail that takes you down to the beach. Once you reach the bottom, you immediately see a rock filled river which runs down onto the beach and into the ocean. These stones get pounded by the surf and then return to the beach leaving pockets of stones along the sandy beach. There were a number of people sifting through the pebbles and rocks looking for favorites:
The beach is actually quite expansive and a wonderful place to take a long stroll. It doesn’t take long before you are virtually alone, leaving the vast majority of visitors gathered in the area near the river. For anyone that enjoys searching for interesting rocks that the ocean washes ashore, you won’t want to miss this beach.
The first place I begin all my visits to National Parks is at the visitors center. Even if I know a park fairly well, the staff at the visitors center will know the latest news regarding the park. That information will often lead me to do something which I may not have been planning to do that day. If I’m unfamiliar with the park, and especially if it is my first visit, the staff can give me the list of places that I should absolutely see and what I should do within the park for the time frame I have.
In addition to the helpful staff, the Bear Valley visitors center at Point Reyes National Seashore (CA) has an excellent little museum style display of the animals which live within the park, including a huge, life-size elephant seal to greet you as you walk in:
I took my 6 year old niece through all the displays and she was fascinated with all the animals and the information about them. For any child who likes animals, it’s worth putting aside a little extra time to walk through the animal displays at the visitors center.
Once you leave Junction Room, you come to the Curtain Room at Crystal Cave in Sequoia National Park (CA). The room gets its name from the cave formations that hang down the edge of rocks to form what looks like a giant curtain:
Although most of the trails at Lassen Volcanic National Park remained closed to hiking due to an abundance of snow, that doesn’t mean that you should avoid visiting the park. The short 2 mile hike around Manzanita Lake in itself makes a trip worth it. It would be a beautiful hike any time of year, but it’s especially so now with snow capped peaks in the distance.
Upon entering the park from the Manzanita Lake park entrance, you immediately see Manzanita Lake on your right. There is parking on the right side of the road so that you can begin the hike immediately if you are so inclined. I would recommend driving to the visitors center about a quarter mile past the entrance so you can ask the park volunteers any questions you may have first. Then you can hop on the trail by taking a path directly behind the visitors center which leads to the Manzanita Lake loop trail.
One of the assets of this hike is that the view of the lake change quite dramatically as you circle it. There are definitely some gorgeous views with Mount Lassen and Chaos Crags in the background:
There were quite a few people on the lake fishing (you can rent boats on the side of the lake). For those who enjoy photography, there are plenty of interesting shape and light opportunities around each bend:
Even after the trails in other areas of the park open up, this short hike is well worth making time to do. For those interested, here are more photos from the hike.
When you think of Redwood National Park, the first image that comes to mind usually isn’t the beach. That’s a shame because there are some beautiful beaches which are part of the Redwood National and State Parks. Gold Bluffs Beach is one of these.
Located in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park (CA), you need to turn off highway 101 onto Davison Road at Elk Meadow (There is a large sign for Elk Meadow overlook — when you reach the Elk Meadow overlook, continue straight onto the dirt road). Davison Road winds its way through beautiful redwood groves until it reaches the sea. Once you hit the shoreline, you leave Redwood National Park and enter Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park (there is a state park fee to enter). While most people head to Fern Canyon and bypass the beach all together, this is a mistake. The beach is vast with very few people (because they are all heading to see the redwoods) making it a perfect place to take a long stroll in near solitude:
For those who don’t feel like walking, there are plenty of ocean-worn rocks littering the beach to look at and admire:
And for those with a little bit of ambition, the rocks are perfectly shaped to have some fun stacking them:
While the redwoods are obviously the main attraction at Redwood National Park, try to take some time to visit the beach as well. You won’t regret it.
While there wasn’t a lot open due to the large amount of snow still on the ground in mid June at Lassen Volcanic National Park, one area that was accessible to visitors was Sulphur Works. You could immediately tell that this part of the park was active due to the “rotten egg” sulphur smell that was apparent even all the way down at the visitors center. The main attraction was a large pool of boiling, bubbling brown water:
Just above the brown boiling water pool was another cavity where both boiling water and steam were escaping:
Several active steam vents could be found across the street on a hillside which was notable due to it being the only one void of any snow:
While not the most picturesque example of volcanic activity, Sulphur Works was worth stopping at to get a taste of what might be found at the currently inaccessible volcanic activity areas in the park. It was a nice preview which makes me want to come back when the trails are clear of snow so I can explore the other hotbeds of volcanic activity within the park.
While Trinidad state beach is a bit difficult to find (once you exit and head into the town of Trinidad, the main road will first curve 90 degrees right and then a little later 90 degrees left — toward the coastline. Instead of following the main road and turning left, you want to make another right down a one lane road to find the entrance to Trinidad state beach). Once you reach the parking area, there are a lot of picnic tables and a wonderful view of the beach below. The many rock outcroppings in the ocean making them part of the California Coast National Monument:
It is a about a quarter mile hike down to Trinidad state beach along a narrow dirt path.
It was extremely windy while I was there making the view and picnic are much more comfortable than the beach (there were trees that blocked the wind up there), but I don’t know if that is a regular occurrence or not. It was a fun beach to explore with all the different rock outcroppings.
I’ve looked at one of our National Monuments hundreds of times and never even realised it. If you have ever been along the California coast, there is a good chance that you have seen this national monument as well. The California Coastal National Monument, as it name implies, spans the entire coast of California and was established on January 11, 2000. It compromises more than 20,000 small islands, rocks, exposed reefs and pinnacles located off the 1,100 miles of the California coastline.
I would not have even realised I was enjoying the scenery that this National Monument provided except for an informational sign I happened across:
Where Land Meets The Sea
A National Monument here on the North Coast?
Scan the coastal landscape spreading out before you. This area is rich in geological history and biological resources. The rocks dotting Trinidad Bay are now part of California Coastal National Monument (CCNM).
The Bureau of Land Management manages the CCNM, a network of over 20,000 small islands, exposed reefs, rocks and pinnacles spanning California’s entire 1100 mile coastline.
Landslides melting into the sea
Large masses of land are continually slumping into the ocean. The slow moving landslides, or earth flows, are a mixture of sediments from soft clay to hard rock. Like Rocky Road ice cream left in the hot sun, wave energy melts the softer sediments away, leaving behind large, chunky rocks. Many of the rocks you see close to shore were deposited from earth flows.
Ses Stacks: Hard rocks of the old coast
Some of the rocks that you see were once part of the ancient coastline. These resistant formations, or sea stacks, were isolated by rising seas, you erosive surf and geological uplift. Pilot rock is one example.
So now you know. If you happen to be along the California coastline and see rock formations off the coast, you are looking at one of our newer National Monuments.