All Parks in the Southwest, Zero Carbon

July 3, 2023June 11, 2025 / bigdiff / 3 Comments

I recently completed visits by EV to all the national park units in the southwest, including 2 in Oklahoma, 4 in Louisiana, 7 in Arkansas, 14 in Texas and 15 in New Mexico. I’ve also visited the southwest biospheres and heritage areas. Here’s a summary of each state with my favorites.

Oklahoma is a beautiful state where many Native American tribes were forced to live and where many famous singers emerged, including Woodie Guthrie, Reba McEntire, Toby Keith, Roy Clark, Carrie Underwood, Vince Gill, Blake Shelton, Patti Page and many more. The Chickasaw Recreation Area is good for nature hikes and borders the fascinating Chickasaw Cultural Center. Washita Battlefield is a difficult site to visit, since it is covers a shameful episode in US history. My report turned into a rant after a park service employee dramatically exaggerated the numbers of white settlers killed in native raids, despite sitting outside the park bookstore which revealed lots of white fear but very few documented killings in historic records. The only affiliated park in the southwest is the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

Louisiana also has important history that must never be forgotten, from prehistoric Poverty Point, to the Cajun culture in Jean Lafitte Park, to the haunting plantations at Cane River Creole and to the birth of uniquely American music in the New Orleans Jazz. The accents, architecture, atmosphere, food, music, scenery, stories and style of the state make it unforgettable. If you’ve never been, go and stay awhile. If you’ve been, go again.

Arkansas styles itself as the natural state—true based solely on armadillos—, but the parks are mostly historic. Early French settlers at the Arkansas Post traded with the natives for furs from the Buffalo River. Later Fort Smith was a critical junction on the Trail of Tears, and Pea Ridge was the site of a key Civil War battle. More recently, Bill Clinton was born here, and Little Rock High was integrated in the face of racism. Even Arkansas’ National Park, Hot Springs, is a throwback to an earlier era. This is one of the few states I hadn’t really visited before starting this quest, but now I know better what an interesting state I was missing.

Texas has a lot of big beautiful parks to enjoy nature: two National Parks, Big Bend (see photo) and Guadalupe Mtns, two recreational lake parks, Amistad and Meredith, along with Big Thicket, Padre Island and Rio Grande. There are also two sites tied to prehistoric man: Alibates quarries and Waco Mammoth. San Antonio Missions predate the US, and Palo Alto Battlefield predates Texas. Fort Davis shows frontier conflict with natives, and Chamizal demonstrates border cooperation with Mexico, as approved by LBJ. Besides all that, Texas has many of the best state parks in the country, with top rate rangers, facilities, activities and scenery.

New Mexico has exceptional places to explore unusual geologic formations, including two national parks, Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands, and volcanic zones Capulin, El Malpais and Valles Caldera. There are seven Native American park sites: Aztec, Bandelier, Chaco, El Morro, Gila, Petroglyph and Salinas Pueblo. And there are three military sites: Fort Union, Pecos (also native) and Los Alamos. Even if you don’t use their state parks to charge your EV, a state parks pass is a good deal for longer stays.

UNESCO recognizes five World Heritage Sites in the southwest: Carlsbad Caverns, Chaco Culture, Poverty Point and Taos Pueblo. My personal favorite sites in the southwest are Big Thicket for paddling, Cane River for tragedy, Carlsbad for imagination and Gila Cliff Dwellings for details and the trail. But where you should go depends on your tastes and interests.

Buffalo National River

July 2, 2023April 10, 2026 / bigdiff / 2 Comments

[Sorry to hop around so much, but I want to wrap up a region]. Last year folks celebrated the 50th anniversary of the river’s designation, but somehow Arkansas allowed a concentrated 6,000 hog feeding operation on Big Creek to pollute the Buffalo River with runoff from tons of pig crap. The resulting increase in algae and e-coli bacteria was damaging water quality in the park significantly. After protests, the hog operation was halted (and paid off handsomely), but local politicians have not been willing to make the ban permanent.

I woke in Tyler Bend Campground all ready to paddle 10 miles of the middle section from Baker Ford to Gilbert (where someone from the General Store would leave my car), but a sudden line of thunderstorms dissuaded me. That storm system killed three people in Texas with tornadoes and brought lots of lightning to this river in Arkansas, so I was glad to hit the road early instead. Pollution from either industrial ranching or fossil fuel burning is taking the fun out of some of my best trips.

Despite rural development—like Branson—, the Ozarks are still very beautiful, and the river is 135 miles of free-flowing nature. Nearby there’s a 100 foot wide natural bridge, one of many alcoves and interesting geologic features in the area that likely caused the French trappers to describe the area as having arches or “aux arcs” (say it out loud).

Americans, being poor linguists and unaware of the remote arches and bridges upstream, have long been confused about the origin of the name “Ozarks”, speculating that the French were talking about natives with curved bows or some bend in the river. This is moronic, as all bows and rivers are curved, so the French explorers would have no reason to use such a useless description. Americans had similar problems in understanding the French name for the Canadian River, which obviously derived from the Spanish word cañada, as the river passes Texas’ Palo Duro, the second largest US canyon. Rather than try to understand foreign languages, Americans assumed the French explorers did not know how to Canada by river.

Here are my visits to all parks in Arkansas.

Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument

July 1, 2023April 10, 2026 / bigdiff / 1 Comment

I figure I climbed Mt Katahdin in Maine over a dozen times as a kid, so I decided just to hike out here to Orin Falls (above), about 6 miles round trip. Surprisingly little has changed in the decades since I last visited. The logging roads are still long, unpaved, bouncy and largely unmarked, and they still have lean to’s for the Appalachian Trail that officially ends on the mountain. The Swift Brook Road one lane bridge is still spectacular, and there are still moose here, wandering out in the roads and ducking into the woods to avoid being photographed. (Definitely a “save this park for offline use” ahead of time if you’re using the NPS app, otherwise you could get lost. My watch kept asking me if I wanted to send an SOS.)

The counselors/ environmentalists who brought us here as summer campers to teach us about nature would be pleased that this is now a national monument, but they would see that not everything has remained unchanged. Man has dramatically altered our climate, so the species here are virtually all in decline. The environmentalists may have won a battle over the logging industry here, but we’re losing the war. On the tour road I stopped at Lynx Pond—one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen as a teenager—, but it was surrounded by dead trees and was much drier than I remember. The slow growing forests of Canada and the northern states are at risk of wildfire, if they’re not burning already. It is not enough to save places like this. We must also save the climate.

Here are my visits to all parks in Maine.

Saint Croix Island International Historic Site

June 30, 2023April 10, 2026 / bigdiff / Leave a comment

The island itself is off limits, but there’s a viewpoint, a visitor center, some statues, and a rocky cove. The lighter land in the background is Canada. As is often the case in New England, I visited here as a child, although I had forgotten. Rediscovery is rejuvenating.

The French were determined to establish a trading post here in 1604, but the winter killed half of them. One of the survivors was Samuel Champlain, who went on to found Port Royal in Nova Scotia—the first successful colony north of Florida—and Quebec. He also accurately mapped the coastline, opened fur trade with the natives and was de facto Governor of New France.

Here are my visits to all parks in Maine.

Roosevelt Campobello International Park

June 29, 2023April 10, 2026 / bigdiff / 2 Comments

The park is in Canada, but the bridge to the Campobello Island is from Maine. I use my passport card for trips like this, where I just drive across the border for a few hours. I also crossed the border into Juárez in January, so this is my third country by EV. The park is an affiliated park, jointly run by both the US and Canada. Obviously, the staff are very nice, polite and helpful.

The Roosevelts used to vacation here in summer, and one of their children was born here. FDR came down with polio here in his 30s, although he likely contracted it before arriving. The house tour is fascinating with various toys and artifacts of their summers, and there’s a large nature preserve which has exceptional views at Liberty Point. However, my favorite part is the Tea with Eleanor.

At 11 and 3 (Atlantic time is 1 hour ahead of Maine), the staff give visitors free tea and cookies in one of the cottages while they present the life and achievements of Eleanor Roosevelt. They describe her trip to Tuskegee, her wartime work with the Red Cross, her friendship with Mary McLeod Bethune, her concert at the Lincoln Memorial for Marion Anderson, and here work on the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to name a few. One of my favorite park experiences.

Here are my visits to all parks in Maine.

Acadia National Park

June 28, 2023April 10, 2026 / bigdiff / 1 Comment

Well, Acadia, I’m back! My first National Park visit was here, on Cadillac Mountain at sunrise, some decades ago as a happy camper. We wanted to be the first in the US to see the sunrise, and—assuming nobody was awake on West Quoddy Head a bit further east—we were. This visit, I decided to get a photo before sunset, since I had already done the cold, dark and windy sunrise. Then I had an excellent meal at Geddy’s in Bar Harbor and slept until it was already light.

Acadia, in Maine, has excellent hiking on old carriage trails around ponds and lakes around Mt Desert Island—which refers to an area of bald rocky top mountains, not sandy deserts. Also, there’s kayaking, tide pooling, a pebbly “sandy” beach, bicycling, star gazing and more. The park dates back to 1929, and it’s popular enough that you need to buy a timed-entry ticket online to drive to the mountaintop above. I just pulled over at an overlook, ordered from recreation.gov and drove up. This park inspired me to visit as many national parks as I can, so I’m glad to be back, even if it took me a few decades.

Here are my visits to all parks in Maine.

Salem Maritime National Historical Park

June 27, 2023April 10, 2026 / bigdiff / 1 Comment

[In July 2025 the president upgraded this park from a historic site to a historical park]. Per Tripadvisor, this site doesn’t even make the top 10 things to do in Salem Massachusetts. Honestly, I would recommend the Peabody Essex Museum, the House of Seven Gables, and a nighttime witch walking tour before I’d send someone here. Not that it isn’t an interesting site that describes the port’s peak between the Revolution and the War of 1812, it’s just that there’s a lot of fascinating history in Salem outside the park.

In the several 18th century buildings near the wharf run by the park service, you can learn about the British East India Company, trade with the West Indies, slave traders, Polish immigrants, and more than you wanted to know about how goods cleared customs and were taxed (Hawthorne worked there but spent his time thinking up The Scarlet Letter). There’s a replica tall ship, the Friendship, docked on the wharf, but it’s under restoration—looks better inside. The 19th century Derby Light Station above still functions (solar, upgraded from oil) and sits at the end of historic Derby Wharf, which is quite long and gives folks a nice view of the harbor.

Here are my visits to all parks in Massachusetts.

All Frank Lloyd Wright World Heritage Sites by EV

June 26, 2023June 11, 2025 / bigdiff / 9 Comments

UNESCO chose eight Frank Lloyd Wright sites for World Heritage status, and I visited them all this year by EV. An exhaustive tour of Wright’s designs could visit 100 sites, but the Heritage 8 are sufficient for me. My cross country trip went from Hollywood, to Arizona, Wisconsin, Chicago, Pennsylvania and finally to New York, but it’s easier to understand his life’s work below chronologically.

His home and studio in Oak Park Illinois showcases his various styles, influences and experiments, including his first design: his own home. While this is the one site I visited that is not on the World Heritage list, just walking the neighborhood is worth the trip.

Unity Temple in Oak Park in 1905 is a church built for his mother.

Robie House at University of Chicago in 1910 is my favorite, built for a wealthy client who only lived in it briefly.

Taliesin in Spring Green Wisconsin in 1911, later rebuilt after a dramatic tragedy, used funds from Robie to build a family country home with a school for his acolytes.

Hollyhock House in Hollywood California in 1921, was built for a theatrical oil heiress who fired him for going over budget.

Fallingwater (above) in Mill Run Pennsylvania in 1937, is his most iconic private residence, built for a wealthy department store owner whose son gave it to the park service.

Taliesin West in Scottsdale Arizona in 1937, used funds from Fallingwater to build a winter home with another school for his acolytes.

Jacobs House in Madison Wisconsin in 1937, was built to demonstrate that Wright could design something affordable on a budget.

The Guggenheim in New York City in 1959, was built to display art and to be art, for the future.

I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of 50+ years of the most widely recognized designs from America’s greatest architect.

Guggenheim

June 25, 2023April 10, 2026 / bigdiff / 1 Comment

This is a World Heritage site, not a park site. The Guggenheim Museum in NYC is Frank Lloyd Wright’s final masterpiece completed after his death. Solomon Guggenheim was a guest at Taliesin. I first saw the architectural plans at Taliesin West, where I also noticed a nautilus. And the structure also reminds me of the curved, descending covered walkway that connects Fallingwater to the hill. The circular ramp is iconic, and perusing an exhibit called Measuring Infinity while slowly descending is delightful.

Here are my visits to all parks in New York and all Wright heritage sites.