Golden Gate National Recreation Area

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This most-visited park protects land in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo Counties, but most of the fun stuff for visitors is near the Golden Gate Bridge. The southern units include the unimaginatively named Ocean Beach, Fort Funston which is great for watching hang gliding, Rancho Corral de Tierra for horseback riding, and Sweeney Ridge which has views, hikes and wildlife. If you’re on your way north to Muir Woods and Point Reyes, then you can wind your way up the coast past Muir and Stinson Beaches, past Bolinas Lagoon and through the bucolic Olema Valley. If you have young kids, a stop at the Bay Area Discovery Museum is fun, especially if you’re going to Sausalito. The urban units include Alcatraz, Fort Mason, the Presidio, China Beach, and Lands End near the Legion of Honor art museum.

But if you’re focusing on San Francisco, then you may want to start with the bridge. On the north side, there are nice views from the Marin Headlands, not just Vista Point, but through the tunnel to the Marin Headlands along the loop road to the old forts. On the south side, there are good views from Lands End to the Presidio. If you’re taking photos, note that the north end of Baker Beach is clothing optional. Crissy Field, the naturally restored area once used by the Wright Brothers, is popular for kite surfing, which must be a fun way to see the bridge. Fort Point is under the south east side of the bridge, about as close as you can get without being on the bridge. At the last northbound exit, there’s a visitor center with a small parking lot and info about the bridge, and if you want to go on the bridge, one side is for pedestrians, the other for bicyclists and the middle for cars ;).

The Presidio was originally fortified by the Spanish in 1776, passed to Mexico, and then was taken by the US around 1846. It was an important military base for every US conflict for the next 140 years, and it includes a national cemetery, an officers club dating back to Spain, a former military hospital now used by Lucasfilm (see Yoda above), and a museum dedicated to Walt Disney, who stole some of his best ideas from Oakland’s Fairyland, along with a whole list of other interesting projects. The park leases many of its historic buildings as private residences. I don’t normally write long travel guides to parks, but I can’t help it as I used to live near the Sutro Baths ruin. OK, one last tip. Reserve tickets for Alcatraz months earlier than you think is necessary and try to do the night tour if possible. Unfortunately, the only way out there is by fossil fuel ferry.

Before the bridge was even conceived, the opening from the Pacific into the San Francisco Bay with passage up the Sacramento River was known as the golden gate, and people came from all over the world to get rich quick. In Chinese the area was called 金山 meaning ‘Gold Mountain’, and San Francisco is still called 舊金山 or ‘Old Gold Mountain’ today. (Many Chinese immigrant dreams were quashed by racist immigration policies, despite laboring on the railroads, levees and in a variety of businesses). Of course, nowadays, the path to riches is in the Bay Area’s high tech industries, where dreams are spun into gold. Which is why Yoda is a fine image for the Golden Gate NRA.

Here’s the link to my visits to all parks in California.

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

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The photo above shows the park, but you’ll need to zoom in to see the following details left to right. The dock to the far left belongs to the Sea Scouts. The island to the left above the municipal pier is Alcatraz, part of the Golden Gate NRA. There are swimmers in the cold water between the small blue and red boats in Aquatic Cove. The three masted square rigger on the left is the Balclutha, and the three masted schooner on the right is the C. A. Thayer, both late 19th century cargo ships. Also on Hyde Street Pier is the Eureka, an old ferry boat recently restored, along with a number of smaller vessels, which are typically open for tours ($15). On weekends there’s a ranger led waterfront walk from the Argonaut Hotel near the pier entrance. Be sure to ask what it meant to get Shanghaied, how and where it allegedly happened, and why sailors were initially exempt from the 13th Amendment. On the far right, there’s an Art Deco style building resembling a ship outside, with murals and maritime exhibits inside. And above that is the sign for Ghirardelli Square (‘gear-a-deli’) which serves delectable old fashioned hot fudge sundaes, after you’ve explored the park.

Here’s the link to my visits to all parks in California.

Fort Point National Historic Site

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The Civil War era fort was obsolete as soon as it was built, since rifled cannon penetrated brick walls, and the one threat it faced, the CSS Shenandoah via the Indian and Pacific, called off their mission when they learned the war had ended months earlier. (They spent their round the world voyage attacking whaling ships out of New Bedford, since they often had escaped slaves on their crews.) Before that, there was a Spanish fort here, which was taken over by the Mexicans and then by a band of Americans including Capt. Fremont and Kit Carson, shortly before California became a state.

These days, it’s best used as a place to get a nice photo of the Golden Gate Bridge (when it’s less foggy). The fort is open on weekends, and you can get a good photo from the roof. I walked down from Battery East, but walking or biking from Crissy Field is nicer. There is parking at the fort, although it requires persistence navigating, since more roads are open to bikes than cars around here.

Here are my visits to all parks in California and all Civil War parks.

Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument

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I’m pretty sure these are the endangered Las Vegas Bearpoppy with yellow flowers in spring. Endangered, because Vegas sprawl exceeds monumental. Honestly, there wasn’t much else to see in this “still in planning stage” park site. There’s a temporary 3.25 mile Alicante Loop Trail and parking on North Aliante Parkway at West Moonlight Falls Ave, but the desert is subtle in natural features. There are mats of desert mistletoe in the acacia and mesquite, but they’re parasitic plants best appreciated by the rare silky flycatcher. Despite free dog waste bags and signs, the locals use this place to let their pets run off leash and much of the brush has poop and trash stuck in it. The park extends for miles from North Vegas up 95 northwest, and hopefully they will soon be employing a ranger to protect the park from the residents and pets of the lushly landscaped neighborhoods across the street. Vegas isn’t known for keeping realistic boundaries.

Here’s the link to my visits to all parks in Nevada.

Cedar Breaks National Monument

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I hiked out here 2 miles round trip to Spectra Point to get a view with Bristlecone Pines, so that you can tell this is not another photo of Bryce. There are a number of Bristlecone Pines here and a few more near Chessmen Ridge Overlook, although they are likely younger than some at Great Basin. By the way, if you’re looking for cedar trees, there never were any. Early visitors from back east mistakenly thought that the juniper trees were cedars, and the misnomer stuck. Cedar Breaks is over 10,000’, so it’s a step or two above Bryce, but since it extends down through and exposes the same layer of rock, it looks similar near the top. The view down the gorge looks down over 5,000’ towards also misnamed Cedar City, so you get a good look at the various layers of the grand staircase. Be careful hiking here, as high altitude contributes to vertigo. Due to the heights and erosion, there aren’t any recommended trails down from the rim, but there are a few rim trails and seven overlooks, four of which are near parking. While the road and trails may still be open, there was frost on the trail when I visited, and the roads will close as soon as it snows. The temporary visitor center and store has now closed for the season, and the new visitor center at Point Supreme Overlook is still under construction. Hopefully it’s open next year.

Here’s the link to my visits to all parks in Utah.

Bryce Canyon National Park

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This view is of Bryce Amphitheater from Bryce Point in the morning. Below are the 5.5 mile Peekaboo Loop, 1.3 mile Navajo Loop, 1.8 mile Queens Garden and other trails through the hoodoos. Definitely do at least one hike, if you’re able at this altitude, or even better, book a trail ride from the lodge. I won’t ever forget the spectacular feeling of riding through a layered maze of brightly colored hoodoos with my family; it is one of the best park experiences I have ever enjoyed.

There are around 15 different trails and as many overlooks, including Mossy Cave, Natural Bridge, Rainbow Point and Fairyland Point. Carbon burners should stay home or at least park and take the free shuttle, which goes from the hotels and campground near the entrance to the lodge and the most popular viewpoints and trailheads, but, since the shuttle is not yet electric, I drove my EV around early.

Bryce Canyon is between 7,500’ and 8,500’, and it is one of the prettiest places to appreciate geology. Long story short, the inland sea dried up, the land rose and erosion created the hoodoos and the rest of the canyons in the area. Grand Canyon is the bottom of the grand staircase, Zion in the middle and Bryce near the top. The colors of the steps span from ancient dark rock, tans, chocolate, vermillion, marble, to pink and white. And, if that’s not enough, it’s easy to see mule deer and other wildlife, wildflowers and to appreciate the dark night sky.

This is a great park to visit in April. Here’s the link to my visits to all parks in Utah.

Pipe Spring National Monument

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For millennia people had been using this spring to live, grow crops and travel through, but then the Mormons built a fort and walled it off. 80% of the Kaibab Paiute population died off between 1490 and 1860, many from starvation. The Mormons also enslaved the natives, technically 20 years of indentured servitude, after purchasing them from native slavers, a practice the natives learned from the Spanish.

On this trip I saw both the Green River at Dinosaur and the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon explored by John Wesley Powell, who employed Kaibab Paiute guides. Years later when Powell became director of the US Geologic Survey in DC, a Mormon missionary, translator and expedition member named Jacob Hamblin wrote to his old friend about how the Kaibab Paiutes were dying of starvation.

“The foothills that yielded hundreds of acres of sunflowers which produced quantities of rich seed, the grass also that grew so luxuriantly… the seed of which was gathered with little labor, and many other plants that produced food for the natives is all eat out by stock.”

Hamblin to Powell, 1880

Eventually, the US government intervened and gave the Kaibab Paiutes rights to 1/3 of the water, along with 1/3 to the perpetrators who were using the fort as a hideout for ‘plural families’, and 1/3 to the federal government. Like many wrongdoers, the Mormons at the time tried to justify their killing of the natives by saying that some natives had killed two Mormons, that they were bringing civilization to the natives and that they were more productive. I wasn’t interested in the Mormon pioneer fort or the old self-serving justifications, but the historic conflict over marriage rights seemed ironic, given the 2008 Mormon campaign against gay marriage in California. In any case, the native history is fascinating and helps explain why Utah is 1% Native American and over 2/3 Mormon. There’s a garden run by the local tribe that grows the three sisters (corn, beans & squash) along with Amaranth, which was a beautiful deep purple.

Overall, Utah does an exceptionally good job in managing its remarkable natural resources, but the climate crisis allows no time for delays. Today the spring above is full of toxic algal mats that can release deadly Cyanobacteria neurotoxins, which appears to be spreading as the climate warms. Civilization is destroying life on earth, via carbon pollution, so it hardly deserves the name.

Here’s the link to my visits to all parks in Arizona.

Grand Canyon National Park

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The white peak on top of the center red rock is Mount Hayden, 5000’ above the canyon floor, viewed from Point Imperial, North Rim, looking east. The Colorado River is down there somewhere, along with the Painted Desert and Marble Canyon to the left. Everyone should visit the Grand Canyon, and the grandest, widest and most awe inspiring views are from the popular South Rim. I took my family there years ago, and I’ll never forget ‘Ooh, Aah’ point, which was so windy that the name required exclamation marks of terror.

But the North Rim is more conducive to contemplation than the South Rim, because instead of development and crowds, there are bright yellow and gold Aspen forests, meadows and quieter vistas. The yellow Cliffrose was in bloom along the trail, and a large coyote crossed the road in front of me. Angels Window makes for a nice photo and has a great overlook on top. Bright Angel Point is just a few steps from the Grand Canyon Lodge, and it is one of several overlooks nearby that have spectacular panoramic views.

The season is shorter on the higher altitude North Rim, but fall is beautiful. There was wildfire damage and some smoldering burns in the Kaibab Forest, but overall the forests still look healthy. The ranger gave a talk trying to explain how difficult it is for them to respond to climate change locally, let alone nationally or globally. Logistically, my long range EV can visit the North Rim from Page AZ, where there’s a supercharger, round trip, but getting all the way out to Cape Royal would have been too far. The nearest destination chargers are at Cliff Dwellers Lodge at Lees Ferry (mean steak & eggs) and at Days Inn in Kanab Utah. I used both and continued northwest.

Here’s the link to my visits to all parks in Arizona.

Navajo National Monument

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In the center of the alcove across the canyon is the cliff dwelling of Betatakin. Due to Covid, the five mile guided hiking tour is currently suspended, but a 1.3 mile round trip hike to the the view above is open and beautiful. There’s also normally a 17 mile permitted hike to Keet Seel, a large and well preserved village, where guided tours are also currently suspended. Navajo Nation is taking a cautious approach to the pandemic, and masks are required. Please respect their wishes and culture.

Many visitors confuse this site with Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, which has been featured in many western films, but that site is northwest of here and run by Navajo Nation, not the park service. This park service site is in the Tsegi Canyon area and preserves Ancestral Puebloan dwellings, culture and homeland. As well as builders, they were great traders of tools, pottery, turquoise, shells, parrots and macaws. The Hopi, Navajo, Paiute and Zuni are some of the tribes that trace their roots back to this site. The visitor center has some trade items on exhibit and a gift store.

Here’s the link to my visits to all parks in Arizona.

Natural Bridges National Monument

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The Bridges, so designated because water flowed through them and formed them, are much older (Permian) than Utah’s famous Arches (Jurassic). There are three main bridges to see here, each only a short hike from the scenic drive to view, and they span two canyons, Armstrong and White. The Owachomo Bridge above is over a dry creek bed and can easily be hiked under. The Kachina Bridge is at a more challenging viewing angle near the intersection of the canyons, but if you’re up for the Loop Trail hike, I bet it’s spectacular. Sipapu Bridge, second in size only to Rainbow Bridge, is named for the emergence gateway mythology common to Native American tribes. There’s an impressive view from the overlook, and if you hike and climb about halfway down and go out along a wide ledge, you can get a view from the other side, which is equally magnificent.

This is one of my favorite parks for geologic features. Unfortunately, none of the bridges were working as portals to distant past or other dimensions. The surrounding forest and beautiful canyon lands are part of the Bears Ears National Monument (managed by the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management), and the mesa top buttes that look vaguely like ears from a distance can be seen from the parking lot as well as from miles away in several directions. I drove in from the east, stunned by the scenery, and then left south, where the road drops into Monument Valley. Wow.

“I’m pretty tired…. I think I’ll go home now.”

Forrest Gump

Here’s the link to my visits to all parks in Utah.