There’s a 32 mile scenic drive through the Coastal Redwoods parallel to 101 in California along the Eel River, and it’s some kind of wonderful. The Eel River is one of the longest recreational, scenic & wild river systems in the US, and this is one of the prettiest places in the USA. When the kids were little, we paid a bit extra to drive through a tree—just like my grandfather did with his kids in Yosemite in 1952—, and I have happy memories of dining at the old Benbow Inn on the Eel. Over 100 years ago, conservationists who came this way were dismayed by the rapid logging, prompting them to found Save the Redwoods, which got the community to do just that. Today, there are still a dozen or so old growth groves where you can get out, walk, look up and feel very small.
The Eel River empties into the Pacific south of Humboldt Bay, and the Mad River empties north of the bay. The shallow bay has clean water due to tides, and this gives it fine oysters. Try one of the oyster restaurants in Eureka. Many long billed birds—Avocets, Curlews and Willets—rely on this flyway stop. The mouth of the Eel River has been restored, and the eels (Pacific Lamprey) are recovering. This is one of the famed six rivers in this part of Northern California, and it’s exceptional. I’m glad I returned.
Mom, Uncle Nim, Grampy & Grammy in Yellowstone in 1952
Pullman Historical Park tells the story of our railroad industry amid the homes of those who worked and went on strike.
Chicago Portage dates back to French-Canadian explorers 100 years before America was born.
Lincoln’s Home in Springfield preserves his whole neighborhood, and the 1908 Race Riot site nearby shows that violence against Civil Rights continues long after the Civil War.
Ulysses S Grant’s home is a pretty place that explains the origins and accomplishments of one of our greatest Presidents.
Gateway Arch commemorates Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase and the grand expansion of our country.
In the heart of Oklahoma City stands a moving memorial to the American men, women and children killed in a horrific act of domestic terror.
At Pecos you can climb down into a Puebloan ceremonial kiva and also visit a critical historic battle site.
Petroglyph is tucked in a suburban area where you can walk up to see ancient carvings made by prehistoric travelers.
Route 66 drives right through the Petrified Forest, and the Desert Inn evokes a bit of that travel history.
Walnut Canyon is right off the highway and is one of the best cliff dwelling sites in the southwest.
Mojave National Preserve contains canyons, sand dunes, lava tubes, soda lakes and an oasis[link].
Santa Monica is the California Dream with beautiful ocean views, recreation and locations you grew up watching on TV.
Route 66 celebrates its 100th birthday this year, and it is a traveler’s paradise. My grandfather and great, great aunt each passed that way just over 100 years ago, and I just stopped at the Bagdad Cafe earlier this year on one of many trips along the way. If you’re interested in trails, you will cross sections of the Butterfield Overland, the E Mojave Trails, Lewis & Clark, the Old Spanish Trails, the Pioneer Trails, the Santa Fe Trail, and the Trail of Tears. The Route starts near the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago and crosses the North Rio Grande as “winds from Chicago to L.A/ More than two thousand miles all the way” as Nat King Cole used to sing Bobby Troup’s verses.
“Now it goes through Saint Looey Joplin, Missouri Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty You'll see Amarillo Gallup, New Mexico Flagstaff, Arizona Don't forget Winona Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino“
And many other fascinating parks from small and obscure to big and famous are also just off Route 66, along with countless wonderful photogenic bits of Americana: perhaps America’s best road trip and a great way to celebrate both its 100th birthday and America’s 250th.
Ste. Geneviève is a cultural gem preserving a French community south of St Louis.
The Ozark River is one of the most beautiful places to float in the country.
GW Carver pays tribute to an influential American scientist and educator who overcame great adversity.
Fort Union is a dusty ruin that evokes the hard life of US Army Cavalry out west.
Los Alamos is a fascinating and well preserved town made famous for the Manhattan Project.
El Malpais has names from travelers carved in the rock since prehistoric times, and El Morro has bat caves.
Arizona has both Sunset Volcanic Crater and the best meteor crater in the world near the route.
The Badlands are at their mildest in June, with wildlife about and even some greenery. Spend some time soaking in the scenery from a campground, time your hikes for the sun angles and weather, and listen to a ranger talk at an amphitheater. You won’t have the place to yourself, but do you really want to be in the Badlands by yourself?
Great Smoky in June is good for seeing bears, fireflies, and for swimming holes or rafting, so no wonder it’s so popular. Plan ahead and spend some time camping here, so you can visit the most popular spots on weekday mornings. Take your time hiking and ask folks what they’ve seen.
Teddy Roosevelt is another fun park that’s great in June. I enjoyed driving to all three park units, hiking and enjoying wildlife and scenic viewpoints. But if I go again, I’m going to stay longer. The folks at the campgrounds were very friendly and nice.
Yellowstone is the best park in the contiguous US and is big with lots to see and do. So you need to go when there’s good weather and activities are in full swing. Book campgrounds and activities well in advance, give yourself time for everything on your list, and go in June before it gets even busier in July and August. The grand old park can handle the crowds, but planning ahead is the key.
Wind Cave is crowded in summer, so common advice says to visit in May or September to avoid crowds and heat. But it’s a cave, so heat is not an issue. And the cave tours are all in guided groups, which are similar in size most of the year. So my advice is to visit when you’re visiting other parks above in the region. And you should absolutely book your tickets in advance. Bison can be seen outside the park entrance in June and other months.
June is a beautiful month, so take advantage of the fine weather, go camping and enjoy some of the best national parks in the country.
After driving down Baja and to Mexico City in the last two years, this time I drove from California to the Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico. Highlights included seeing flamingos in Celestún above and jumping into Ik Kil cenote below, plus visiting many world heritage sites along the way. Look for my individual site reports and coming summaries, Pyramids of Mexico and Colonial Mexico.
Recent headlines and photos of several burning vehicles have inflamed fears of travel to Mexico. Many Americans have a bad attitude about Mexico, wrongly believing it is too dangerous to drive around, imagining bandaleros and corrupt police demanding bribes around every corner. Some Americans apparently enjoy horror stories about Mexico, while ignoring gun violence in the US. I have now driven to almost every state in Mexico without encountering any crime. I spoke with other foreigners who have been visiting Mexico annually for decades, and they also did not experience crime. This trip, I went through a couple of checkpoints and had my car searched once, exactly the same as in Texas.
Of course, there is serious crime and violence in Mexico. So are the statistics accurate or are the reports overblown? I had a long conversation with my Spanish teacher about some common stories. She thinks that in most cases American tourists are not worth the trouble for criminals, who prefer to prey on poor Mexicans whose cases might not be investigated as thoroughly. The corruption cases she heard about involved Americans who broke the law and were trying to evade responsibility by bribing police officers, which is obviously illegal. I’ve also heard this kind of story where Americans break traffic laws, especially driving under the influence of alcohol. Such behavior puts Mexican cops in a tough spot, where they don’t want to ruin someone’s vacation, but they have a job to do. So, be careful, avoid drugs, follow the law and in my experience, you will be fine.
If you’re driving from California, Tuscon is convenient for getting pesos and printing out car documents like your Mexican insurance policy. You need a hard copy of that, in case you have any trouble in a place without cell service. I found the small Santa Teresa border crossing very quick and easy for getting my TIP—temporary import permit to avoid paying taxes on my car at customs—, and I ended up recrossing the border at Laredo, in order to take advantage of Texas’ high speed highways. Laredo is a great place to get pesos and cross too, and there’s an interesting little history museum next to La Posada Hotel.
Since there is a 542 mile gap in the supercharger network between Veracruz and Campeche, I charged at my hotel overnight. That’s also necessary to get to Calakmul and Palenque and from Veracruz to Sierra Gorda, so I booked hotels with destination chargers, which are cheap and convenient for guests since slow charging is fine overnight.
However, you need to confirm with your hotel in advance that they both have a charger on site and that it is currently working. I arrived at my hotel in Palenque, which advertises “electric car charging on site”, but they laughed at me when I asked to use the car charger. So I had to spend a couple hours at the local Nissan dealer slow-charging for $11. After that, I checked with the rest of my hotels and changed my itinerary when I found two other hotels without working chargers. In another case, a third party charging site at an important stop for me went offline sometime after I departed the US, another unpleasant surprise for me. Off the supercharger network, you need to double-check and have a backup plan, with adapters and third party apps to find alternate charging. But if I can drive to the Yucatan and back, it can’t be that difficult.
One time in Saskatchewan, I had to turn back when I realized I would not make my destination, due to the cold. The winter storm that buried my car the day before was still blowing arcticly, so I had been carefully watching my mileage. EV batteries must keep themselves warm, and regenerative braking is less efficient in cold weather. I still should have been fine, but the rural washboard road turned to mush in a sleet storm. (At the time, I didn’t know that my front struts were broken, thus causing friction on the insides of the front tires on bumpy roads). My range was dropping considerably faster than my miles passed, even as I slowed to a crawl.
So, I turned around and headed back—while still in range—to a charger I’d used recently. And then I took the long way around. I no longer have range anxiety; I have contingencies.
“It may be taken for granted that, rash as the Americans are, when they are prudent there is good reason for it.”
— by Jules Verne in Around the World in 80 Days
This was a wake up call that my battery just doesn’t have the range it did when I started four years ago. Let’s face it, using up to six superchargers a day while crossing the continent repeatedly isn’t common use. Ever since I drove through clouds of locusts on a hot day in eastern Oregon, I’ve noticed the car struggles with heat. (I’ll have to get my radiator checked more thoroughly, too). And I’ve driven through all four major deserts in the contiguous US many times, including getting stuck in traffic south of Vegas mid-day in the summer. Extreme cold requires extra energy and slows charging, but it’s extreme heat that damages batteries in the long run.
For most folks, the decline in battery range wouldn’t matter, as it’s not quite bad enough to be covered under warranty. My Tesla 3LR can still drive further than most EVs (or RVs). But I’m going to the Yucatán, and there’s a gap in the supercharger network in Tabasco. So I need every mile of long range.
While supercharging on Route 66 above and consulting with Tow Mater—“average intelligence”—, I decided to get a new high voltage battery. TSK (TeslaService.LA) gave me a good price on a lightly used battery. Turns out that since most folks treat their batteries much better than I do, the collision repair shop has plenty of used high voltage batteries in stock. They did a great job, including a thorough cleaning and minor fixes, so, next stop, Mexico!
While my maternal grandfather directly inspired my wanderlust, my cousin asked “what about Aunt Marjorie?” Determined that she get proper respect, he handed me a dossier about her, and another great road trip inspiration came back to life.
In 1925, my paternal great great Aunt Marjorie Scattergood went down to the corner of Broad & Market in Philadelphia, saw a sign pointing west with ‘San Francisco, 3000 miles’, and she thought, why not? Her college friend Gladys was driving a used Model T on the first transcontinental road (golden spike was 1869) and thought it would be fun. The car may have been the town car version, same year as the one above with a thin roof.
Aunt Marge was no shrinking violet. She held a world record in the hammer throw, college record in javelin, and was captain of her water polo, swim, and hockey teams.
She held degrees in History, Economics and Politics, and she had studied abroad in Edinburgh by then. She volunteered in France during WWI. And she was involved in social work connected to reformers like Jane Addams and Frances Perkins.
Her family, my father’s side, were Abolitionist Quakers, and Thomas Garrett was her great uncle and my great great great great uncle. In any case, Aunt Marjorie was not one to shy away from a challenging adventure.
The Lincoln Highway ran from Times Square NYC, past Edison’s labs, to Philadelphia, through Gettysburg, through rural Pennsylvania, through Lincoln country, joining what became Route 66 somewhere near Dixon Illinois, then switching to the old pioneer trails, through Iowa, to Salt Lake City and ending at Lincoln Park in San Francisco, about 2 1/2 blocks from where I raised my kids.
My cousin’s records revealed clues about Marjorie’s route, and they chose the longer Colorado Loop. She went to explore the west, picked apples for two months in Utah to pay for 3 tires, looked through the Keyhole on Longs Peak—a ‘high commitment/ considerable rockfall trail around 14,250 feet’ in Rocky—, and spent a month on a sheep dude ranch up in Granby Colorado. She must have passed by the Colorado NM on her way to Utah. Most of the roads out there still follow the old Spanish trails, really Native American trails for centuries.
Our country is still starkly and dramatically beautiful, the high mountains, the prairies, and the salt flats. In an interview, she showed photos of prairie schooners that were still traveling by wagon in 1925. Much of her trip followed the route my maternal grandfather had taken just a few years earlier. And my route too, 100 years later in an EV, to historic sites, heritage areas and scenic spots has crisscrossed theirs.
History is a funny riddle, too often forgotten or ignored. My dad didn’t tell me enough about his side of the family, so I’m grateful to learn this chapter of Aunt Marjorie’s story. If it weren’t for my cousin, I might never have realized that we traveled the same road a century apart, exactly how my family is related to Harriett Tubman’s close friend and partner in crime you may know as Simeon Halliday, why a building at the CIA is named after Aunt Marjorie and her partner Florence Thorne (they met in 1926), how she wrote Dr Martin Luther King Jr, how she protested wars, hosted refugees and fought for workers’ rights. If we only try to remember, then once again, we will realize that we walk in the footsteps of giants.
“Hi there, neighbor. Going my way? East or west on the Lincoln Highway.”
— From God’s Country starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney
“I’ve been walking that Lincoln Highway, I thought you knowed. I’ve been hittin’ that 66, way down the road.”
For 2026, I resolve to complete all UNESCO sites in half of Canada’s provinces, make a third road trip to Mexico, find even more national monuments and recreation areas in the US, and drive to southeast Alaska. Logistical challenges and new site designations may thwart my plans, but I will do my best.
Weekly Monday posts will continue to be a new visit. Thursdays will still be sporadic summaries and viewpoints. The first Saturday of each month will be park recommendations. And mid-month on Saturdays I will highlight a climate issue. Hope you have a happy New Year!
This blog is a creative exercise. The whole idea of trying to visit parks and world heritage sites by electric vehicle wasn’t suggested to me by anyone. Deciding what to write about and how to present it takes imagination, from what stories I decide to tell and which photos I choose to take and use.
Travel requires imagination. My itinerary has been anything but straight, as I often feel myself driven by curiosity, picking my spots by theme or asking ‘what if I try this way’. Even within parks, visitors must choose how to spend their time, so I often let my imagination take the lead. Should I bike, hike or kayak?
History requires imagination. How are places connected? More than once, I’ve asked whether or how one historic figure knew another and learned to piece together disparate parts of our American story. What was it like for natives, patriots, pioneers, and slaves? What were people thinking for history to unfold the way it did? What can we learn that informs our decisions today?
When I drive, I find my time full of thinking. The whole idea of dividing how we think into four distinct ways of thinking, each with different motives, techniques and goals, came to me while driving. New ideas require imagination, time, and a curious mix of concentration and inspiration, that I find on the road.
Most people, I fear, lack imagination. When in their comfort zone, they take in new information easily. But outside of that, they lack interest, and they resist new ideas, particularly challenging new perspectives or uncomfortable facts they never want to consider. Some are simply busy, preferring to delegate thinking to others who make it their business to tell people what to think.
But life requires imagination. Living well, especially in a diverse and rapidly changing world, requires curiosity, an open mind, empathy, and persistently trying to find your own way. Imagination can prepare you both to avoid problems and to take advantage of opportunities. Every day is a new kaleidoscopic puzzle we need to navigate through as best we can, and for that, imagination is our best friend.
Mississippi has three national heritage areas: Delta, Gulf Coast and Hills. Culturally, Mississippi is one of the best states in the country.
The Delta area is fascinating, and I recommend the Delta Blues Museum when you’re in the area listening to live blues music, like Terry ‘Harmonica’ Bean pictured in Clarksdale. Vicksburg and Emmett Till are both in the area too.
I drove the Gulf Coast area while visiting the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and it is beautiful. (I skipped Beauvoir, the Jefferson Davis “Presidential” Library, since he was never president of our country.) You will see signs marking the Mississippi Blueways, which are mostly paddling river routes near the coast and unrelated to the popular Mississippi Blues Trail.
This year, I visited William Faulkner’s home in Oxford, which is part of the Hills area, along with Elvis’ home in Tupelo, Tennessee Williams’ home and Eudora Welty’s too. Brices Cross Roads, Natchez NHP and Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home are in this area too. I enjoyed visiting Faulkner’s home, ‘Rowan Oak’, and walking in the pretty woods nearby, but Faulkner would much rather be remembered for his screenplays, stories and books, including The Sound and The Fury, As I Lay Dying, and Absolom, Absolom!.
Best Park: Isle Royale. Wildlife, wilderness, multi-day hiking, boating, camping, forests, mountains, waters. Isle Royale, above, is the best Midwest park in many categories, despite being the least visited national park in the lower 48.
