Destinations

A collection of 44 posts

Destinations

Western Film Museum and Alabama Hills

About three hours north of Hollywood and a million miles from urban life, nestled in the foothills of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, the little town of Lone Pine, California and the nearby Alabama Hills has been the location for hundreds of films, commercials and television shows. Since the early years

Destinations

Nevada's Area 51

Where does our fascination with aliens cross the line from humor and whimsy to serious belief? And why? Perhaps this obsession with visitors from beyond Earth stems from simple romanticism. We want to believe we are not alone. Whatever the driver, every year tourists from all over the globe venture

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Ride This Loop in Central Montana

Where a rugged past meets a vibrant present, Central Montana remains an authentic experience unlike any other. With Glacier National Park to the north and Yellowstone National Park to the south, Central Montana is the perfect route to travel between two of America’s gems. This route covers the area

Destinations

Roswell, New Mexico

Hear the name Roswell and images of secreted-away debris of a 1947 flying saucer crash and a clandestine cover-up cordoned off from the public with chain-link fencing and armed patrols start popping up in your head. There are even dubious, grainy black-and-white photos of surgeons performing autopsies on slit-eyed aliens.

Destinations

In Pursuit of Wildness: Great Basin National Park

“On the path that leads to Nowhere I have sometimes found my soul.”   – CORINNE ROOSEVELT ROBINSON Rarely do I ride 1,800 miles just because a stranger suggests an awesome ride, but I had just met a fellow rider, Scott, in Springerville, AZ, and he was already persuading me to

Destinations

Ship’s Bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald

When it was launched in 1958, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest freighter sailing the Great Lakes. But shortly after 7:10 pm on Nov. 10, 1975, disaster struck the mighty ship. The entire crew of 29 was lost when a severe storm, with waves up to 35 feet

Destinations

Key West & The Southern Terminus

There’s nothing quite like taking a road to the end of the world. When that path takes you through a history of landscapes ripe with the romanticism of escape into the exotic, it’s all the better. We’re talking about the Florida Keys. With rich, sultry names dotting

Destinations

Destination: Beaufort, SC

Think of South Carolina cities or towns that exude the state’s classic charm and culture and most likely Charleston or Savannah come to mind. However, for an alternative that captures the area’s rich history in a smaller, more manageable package (read: less tourists) you may want to consider

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Florida's Oldest Inland Town—Micanopy

Sitting some 10 miles south of Gainesville, Micanopy is notable for two things. First—and perhaps less impressively—it’s one of the smallest towns in Florida with only around 650 residents. Don’t judge the town by its size, though, because the second thing makes things good. Micanopy is

Destinations

Mantle Rock Nature Preserve

Mantle Rock, located in Western Kentucky near the Ohio River, is the largest freestanding, naturally formed stone arch east of the Mississippi River. The 188-foot-long formation rises to 30 feet above ground level. Some retellings of the Cherokee Trail of Tears saga suggest that the Cherokee, who were being force-marched

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In Pursuit of Wildness: Big Bend National Park

I’m not sure if Steve McQueen considered the badlands of Texas “nowhere,” but that’s where I’m riding my motorcycle on this epic adventure into the Wild West. In four days and 1,700 miles, I intend to wake up in the middle of Big Bend National Park.

Destinations

Pit Stop in Ridgeland, Mississippi

When the open road beckons and the urge to explore stirs, there’s no better route to explore than the Natchez Trace Parkway … and there’s no better rest stop along the Trace than Ridgeland, Mississippi. Home to more than 150 restaurants, exceptional shopping, historic Parkway stops, the 33,000-acre

Destinations

In Pursuit of Wildness: Zion National Park

In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the two bank- and train-robbing bandits sought these red canyons as their hideout from the law. I was mesmerized by Paul Newman and Robert Redford in this modern-day Western, but honestly, the scenery captivated me more. I knew that one day I would

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Destination: Goldfield Ghost Town, AZ

Ancient volcanic and seismic activity in today’s Arizona created the Superstition Mountains and the valuable mineral deposits buried within. But their most valuable resource—gold—wasn’t discovered there until the early 1890s. That, along with the legend of the Lost Dutchman’s Mine, created a gold rush fever.

Destinations

Destination: Mendocino, CA

Perched on rugged cliffs above the Pacific Ocean’s crashing waves is the charming village of Mendocino, CA. It’s located some 170 miles north of San Francisco on California’s famously scenic Pacific Coast Highway. The village is part of Mendocino County, which lies between California’s Coastal Range

Destinations

Ohio River Floodwall Art

The Great Flood of 1913 wreaked havoc on many Ohio River towns. The death and destruction, while momentous at the time, have been largely forgotten in the 21st century. The concrete floodwalls in towns along the Ohio River, however, were blank canvases just begging for artists’ depictions of important historical

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In Pursuit of Wildness: The Carrizo Plain National Monument

A sleeping giant lies on the valley floor between the Temblor Range and the Caliente Range. That is where this story begins. In 1857, the strongest earthquake in California’s recorded history ripped through the San Andreas Fault, wrenching the western side of the Carrizo Plain National Monument 31 feet

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Destination: The Dalles, OR

Yesterday & Today Although indigenous people inhabited the Columbia River area for millennia and the Lewis and Clark expedition camped here, The Dalles owes its beginning and name to French-speaking Hudson Bay Company fur traders. The word dalle roughly translates to English as a “large tile” or “flagstone,” and dalles is

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Destination: Rome, GA

Resting on seven hills, with the Etowah, Oostanaula, and Coosa Rivers running among them, Rome’s topographical layout is believed to have inspired early European-American settlers to name their city after the capital of Italy. Owing to the location’s geographic advantages, earlier inhabitants were the Creek people, who were

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In Pursuit of Wildness: Cabrillo National Monument

The Pacific Ocean is jaw-droppingly beautiful as I ride my motorcycle along Highway 1 from Monterey, CA, toward San Diego. It’s easy to allow your imagination to run free along each curve on this scenic highway, envisioning sailing ships exploring new lands. Albert Einstein said that “imagination is more

Destinations

In Pursuit of Wildness: Petrified Forest National Park

I’m on historic US Route 66 heading east for a small village nestled next to the Rio Grande in New Mexico called La Joya. Each year, I make this journey across the wild west, past little communities and towns with interesting names: Newberry Springs, Oatman, Cool Springs, Valentine, Peach

Destinations

Destination: Grants Pass, OR

The town was “named in honor of General Ulysses S. Grant’s 1863 victory at Vicksburg. Originally named Grant’s Pass’s, the apostrophe was dropped after 1900. Grants Pass was a stagecoach stop in the 1860’s. It became a rail head when the Oregon-California Railroad (now Southern Pacific)

Destinations

Destination: Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico

The picturesque desert landscape some 60 miles west of Albuquerque, NM, is home to one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in America—Acoma Pueblo. The pueblo, founded in 1100, is a component of the Acoma Indian Reservation and is perched atop a 357-foot-tall shear-walled sandstone mesa. Before modern times,

Destinations

In Pursuit of Wildness: Abo Ruins

In the 2009 documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, Director Ken Burns spoke about the grandeur of a world known as Yellowstone National Park, as well as less familiar National Park Service areas, such as Abó Ruins, an integral part of Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in New

Destinations

Destination: Old Fort Niagara, New York

The flags of three different nations have flown over Old Fort Niagara—France, England, and the U.S. over more than 300 years. Located at the mouth of the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, Fort Conti was a preliminary fortification established here by the French in 1679. A permanent French