National Parks Traveler

As you walk around the Big Room in Carlsbad Cavern at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the word that should come to mind is "baroque," because the many cave formations (speleothems) are so fantastical - and old, having taken thousands of years to form.

Once you enter Carlsbad Cavern along the Natural Entrance Trail, you'll still have quite a bit of downhill walking to go (1.25 miles / 2 kilometers) to get to the cavern's Big Room. Along the way, you will see some amazing cave formations (speleothems) like stalactites, stalagmites, and a beautiful cave drapery formation known as Whale's Mouth.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico is one of the few cave-centric parks in the National Park System where you can actually take a self-guided tour into the cavern to view the amazing speleothems (cave formations).

There's a lot of landscape beauty packed into Dinosaur National Monument, straddling the border between Utah and Colorado. You can get to these views from several overlooks as well as five different scenic drives.

Here's a little throwback for you. Back in the early 1900s, wrapped Jurassic-period fossil bones were hauled out of what is now Dinosaur National Monument via horse. According to the National Park Service: "Dinosaur National Monument includes one of Earth's richest known dinosaur fossil beds. These remains are from the Jurassic period 150 million years ago. During a drought, many dinosaurs died near a river's edge. When rains returned, flood waters carried the jumbled bones of over 500 dinosaurs, representing ten species, here."

Approximately 800 to 1,400 years ago, this area was home the ancestral indigenous people of the region. They left evidence of their presence in the form of petroglyphs, patterns chipped or carved into the rock, and pictographs, patterns painted on the rock. For a thousand years, this rock overhang has shaded these pictographs from the strong midday sun. This limited exposure to sunlight may have helped to preserve the vibrant colors in these ancient images.

Located on the Colorado side of the monument, the Harpers Corner Overlook provides a stunning view of the Green and Yampa Rivers as they join and carve vast canyons. The upturned layers of the Mitten Park Fault below the overlook dramatize the millions of years worth of erosion needed to create the staggering geologic views.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio is open year-round. A popular trail to hike any season is the Ledges Trail. To read more about hiking in this national park, click here.

Even during the winter at Cuyahoga Valley National Park, you can still hike many of the trails, as well as sled, snowshoe, cross-country ski, and ice fish.

There are over 125 miles of hiking trails in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. These trails range from nearly-level to more challenging, and pass through various habitats including woodlands, wetlands, and old fields.