Buffalo NR

 

America's First National River:

Established in 1972, Buffalo National River flows freely for 135 miles and is one of the few remaining undammed rivers in the lower 48 states. Once you arrive, prepare to journey from running rapids to quiet pools while surrounded by massive bluffs as you cruise through the Ozark Mountains down to the White River.

Oct 17, 2024

We made a return visit to the middle Buffalo River area. It was a perfect day to go up and let Daisy have fun in the river. 

Oct 9, 2022

We had a beautiful Fall Day to take in the unit. We decided to take in the middle Buffalo River area starting at the Visitor Center at Tyler Bend. This is the main Visitor center for the Unit. The Visitor center is small with a few exhibits. We took in a short movie there that helped explain the history of how this river was saved as a free-flowing river. After the Visitor Center we went down to the river and beach. Daisy had a great time frolicking in the river. This was a great time to visit as we almost had the river to ourselves. There are lots of great trails to take in and a float down the river is a must do. We spent a few hours here this visit but there are days of exploring to do. This park will go on our revisit list. 

Click here for photos of our 2022 visit

NPS Website

157th NPS Unit

Daisy Mae enjoying a romp in the river. 

Fort Smith NHS

Life on the Edge of the Frontier:

Explore life on the edge of frontier and Indian Territory through the stories of soldiers, the Trail of Tears, scandals, outlaws, and lawmen who pursued them.
From the establishment of the first Fort Smith on December 25, 1817, to the final days of Judge Isaac C. Parker's jurisdiction over Indian Territory in 1896, Fort Smith National Historic Site preserves almost 80 years of history.

Sept 27, 2024

We made a return trip to take in the Visitor Center that was closed for renovation our last visit. The Visitor Center was very well done with so much to take in that you can spend a couple hours going through it. Daisy also tagged along to get her BARK Ranger Tag, and she enjoyed her time taking in the grounds. 

Sept 25, 2021

Lots of interesting history. Fort Smith was the last fort before the Indian territory of Oklahoma. It was here that Judge Isaac Parker held the bench. While not a strong supporter of capital punishment he sentenced 160 men to death due to the sentencing guidelines during his time on the bench, resulting in the Judge earning the nick name "The hanging Judge". 86 men met the gallows under his tenure. The Visitor's Center was closed for renovation during our visit, so we plan on a return trip later. We got to take in the rest of the unit including the rebuilt gallows and a nice trail that takes in most of the outlying areas of the unit. We spent a few hours here this visit and look forward to a return to take in the Visitors Center and Court room of Judge Isaac Parker.    

Click here for photos of our visit 2021

Click here for photos of our visit 2024

NPS Website

Our 148th NPS Unit

     

Little Bighorn Battlefield NM

 

Little Bighorn, A Place of Reflection:

This area memorializes the US Army's 7th Cavalry, Crow, and Arikara scouts and the Lakota's, Cheyenne's, and Arapaho in one of the American Indian's last armed efforts to preserve their way of life. Here on June 25 and 26 of 1876, 263 soldiers, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer and attached personnel of the US Army, died fighting several thousand Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors. 

NPS Reading

14 Sept 2024

Taking in this unit is like reading the final pages of a long and bitter chapter of our history. We all have read or heard of George Custer, but what lead to this ending involves going back many years and many battlefields with our war against the Native Americans. We decided to take in this unit with a walk up to Last Stand Hill were Custer, and his command meet their final demise. The Visitor Center is closed right now for remolding so this site will go on our return list. This site is very dog unfriendly, and dogs are not allowed out of your vehicle. Be aware also that this is one of the few National Monuments that have an entrance fee.

Click here for photos of our visit

NPS Website

Our 178th NPS Unit

Sand Creek Massacre NHS

 

Betrayal on the Plains; an American Atrocity:

On November 29th, 1864, Chiefs Black Kettle, White Antelope, Left Hand and others were encamped with around 750 Arapaho and Cheyenne people in a valley by the Big Sandy Creek. A hope for peace, brought forth by Black Kettle was in the balance. It was a tragic day where the blood of the Cheyenne and Arapaho was shed, and a painful memory for generations of Native Americans was made.

NPS Information page

21 May 2024

There are many dark chapters in American History and this site preserves a very dark page of one of those dark chapters of the American History book. We started this visit at the Visitors and Education center in Eads Colorado. This was a great stop, and we had a very passionate Ranger that helped us understand the events the lead up to that dark day of November 29, 1864. We then headed out to the site. The site is mostly undeveloped but offers a trail that leads out to an overlook. We paid our respects to those murdered that day and came away with a greater understanding of this chapter of our history. We spent an hour at Eads and an hour at the site. This site is remote and dirt roads lead out to the site, watch out for the box turtles on the drive in and stay snake aware.   

Click here for photos of our visit

NPS Website

Our 177th NPS Unit

SNAKES Yeeeek

Amache NHS

Tell All Stories: The Power of Community:

Amache, also known as the Granada Relocation Center, near Granada, Colorado was one of ten incarceration sites established by the War Relocation Authority during World War II to unjustly incarcerate Japanese Americans. Over 10,000 people, most American citizens, were incarcerated at Amache from 1942-1945. Amache - a place to reflect, recommit, and further the pursuit of freedom and justice. 

The smallest incarceration site by population—the Granada Relocation Center, as it was designated by the War Relocation Authority—was in Colorado, only 15 miles west of the Kansas border and less than 2 miles from the town of Granada. Although all WRA records refer to the incarceration camp as the Granada Relocation Center, early on, incarcerees began referring to the camp as Amache, after the camp’s postal designation. Because the camp and town were so close, it was feared that mail intended for the Granada Relocation Center would get confused with mail for the town of Granada. 

Built to accommodate up to 8,000 people, Amache housed 7,318 incarcerees at its peak in 1943, making it the 10th largest city in Colorado at that time. During its three years of operation, 10,331 incarcerees passed through Amache. Its population often fluctuated due to work, education, and military leave programs, as well as indefinite leaves as part of the resettlement program.

Like most of the other incarceration camps, Amache was located in a rural, isolated area far from any urban centers. The War Relocation Authority required that the relocation centers be built on federal or other public lands. While the construction of the other sites met this criterion, Amache was the only incarceration center to be primarily built on private land that the government either purchased or took by condemnation. The 10,500 acres that comprised the project area were acquired by the government from 18 farms and ranches.

20 Mar 2024

This site is a new addition to the NPS system and is still being developed. Living 25 miles from the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp in Wyoming had already given us an understanding of what to expect at this site. We started our visit by first stopping at the camp site and took in all the site had to offer, stopping at a recreated barracks and one of the recreation halls that was moved back to the site. We stopped at the cemetery to pay our respects to the few that remain here. We then headed into town to take in the Amache Museum in Granada Colorado. This small Museum is run by the local preservation group and High School volunteers. The museum tells the story and background of what happened here and the events that led up to this tragic chapter of our history.  Being a new unit, there is no NPS visitor center or NPS presence, but plans are in the works. We look forward to seeing what the NPS has in mind to properly interpret this site. We spent 3 hours at this site. 

Click here for photos of our visit

NPS Website

Our 176th NPS Unit

Arkansas Post NM

 

A Gathering Place:

Located at the confluence of two rivers, Arkansas Post has served as a gathering place for many cultures throughout human history - it represents cultural cooperation, conflict, synthesis, and diversity.

4/19/2024

This site is off the beaten path but well worth the time to visit.  Arkansas Post is a cross section of our history from pre Colonial times to the Civil War. We stopped at the Visitor Center to take in the site movie and exhibits. The movie was one of the best we have seen and explained the history of the site very well. While small, the Visitor Center still packed with allot of exhibits that also explained the site's history well. There is no BARK Ranger program, but we got to buy Daisy a collar tag to add to her collection. We headed out to walk down to the old townsite. There is nothing left of the townsite due to the Civil War battle fought here and the ravages of time. The Confederate fort is under water now. We had a great walk and saw lots of Canadian Geese and their goslings. We spent two hours here and saw most of what was offered. 

Click here for photos of our visit.

NPS Website

Our 175th NPS Unit

North Country NST

Adventures Await in Eight States:

Come to the North Country. Trek the hills and valleys. Stand on the shores of lakes & streams from glaciers 10,000 years before. Clear-flowing water, red/gold of autumn, a fairyland of snow, open prairies, and distant horizons paint the land. Historic sites along the way tell how America settled and grew as a nation. From North Dakota to Vermont, adventure is never far away.

8 Dec 2023

With the addition of this Trail into the National Park Service system as an official trail, we looked back and found two times we were on this trail. We were on it at Fort Stanwix NM in New York and Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP in Ohio. As with any trail site we will take in a little at a time. 

Our 174th NPS Unit

NPS Website

Ozark NSR

 More Than Just the Rivers....

Ozark National Scenic Riverways is the first national park area to protect a river system. The Current and Jacks Fork rivers are two of the finest floating rivers you'll find anywhere. Spring-fed, cold and clear they are a delight to canoe, swim, boat or fish. Besides these two famous rivers, the park is home to hundreds of freshwater springs, caves, trails and historic sites such as Alley Mill.

5 Oct 2023

We got to take in a very small portion of this unit with a stop at Big Spring. First stopping at the small contact station. We talked to the Ranger on duty about future visits. We got Daisy's Bark ranger program that involved a small 15 question quiz and with help from Mom, she got it done and received her new Bark Ranger tag. We then headed down to Big Spring. This is an amazing spring and one of biggest springs in the United States. After taking in Big Spring, we called it a day due to a persistent rainstorm. We spent an hour here but with so much more to see and do, this can be a two-day Unit. We will add this to the return list. 

Click here for photos of our visit.

NPS Website

Our 173rd NPS Unit

Enjoying Big Spring

Pipestone NM

"When you pray with this pipe, you pray for and with everything." -Black Elk

For over 3,000 years, Indigenous people have quarried the red stone at this site to make pipes used in prayer and ceremony - a tradition that continues to this day and makes this site sacred to many people.

30 Sept 2023

Taking in this unit offered us a chance to take in a night sky's program for the first time. We started at the Visitors Center taking in the exhibits and watching three artisans work the pipestone into pipes and other items. No movie is offered but any questions we had were answered by the artisans or Rangers. We got Daisy's Bark Ranger program and headed out for a walk around the trail loop. This trail is a 3/4-mile round trip that takes in Winnewissa Falls, the working quarries. After a trail walk, we went and turned in Daisy's program and she added a new badge to her collection. We returned later that night to take in the Night sky's program. Karen went off on a working night photography class and learned allot about taking night picture's and me and Daisy hung out with the telescopes taking in the planets and stars. We enjoyed doing the night sky's program and hope we will get a few more in at other Units. You can see this unit in a couple of hours but with night sky's program we were here a total of 4 hours. 

 

Click here for photos of our visit.

NPS Website

Our 172nd NPS Unit

Knife River Indian Villages NHS

Explore the lives of the Northern Plains Indians on the Upper Missouri:

Earth Lodge people hunted bison and other game but were in essence farmers living in villages along the Missouri and its tributaries. The site was a major Native American trade center for hundreds of years prior to becoming an important marketplace for fur traders after 1750.

27 Sept 2023

This is a small unit to take in but so much history is here, so even being an off the beaten path unit it's a don't miss unit. We took in the movie at the Visitors Center that explained the history and importance of the site and then taking in the exhibits after the movie tied it all together. We picked up Daisy's Bark ranger program and headed out to walk down to the recreated Earth lodge and this time Molly tagged along to take in the sites. Daisy got her new tag after the walk. We spent around an hour here but did not go take the trail to the village sites. You can add another hour for the trail walk. This site is very dog friendly so bring your fur baby along. 

Click here for photos of our visit.

NPS Website

Our 171st NPS Unit

Hanging with my Sis 

Theodore Roosevelt NP

 

In Honor of a President:

When Theodore Roosevelt came to Dakota Territory to hunt bison in 1883, he was a skinny, young, spectacled dude from New York. He could not have imagined how his adventure in this remote and unfamiliar place would forever alter the course of the nation. The rugged landscape and strenuous life that TR experienced here would help shape a conservation policy that we still benefit from today.

26 Sept 2023

To celebrate our visit to our 50th State we included a visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We stopped at the South Units Visitors Center to pick up our passport stamps, Daisy's Bark Ranger tag, and to take in the site movie. The movie was well done and provide a good overview of the history of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We headed out to the South loop road to take in the beautiful vistas and look for the wild horses, buffalo, and prairie dogs. It did not take long to find a band of wild horses right along the road. Headed on we saw a few buffalo heading in. We went as far as we could on the loop road that is not a loop road right now due to damage done to the road a few years ago and the ongoing construction to fix it. This adds time to the day, but it also allows you time to stop at any turnoffs you may have missed going in. We did find a very large heard of buffalo going out, along with the band of wild horses we saw headed in. We spent around four hours in the south unit including time spent at the Visitor Center. We then headed over to the Painted Cayon Unit. This is a small unit East of the South Unit that offers an overlook of the painted Cayon and a small contact station. This stop added less than an hour to our visit. We will have to make a return to this National Park to take in the North unit. 

Click here for photos of our visit.

NPS Website

Our 170th NPS Unit and 25th National Park

I'm Ready to find those wild horses and big buffalo. 

Lake Mead NRA

 

America's First National Recreation Area:

Swim, boat, hike, cycle, camp and fish at America’s first and largest national recreation area. With striking landscapes and brilliant blue waters, this year-round playground spreads across 1.5 million acres of mountains, canyons, valleys and two vast lakes. See the Hoover Dam from the waters of Lake Mead or Lake Mohave or find solitude in one of the park's nine wilderness areas.

2 Sept 2023

We started this visit with a visit and tour of Hoover Dam. We opted for the short power plant tour taking in the Nevada side of the powerhouse and a few other stops. We also walked a small section of the crest of the dam. We then headed out to the Alan Bible Visitor Center. This is a small center that has a small collection of exhibits. After getting our stamps and a few other things we then headed out for a drive along the Lakeshore back to Las Vegas making a few stops along the drive to take in the sites of Lake Mead. We were amazed how low the lake is now but according to the Rangers it has been going up this Summer. With Hoover Dam and stops we spent 5 hours here but only saw a small part of this large unit. 

Click here for photos of our visit.

NPS Website

Our 169th NPS Unit