National monuments that we have visited.
We visited Manassas National Battlefield Park in Manassas, Virginia, where the first major battle of the American Civil War took place on July 21, 1861 (plus a second battle later).
The NPS map; click or tap to interact:
An interactive map:
Visitor center:
Henry Hill Loop Trail:
Stonewall Jackson:
We visited a couple of areas of the Colonial National Historical Park in Virginia, including Yorktown and Jamestown Island. This post is about Jamestown.
Jamestown is in multiple parts; a touristy Jamestown Settlement, that we didn’t visit (this time), and Jamestown Island, which is partly NPS, and partly a Preservation Virginia area.
The NPS map; click or tap to interact:
An interactive map of the Jamestown Island area:
Historic Jamestowne:
Glasshouse ruins:
A replica Glasshouse, that does glassblowing demonstrations:
Jamestowne visitor center:
Auditorium:
Exhibits:
Monument:
Pocahontas:
Relief map:
Captain John Smith:
Cannon:
The Barracks:
Indian tools; this guy showed and handed around various tool components, and told of their manufacture:
Church:
Cellar kitchen:
Blacksmith workshop:
This recreator talked Jenn’s ear off with old-timey tales:
The Statehouse:
Museum:
Ancient foundations under the floor:
Gift store:
Fascinating stuff.
We visited a couple of areas of the Colonial National Historical Park in Virginia, including Yorktown and Jamestown Island. This post is about Yorktown.
The NPS map; click or tap to interact:
An interactive map of the Yorktown area:
Historic Yorktown:
Visitor center:
Yorktown:
We visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved the first successful powered airplane flights.
Here’s the NPS map; click or tap to interact:
An interactive map:
Entrance:
Visitor Center:
Relief map:
Exhibits:
A full-sized reproduction of the first plane:
Home away from home:
First flights:
First flights launch marker:
Looking along flight path:
First flight marker; 12 seconds, 120 feet, December 17, 1903:
Second flight marker:
Third flight marker:
Fourth flight marker:
First flight markers, and info sign about the launch rail:
Monument:
Plane sculpture:
Impressive how we’ve come so far since then.
We drove along about 140 miles of the 444-mile Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. A weird park barely wider than the road, with thousands of years of history.
Though we drove both ways on that portion, so a total of about 280 miles, plus some detours, over two days.
We also drove past Elvis Presley’s birthplace and Tupelo National Battlefield, and visited Meriwether Lewis National Monument.
An interactive map (see the NPS site for the full route map):
Tupelo:
Back to the Parkway:
Alabama state line:
Tennessee River:
Tennessee State Line:
Meriwether Lewis National Monument, where Lewis of Lewis & Clark died and was buried:
Laurel Hill Road:
Sunset:
A nice scenic drive, with some interesting stops.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is one of the most famous monuments in the country, though with some problematic history.
George Washington, First President of the United States:
Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States:
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States:
Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States:
Exhibit Hall:
Profile View:
We did a ranger-guided tour of Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota.
Jenn getting her park passport stamp:
A map of the explored portions of the cave; it’s massive:
Exhibits:
Gift store:
Elevators to head down into the cave:
The jewels of Jewel Cave:
Lots of stairs:
Cave bacon:
Lots and lots of stairs:
Everyone needed to walk through a White Nose Syndrome mat when exiting:
We visited Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. It was America’s first National Monument, but made famous by the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Passport stamp outside the visitor center:
Model:
Visitor center:
Trail info:
View from West Road:
There’s a prairie dog town on the way to the tower; these burrowing ground squirrels create massive underground colonies. We stopped on the way back:
A video of prairie dogs:
Devils Tower is unusual in that you pay on the way out, probably to avoid a line blocking the KOA campground and shops immediately outside:
On the next day, we went back to do a hike around the tower:
A peek of our coach in the KOA from the tower trail:
A timelapse video of hiking around Devils Tower:
Alpenglow view from West Road:
Such an iconic monument.
A first for us: we visited Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho with our coach on a travel day. We parked our coach at the visitor center, unhooked our truck, and drove around the park, plus walked around a bit.
Visitor center:
Relief map; the red circle lights show the moving magma hot spot that is currently under Yellowstone:
Old lava:
Crater:
Snow in the crater:
We drove our coach 270 miles, over four hours of driving, from Glenns Ferry, Idaho to Alpine, Wyoming.
Here’s the map route, heading east:
An interactive map, with potential stops marked:
Our actual stops:
Preparing to leave:
Mural:
Snake River:
Love’s travel centers have been adding RV parks; this looks like a decent one, with pull-through sites:
Wide load:
Shoshone:
Zoomed perspective of the road (highway 26):
Another wide load:
We chose this route so we could visit Craters of the Moon National Monument:
It has some RV parking, which barely fits us, so we were able to visit on a travel day — a first for us:
We unhooked our truck, and drove around the park (see a forthcoming post about that):
When we got back, the RV parking was full:
Onward on US-20:
Arco, Idaho, the first city in the world to be lit by atomic power:
We made an unplanned stop at a rest area, to take a break from unnervingly high wind gusts:
Peaks:
Fuel stop:
We had to wait for a long time due to an inconsiderate truck driver that had parked and gone inside; the convention at truck stops is after fueling you can pull forward and stop for up to 15 minutes, but this driver was gone much longer than that:
Potato fields:
Snake River:
Palisades Dam:
Palisades Reservoir:
“Welcome to Wyoming”:
Our destination:
