This week I have decided to take a week off of the National Park series and give you some travel tips! You may have heard of some of these before, and already do them when you travel, but these are what I do! I hope you enjoy.
Thank you so much for reading some of my favorite travel tips!! I hope some of them will help you in the future!!
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Minnesota is home to one of the 61 amazing National Parks in the U.S, Voyageurs National Park!! Located in the Northern part of Minnesota; near International Falls. The park may not be as popular and touristy, but it does have endless lakes, rocks to cliff jump off of, wildlife and so much more. One third of the park is made up of lakes which is why over 200 campsites are only accessible by boat. Some people visiting Voyageurs National Park (including myself) choose to explore the park by houseboats! My grandparents, cousins, sister and I rented our houseboat from a place on Crane lake called Voyagaire lodge and houseboats. Our houseboat was called the Sportcruiser 440. With seven people on the boat, it was tight but there was always space to move. The houseboat that we rented had a kitchen with everything we would need to cook, had a table that could be made into a bed (like in campers), two couches that could fold down to make a bed for one person each, a bedroom with a queen size bed, a 3 foot room on the top of the boat that was only accessible by ladder, two places to drive the boat from (one in the inside and one on the top deck), a deck in the front and back of the boat, and then on top of the houseboat there was railings around the outside and a bunch of space to hang out, suntan, sit, play games or whatever you want! My favorite part about the boat was the balcony. My cousins and I would lay there and tan and we would climb onto the other side of the railings and then would jump from 10 feet in the air into the lake!! Voyageurs National Park is made up of many lakes and we only had time to visit a few lakes that included Sand Point and Crane lake. As my cousins, sister and I were swimming and jumping in the lake, we noticed that the lake had a red tint, unlike any lakes we had been to before, from the plentiful amount iron that is in the rocks and sediments in the bottom of the lake. Although it looked really strange it was still safe to swim and be around. The park is located in Northern Minnesota where there are more mountains and rocks, which means the hiking is stunning! Some hikes lead to waterfalls, lakes, or amazing views and because the park is one third water, some hikes are only accessible by boat. Minnesota is lucky to be apart of the states that have their own National Park, and even more luck to have a National Park as amazing and beautiful as Voyageurs!! I would absolutely love to go back to the park to explore, hike, swim, and enjoy the beauty!! I hope you enjoyed reading about this weeks National Park, see you next week!!
Although I have loved every national park that I have visited, my absolute favorite park is Zion. Zion National Park is located in southwest Utah, and is a little over an hour away from Bryce Canyon National Park. Zion is one of the few parks that does not allow much driving within the park, you can drive in your own car to the Visitor Center, but after that you have to take the free shuttle busses around the park. The only downside of this environmentally friendly idea is that the lines to get on the shuttles at the visitor center are really long. It took us about 30min to get on to a shuttle. On the bright side, the lines to go back to the visitor center were not long at all! On the bright side, this park is taking action to help reduce climate change and save the park!! The reason that this gorgeous park is my favorite is because of one hike, The Narrows. After taking the shuttle to the right stop, there is maybe a half mile hike to get to the river... Which is where the fun part of the hike begins! The rest of this hike is through the river water, so if for whatever reasons you are not a huge water person, or not confident in your walking/ hiking skills, I would not recommend this hike. The whole hike is through the river water and let me tell you, it is the most spectacular hike you will ever take! The river is located in the bottom of a canyon. The walls on either side of the river go almost directly up. Once you start the hike, there is a lot of people but the farther you go, there will be less people. While hiking in the river, there are long "islands" that people can walk on, and take breaks on if they want to get out of the river for a while. Also, as you are reading this and feeling a little worried about hiking in a river, I should probably say that the river is almost always less than waist deep, and if it does get deep, then there is usually a path that is shallower. The Narrows is the most amazing hike that I have ever taken in my whole life, which is also why Zion National Park is my favorite park. If you haven't visited the park, I highly recommend that you do, and make sure to hike the narrows!! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this weeks National Park blog post :)
Only a few more parks left until the National Park series will be over... until I travel again! This week I will be writing about one of the most well known national parks... The Grand Canyon!! My family and I visited the park last summer in July, when the park was some haze in the air from some smaller wildfires happening in the surrounding area. Although it was pretty foggy, the park was still absolutely stunning! There are two rims in the Grand Canyon, the North and South rims. Although they are both in the same park, and have most of the same characteristics, they both vary from each other. The South rim has more tourists and is more developed, and the North rim is less developed but is calmer. When I visited, we went to the North Rim. Even though the North rim is less developed, there are still places to stay, eat, camp, and explore! During my stay at the Grand Canyons North rim, we decided to camp. Most of their campgrounds had stunning views of the canyon, and were fun camping spots! Along with camping, they had some cabins that you could rent but they also had a few rooms if you wanted to stay in the lodge. Along with hotel rooms in the lodge, they had a fancy dining room, a post office, a bar/ casual eating area, and also some rooms to sit in with huge windows of the beautiful canyon. While visiting the park, We hiked Bright Angel Point which is about a little less that a mile long, round trip. The trail was the perfect for being able to see the scenery. Towards the end of the trail there is some bridges that cross from one rock formation to the next with nothing under you in case the bridge would collapse. If you are afraid of heights and still wanted to try this hike, I would recommend hiking the trail, but just stopping towards the end. Once you reach the end of the trail, you will arrive at a beautiful overlook with a beautiful view of the canyon. Although this is not a long hike, and doesn't go into the canyon, I would definitely recommend taking this hike because of the beautiful views! After the hike and our usual stop at the souvenir shop, we went back to our campsite and got ready to go eat dinner in the dining room. While eating in the dining room, some people were dressed up and some were in more casual clothes. The food was amazing, and the service was also. The grand canyon is definitely a destination that everyone should visit at some point in the life. It is absolutely stunning! Thank you so much for reading my blog! I hope you come back to read about the next national park!
Its once again time for my weekly travel blog post, and I have decided to keep the National Park series going! This week I will be talking about one of my favorite parks (along with Zion and the Grand Tetons), Glacier National Park!! I had the opportunity to go when my grandparents invited my cousins, aunt, uncle and my whole family in 2017. After flying to Kalispell, MT we drove to Whitefish, which is about a 10 minute drive. We stayed at a condo with the Whitefish Lodge, and all absolutely loved it! They had a beautiful pool area, and a fun beach. The beach wasn't any ordinary beach, the sand must've had some sort of clay in it too because when you would step in certain places, you would start to sink! My cousins and I had a fun time running away from each other, and trying to move our feet as quickly as possible. After we got situated in the condo, our grandparents treated us to a ride on the lady of the lake, which is a 31-foot wooden boat that can carry up to 12 passengers. The boat was comfortable, and our driver was very nice and told us some of the history of the lake and surrounding area. Along with being a gorgeous wooden boat. Throughout the boat tour, we saw so many beautiful views. I would recommend this to everyone! Once we finally got to Glacier National Park the next day, we took the red bus tour. The park guides picked us up in a big red bus that didnt have a top. In the bus they provided each row (which seated four people) with one blanket since the park is in the mountains and gets chilly. When the bus would stop, and the tour guide would tell us about a certain area, they would let us "Gopher", standing up and looking through the top of the bus. This may be a hard thing to imagine, but think of sitting in a shorter school bus that doesn't have a top, and has bars over the top to grab and stand up (having your head and upper body out of the bus). The bus drove us up going to the sun road which is a steep, extremely winding road that goes up the side of a mountain. It leads to a beautiful field that has more mountains coming up around it. I is so beautiful!! The next day we went to Glacier, my parents, my sister Abby, and my cousin Ellie and I all took a 4.5 mile hike while my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and cousin took a boardwalk hike. The hike I took with my family and Ellie was the Avalanche Lake Trail near Lake McDonald. This hike was very hard, and takes forever to hike. The trail goes up to a beautiful lake that has three waterfalls in the distance. It is absolutely gorgeous! While hiking the trail, most people assume the trail is done once you get to the lake, but it actually goes half way across it! If you ever choose to hike this trail, I would suggest not to bring young children and bring power snacks! I know this hike sounds short, but it felt long and strenuous. Glacier National Park is my favorite National Park of all times because of the beautiful scenery and amazing hikes! This park will forever be in my heart. I hope you enjoyed this post, and will eventually make it to this gorgeous park! Thanks for reading :)
Its that time again! Time for another National Park blog post! This week I will be telling you about my time at the beautiful Yellowstone National Park. Located in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. This park has so much to offer including hot springs, mountains, and wildlife. When I visited this beautiful National Park, I was on a big National Park road trip that I took with my family. Because this is one of the better known parks, it was pretty busy, which made it hard to find parking. Some of the more popular sites, Old Faithful Geyser Norris Geyser Basin and Grand Prismatic spring, were the hardest for us. The fist stop we made was at the Mammoth Hot Springs at the top of the park. The hot springs are made out of a soft rock called limestone. Although we didnt have much time to spend at Mammoth Hot Springs, it was definitely one of my top three favorite locations in the park. We visited on a cooler day, which showed how warm the hot spring really was! When a gust of air would come, it would bring warm air from the hot spring. The next place we stopped was at the Norris Geyser Basin. The basin was alluring, but there wasn't much to do. At the time we were at the park, the geyser was erupting more than normal, so we stopped in hopes to see the eruption, but unfortunately we never got to. My two favorite places we stopped at were the Grand Prismatic Spring, and at the Old Faithful Geyser, which are also the most popular attractions at Yellowstone. The Grand Prismatic Spring is the hot spring that has multiple vibrant colors and looks like a geode. Even though you are unable to touch the water, or the rocks below the boardwalk, this is definitely a site that you don't want to miss! There are two primary viewing locations for this spring; one that's located on a mountain where you can view the spring from above, and the other where you can get within feet from the spring. Old faithful is the most well known geyser in Yellowstone, because it erupts quite frequently. The geyser erupts about every 60 to 110 minutes. It is located in a small National Park village, where you can learn more about the park, get something to eat, or even treat yourself to some amazing ice cream! Yellowstone is truly a beautiful National Park that is a must see. Yellowstone has so much to offer including geysers, hot springs, and wildlife. I hope this post has helped you plan your trip to Yellowstone, or sparked your interest to see and explore the park! Thanks for reading!
We have all heard of wakeboarding and snowboarding, but have you ever heard of sand boarding? The coral sand dunes state park is located near Kanab, Utah. The state park rents out sleds and sand boards that you can use for the day and slide down the sand dunes! The cost to enter the park was $10, and to rent a board for the day was $20, and it was well worth it! Everyone in my family tried it, and we all loved it! After finally arriving to the biggest sand dune we could find, we were eager to start learning how to sand board! Although it took us all a few tries to get it perfect and make it down the dune to the bottom, it was well worth it! Even when you're not sliding down the hill, the scenery is beautiful and being from Minnesota, its so fun to be surrounded by so much sand! Another beautiful place to visit is the Antelope Slot canyons in Page, AZ. To visit the Antelope Slot Canyons, you have to be accompanied by a tour guide. While booking your tour, the best times of the day to visit are anytime from 10am-12pm because the lighting is the best for photos and the overall experience. However, the canyons are gorgeous and a popular destination, you want to book your tour as far in advance as possible. The canyons are only about ten minutes out of Page. To get there, you meet the tour guide at their company building, and then you load in their open air cars. Although the drive is a bit bumpy, it was definitely a fun ride! While going on the tour, our guide told us about how the canyons were formed, played a native instrument, and told us the history of the canyons. We visited on a windy day, so there was sand blowing down on us from above, and it would get in our eyes and mouth, but it wasn't as bad if you were wearing sunglasses. If you ever find yourself in Arizona and/or Utah, I highly recommend paying a visit to either of these beautiful places! I promise that you won't regret it :)
I have never met a person who doesn't absolutely love the mountains, and I can see why! The Grand Tetons National Park in Wyoming is an absolute showstopper and easily in my top three national parks. I absolutely love my family because they are always up for an adventure, even when it comes to campsite adventures. The park does not accept campsite reservations so while entering the Grand Tetons from Yellowstone, around 9am and arriving at Jenny lake at 10am, we went to get a campsite, thinking there would be lots of sites available, but promptly found out that they were booked to the max. We stopped at one other campground near by, but learned that they were also full. They told us that if we went quickly, there is another campground location by Jackson Lake that would probably have a spot open for us. After already being denied twice, we rushed to the last campground that we hopped still had vacant sites. We waited in a line of cars for at least an hour, and after arriving to the reservation booth, we received the very last campsite! So when you visit this beautiful park, make time to wake up early and get a spot right away so you don't have to worry about not getting a site. While visiting the Grand Tetons, I highly recommend either driving around or hiking to see all the beautiful mountains, wildlife and scenery. It reminds me of how lucky we are to live on an amazing planet! You know they say that all good things must come to an end, just like my amazing trip to the Grand Tetons National Park. Just because of the amazing mountains, lakes, and the environment of the park, The Grand Tetons is one of my top three favorite parks! I highly recommend visiting this beautiful part of our world. If you do visit, let me know how your trip went! Thank you so much for reading :) |
Welcome!!Hey hey!! My name is Mara Lysne. I have always had a love for traveling, which has inspired me to create my very own travel blog! I will be writing about some of my favorite places, National Parks, and will also include some good travel tips to keep in mind when traveling! I hope you enjoy :) Archives
May 2020
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