HERE'S SOME INTERESTING DESTINATIONS TO EXPLORE...

Imagine a time long before interstate highways and automobiles. You’ve been riding your horse for days across a high desert landscape of flat-topped mesas and rabbitbrush. It’s hot, dry, and dusty, but the terrain thus far has been easy to navigate, except for a few prairie dog holes your horse has tripped in. Suddenly, you spot a black line on the horizon. At first you think it’s a mirage, but as you ride near, you realize it’s something very real—a black, jumbled mass of jagged volcanic rock stretching as far as the eye can see. Your horse isn’t getting across that.

Such was the experience of early Spanish explorers traveling through northwestern New Mexico. They named this rugged, volcanic region El Malpais (el mal-pie-ees), Spanish for “the bad country,” and detoured around the vast lava flows.

Today, these lava flows are part of El Malpais National Monument. The monument is a primeval volcanic landscape sculpted by a series of eruptions over the past 60,000 years and as recently as 1,200 years ago. These eruptions created a fantastic geologic wonderland of cinder cone volcanoes, lava tube caves, and some of the longest and youngest basaltic lava flows on the continent.

You can explore these geologic features yourself on trails and scenic drives throughout El Malpais. Along the east side of the park, the Sandstone Bluffs Overlook offers spectacular views down at the dark, undulating lava flows. Farther down the road, traverse the lava at the one-mile Lava Falls Trail for an up-close look at this otherworldly moonscape

On the opposite side of the park, hike through ponderosa, piñon, and juniper forests up to the top of a 60,000-year-old cinder cone volcano at El Calderon. If you’re feeling especially adventurous and have a high clearance, four-wheel drive vehicle, drive the Chain of Craters Backcountry Byway out to Big Tubes and hike a jagged, cairn-marked trail out to several lava tube caves. You can explore these caves with proper caving equipment and a caving permit, which you can pick up at the El Malpais Visitor Center. Be sure to call ahead if you plan to cave, as caves may be closed for resource protection.

Assateague Island is a 37-mile long barrier island located off the eastern coast of the Delmarva Peninsula facing the Atlantic Ocean. The northern two-thirds of the island is in Maryland while the southern third is in Virginia

Have you ever thought about a late winter getaway to the beach? We are serious! Get ready for salt air, seascapes and solitude. Assateague Island National Seashore is a place recreated each day by ocean wind and waves. Life here has adapted to an existence on the move and wintertime is the best time to watch the island change. Explore uncrowded sandy beaches, salt marshes, maritime forests, and coastal bays. Rest, relax, recreate, and enjoy some time on the edge of the continent.

Assateague Island is one of the largest undeveloped mid-Atlantic barrier islands containing intact coastal habitats where dynamic natural processes may occur with little or no human interference. The island’s habitats support numerous aquatic and terrestrial species, many of which are rare, uniquely adapted to life at the edge of the sea, and dependent upon natural ecosystem processes. The unique environmental conditions found on barrier islands are reflected in the range of habitats stretching from ocean to bay, including beaches, dunes, grass and shrublands, freshwater wetlands, maritime forests, and salt marshes. The winter months are a great time to explore these habitats and their wildlife without the company of our famous mosquitoes!

The winter months are also some of the best times to observe birds on Assateague Island. Many species of ducks and geese overwinter in the national seashore waters and early arriving migratory species of shorebirds and songbirds use the island as a stopover on their journeys north.

Make sure to look for our most famous wildlife species. The wild horses of Assateague Island are descendants of domesticated animals brought to the island more than 300 hundreds years ago. Horses tough enough to survive the scorching heat, abundant insects, and stormy weather found on this windswept barrier island have formed a unique wild horse society. Check out these wildlife viewing and horse safety tips before you visit to make the most of your time at the park. Enjoy the horses from a distance and help ensure these living cultural resources will continue to thrive on Assateague Island.

When visiting Assateague Island in the winter, remember that is often colder and much windier than on the nearby mainland. Dress in layers and bring sturdy shoes or hiking boots to explore the trails and beach. Rain gear, hats, gloves, and sunglasses will keep you prepared for changing weather conditions.

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, seven feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical Sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is orientated towards the sunrise on the summer solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred tumuli (burial mounds).

Archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC,[2] although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC.

Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon. It has been a legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1882, when legislation to protect historic monuments was first successfully introduced in Britain.

Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, and continued for at least another 500 years.

When Stonehenge was first opened to the public it was possible to walk among and even climb on the stones, but the stones were roped off in 1977 as a result of serious erosion] Visitors are no longer permitted to touch the stones but are able to walk around the monument from a short distance away. The site's manager English Heritage does, however, permit access during the summer and winter solstice, and the spring and autumn equinox. Additionally, visitors can make special bookings to access the stones throughout the year.

Each spring in Appalachia, the rivers run high and fast! But the Gauley River in southern West Virginia won’t reach its high season until fall. In September, when excess water is released through Summersville Dam, thousands of whitewater enthusiasts from all over the world flock to the Gauley to experience what is considered by many to be one of the most thrilling whitewater opportunities in the world.

The Gauley River National Recreation Area established in 1988, protects 25 miles of the Gauley River and six miles of the Meadow River. Dropping more than 668 feet through rugged, remote terrain, this part of the river features more than 100 rapids with steep gradients, technical runs, an incredible volume of water, and huge waves. Like nearby New River Gorge National River and Bluestone National Scenic River, the Gauley’s deep gorge supports abundant and varied life. You’ll find forests of oak, beech, yellow poplar, hemlock, and dogwood. Rare and threatened species such as the Allegheny woodrat, cerulean warbler, eastern hellbender, and finescale saddled darter make their home on the Gauley River. Rare plants include Virginia spiraea, Appalachian blue violet, and balsam squaw-weed.

If you are interested in “doing the Gauley,” a variety of commercial rafting companies can provide you with the experience during Gauley season, which begins the first weekend after Labor Day and continues Fridays through Mondays for six weekends. The Upper Gauley offers tremendous class III to V+ drops in steep, turbulent chutes such as Pillow Rock, Iron Ring, and Sweet's Falls, and rocky routes that demand constant maneuvering, such as Lost Paddle and Shipwreck. The Lower Gauley is a 12-mile stretch, rated class III to V, that feels like a watery roller coaster. An insider tip…the river has much less visitation on Fridays and Mondays, providing a more wilderness experience. If you are interested in running the Gauley during the summer, commercial trips may be available depending on water levels.

Although whitewater provides the main draw for visitors to the Gauley River, rock climbing is a fast-growing sport in the area. There is also good trout and muskellunge fishing at the Gauley Tailwaters below Summersville Dam and near the confluence with the New River; you can fish for walleyes, muskies, and smallmouth bass.

If you’re looking for a new adventure this year, take a plunge into the Gauley. With a combination of vigorous rapids, remote, rugged geography, history, and scenic beauty, it just might be the wildest ride you’ll ever take!

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is located along the northwest coast of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan in Leelanau and Benzie counties near Empire, Michigan. The park covers a 35-mile-long stretch of Lake Michigan's eastern coastline, as well as North and South Manitou island

Miles of sand beach, bluffs that tower 450’ above Lake Michigan, lush forests, clear inland lakes, unique flora and fauna make up the natural world of Sleeping Bear Dunes. High dunes afford spectacular views across the lake. An island lighthouse, US Life-Saving Service stations, coastal villages, and picturesque farmsteads reflect the park’s rich maritime, agricultural, and recreational history.

Sleeping Bear Dunes is as old as continental ice sheets and as young as the 1970 Establishment Act that set aside the Lakeshore for preservation of the natural resources and for public use. The most prominent features, and those for which the park is named, are the perched dunes above Lake Michigan. These immense sand dunes are “perched” atop the already towering headlands that are glacial moraines. The dune overlooks at the Sleeping Bear, Empire and Pyramid Point bluffs are about 400 feet above Lake Michigan. With 65 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and numerous inland lakes and streams, the park is wonderfully water oriented.

Although the Lakeshore is long and narrow, it still has the depth for excellent representations of several northern hardwood and conifer forest types, abandoned farm site meadows, wetlands, lakes, streams, and bogs and splendid examples of glacially caused landforms. Whether you are on the sandy bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan, in a canoe on one of the many inland lakes, hiking the myriad of trails through the forest, or visiting the Manitou Islands in Lake Michigan you will have a wonderful opportunity for bird watching, wildlife viewing, and for just enjoying nature at its best.

Mount Rainier National Park, a  369-sq.-mile Washington state reserve southeast of Seattle, surrounds glacier-capped, 14,410-ft. Mount Rainier. Atop 6,400-ft.-high Sunrise, the highest point in the park reachable by car, visitors can admire Rainier and other nearby volcanoes, including Mount Adams. The park’s 5,400-ft.-high Paradise overlook offers mountain views, summertime wildflower meadows and hiking trailheads.

Mount Rainier is circled by the Wonderland Trail and is covered by glaciers and snowfields totaling about 35 square miles (91 km2). Carbon Glacier is the largest glacier by volume in the contiguous United States, while Emmons Glacier is the largest glacier by area. Mount Rainier is a popular peak for mountaineering with some 10,000 attempts per year with approximately 50% making it to the summit.

The purpose of Mount Rainier National Park is to protect and preserve unimpaired the majestic icon of Mount Rainier, a glaciated volcano, along with its natural and cultural resources, values, and dynamic processes. The park provides opportunities for people to experience, understand, and care for the park environment, and also provides for wilderness experiences and sustains wilderness values.

You can see Mt. Rainier standing at 14,411' from Downtown Seattle and as far away as Victoria B.C. and Oregon. Fun fact, it's the largest glaciated mountain in the lower 48 with 26 named glaciers.