Assateague Island National Seashore was created 22 years after neighboring Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge was established to protect migratory birds, like the greater snow goose. In combination with Assateague State Park, they protect a 37-mile stretch of undeveloped barrier island that crosses the border of Maryland and Virginia (and is very close to Delaware). The National Park Service (NPS) manages the National Seashore and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the National Wildlife Refuge, each with their own visitor center.
Highlights
Museum, film, wild ponies, camping, kayaking, swimming, beachcombing, Life of the Dunes Trail, Life of the Forest Trail, Life of the Marsh Trail
Must-Do Activity
Stop by the Assateague Island Visitor Center before driving over the Verrazano Bridge onto the barrier island. The beach is the big draw here, and there also are nice hiking trails and kayak rentals are available. The over-sand vehicle (OSV) zone requires a permit for four-wheel drive vehicles to drive on the beach and camp. Keep an eye out for wild ponies, the subject of the classic children’s book Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry (which made our Top 10 NPS Novels list).
Best Trail
Life of the Dunes Trail is a three-quarter-mile loop just inland from the beach, while half-mile Life of the Forest Trail and Life of the Marsh Trail offer boardwalks on the bayside of the barrier island. The best hike may be simply walking down the beach.
Instagram-worthy Photo
Assateague Island’s most renowned residents are its wild ponies, purported to have swum ashore from a wrecked Spanish galleon.
The access roads are paved, but with a permit you can drive 13 miles of beach on the Maryland side and five miles on the Virginia side. It takes about 1.2 hours to drive the highways between the north and south bridges to Assateague Island.
Camping
On the Maryland side, the NPS operates two campgrounds with cold showers, but the one in Assateague State Park offers hot showers. Two oceanside backpacking camps and four bayside kayak-in camps are also available by permit.
I am currently in West Virginia on a road trip and do not have my blog post for Gauley River National Recreation Area completed yet. On Monday, I did a guided whitewater rafting trip down the Upper and Lower Gauley, 26 miles that they call the Marathon featuring some of the most famous Class V rapids in the U.S. That was National Park Service site 418/433 for me. And our raft only flipped once!
I have finished writing my latest travel guidebook American History 101: National Park Service Sites That Made the U.S.A. I am doing the final edits and will have it available on Amazon in early November. I will offer a discount for early purchasers, so keep an eye on this blog for its release. I think it is the best written of my five guidebooks and certainly required the most reading for research. I learned so much about my country.
I spent some time in Kentucky last week, which helped with the Kentucky Road Trip Itinerary post. I went to the Churchill Downs Museum and kayaked underground in a limestone mine. I have also added some new photos to the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve post after doing the Bridge Walk tour. Bridge Day is this weekend when they shut down Highway 19 for BASE jumping.
I am looking forward to more fun on my road trip and finishing up the two guidebooks. Thanks for reading.
The limestone in Kentucky formed 350-million years ago beneath a tropical sea and was dissolved over time by underground rivers that continue to flow today. You can see running water in the Bottomless Pit on the Historic Tour, just before squeezing through Fat Man’s Misery. Make the most of your visit by hiking the hills and signing up for more than one cave tour.
Optional stop at Lost River Cave
There are several privately-owned caves outside the National Park around the town of Bowling Green, and you can take an underground Cave Boat Tour in Lost River Cave.
Optional stop at National Corvette Museum
This Chevrolet sports car has been produced at the neighboring Bowling Green Assembly Plant since 1981. This is the infamous museum where a sinkhole opened up February 12, 2014 and swallowed eight rare Corvettes. The museum reopened the very next day and eventually five of the cars were recovered. The museum now has an exhibit on the event that includes a game where visitors can virtually recover Corvettes from the sinkhole.
Even if you are familiar with his life story, it is a good idea to watch the film at the visitor center before climbing the stairs to the scale model of the birth cabin inside the Memorial Building. A ten-mile drive takes you to the reconstructed Lincoln house at Knob Creek Farm, where you can hike the Overlook Trail if you have time.
Day 2
Churchill Downs
Located next to the University of Louisville campus, the Kentucky Derby racetrack has become a year-round tourist destination with a museum where kids can pet horses and try on jockey clothing.
Muhammad Ali Center
Part of Museum Row, this six-story cultural center is dedicated to boxer Muhammad Ali, a native of Louisville. Other stops include the Kentucky Science Center, Frazier History Museum, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, KentuckyShow!, and…
Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory
The Louisville Slugger baseball bat has been produced at four locations around the city since the original shop opened in 1884. Admission includes a factory tour, in addition to access to interactive exhibits, batting cages, and the Signature Wall where the original 1905 contract is displayed that made Honus Wagner the first ever athlete to endorse a product. Outside the museum, anyone can pose with the world’s largest baseball bat that stands 120 feet tall and weighs 68,000 pounds.
Optional stop at Louisville Mega Cavern
Stretching underneath the Watterson Expressway and the Louisville Zoo, this former limestone mine is classified as the largest building in Kentucky.
Established as a National Park Service unit in 2018, this Civil War fort is located 20 miles south of Lexington. Originally developed as the state-run Camp Nelson Civil War Heritage Park, it has a historical museum, interpretive film, and hiking trails. Its interpretive film made it on the list of Top 10 Films at National Park Service Visitor Centers.
The Gorge Underground Kayak Tour
The crystal-clear subterranean waters of a 100-year-old flooded limestone mine are illuminated by LED lights and headlamps on this guided kayak tour.
Optional stop at Rail Explorers
Pedal a railbike with an electric assist motor on a journey ten miles roundtrip on railroad tracks over the decommissioned 1889 Young’s High Bridge 283 feet above the Kentucky River.
Optional stop at University of Kentucky
Famous as a basketball school, it might be worth visiting the state during the winter to watch a game inside Rupp Arena.
The spectacular sandstone bridges of Red River Gorge Geological Area are a major reason this National Forest sees more than one-million visitors annually. Daniel Boone National Forest encompasses nearly 100 developed recreation areas and 600 miles of trails.
Optional stop at Natural Bridge State Resort Park
Located next to Red River Gorge Geological Area, this natural bridge is 65 feet tall and 78 feet across. There are several different trails that provide views of the impressive 24-foot-thick sandstone span, in addition to a Skylift that provides access to visitors with physical disabilities. The park also has a lodge, cottages, swimming pool, campground, and hosts square dances in the summer.
Day 5
Cumberland Falls State Resort Park
The DuPont Family purchased the surrounding land after a hydroelectric dam was planned upstream and donated it to the state in 1931. Their forward thinking preserved a beautiful 68-foot-tall waterfall on the Cumberland River that is also an impressive 125 feet wide and famous for the moonbow visible in its spray on full moon nights. In addition, the 1,657-acre park has 44-foot Eagle Falls, as well as 51-room lodge and Olympic-size pool, but perhaps is best known for its traditional square dances held several nights per week in summer.
Mill Springs National Cemetery opened in 1867 as one of 12 original National Cemeteries. The battlefield driving tour starts from there south down Kentucky Highway 235 to Zollicoffer Park and includes six more stops on the driving tour north of Lake Cumberland. There is no bridge across the reservoir, so reaching the final two stops requires backtracking and connecting to Kentucky Highway 1275.
Straddling the Tennessee-Kentucky border, the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River was once considered for damming before its federal designation in 1974. It has several sandstone arches and waterfalls, but is best known for its Class IV whitewater rapids and the concessionaire-run Big South Fork Scenic Railway. With several campgrounds and lodges to choose from, it is easy to spend a few days hiking to discover some of the 400 miles of trails in this wild corner of the Cumberland Plateau.
Optional stop at a bourbon distillery
There are so many options across the state to visit a distillery and sample Kentucky bourbon, that I am sure you can find one if that fits your itinerary.
In the corner where the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia all converge, you can see all three states if you drive to the top of Pinnacle Overlook at 2,440 feet in elevation. Reservations for the bus tours to the Hensley Settlement or Gap Cave typically sell out each day, but there are 85 miles of shady trails through the park’s 24,000 acres of forest for hiking and backpacking (free permit required).
Optional stop at Black Mountain
Located off Route 160, the state’s high point at 4,145 feet is accessible on a 3.4-mile out-and-back trail with 531 feet of elevation gain.
In southwestern Kentucky, the U.S. Forest Service manages these 106,458-acres. It gets its name from the narrow strip of land left after the damming of the Tennessee River to create Kentucky Lake and the Cumberland River to create Lake Barkley. In addition to opportunities for traditional watersports, this area has several attractions found along the Woodlands Trace National Scenic Byway. These include developed areas like the Golden Pond Visitor Center and Planetarium, Elk and Bison Prairie, Woodlands Nature Station, and Turkey Bay Off-Highway Vehicle Area.
Ark Encounter
Opened in Williamstown in 2016, this creationist theme park is highlighted by its 510-foot-long representation of Noah’s Ark from the Bible’s book of Genesis. There is a petting zoo on the grounds with kangaroos, camels, and other exotic animals. In addition, the park has a zipline, virtual reality theater, and a restaurant with a seating capacity of 1,500 guests (making it one of the world’s largest eating establishments). The same organization also operates the pseudoscientific Creation Museum 45 miles away in Petersburg, which depicts humans and dinosaurs coexisting.
Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail
This 282-mile-long trail runs from Tennessee north into Daniel Boone National Forest and Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area (where a camping permit is required). Marked by white turtle blazes, the trace passes through Alum Ford primitive campground, from where a short jaunt takes hikers to 113-foot-tall Yahoo Falls, which you can walk behind.
Jointly managed with Sequoia National Park since 1943, Kings Canyon does not often receive the individual accolades that it deserves. The separate Kings Canyon area was added in 1940 to keep this 8,200-foot-deep valley from being dammed. Much of the park is a mountain wilderness, which can be most easily seen from 7,520-foot Panoramic Point on the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway. Unlike Yosemite National Park, there is no road over the Sierra Nevada to access the east side.
General Grant Tree, Kings Canyon Scenic Byway, Panoramic Point, Cedar Grove, Roaring River Falls, Zumwalt Meadow, Mist Falls, Redwood Canyon, John Muir Trail, Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail
Must-Do Activity
Kings Canyon Scenic Byway is a curvy road that offers plenty of great views as its winds from the General Grant Grove through Giant Sequoia National Monument to dead end at Cedar Grove. One must-do stop before you reach the park boundary is Grizzly Falls, which also has a picnic area. Another inside the National Park is Roaring River Falls, an easy half-mile walk down the River Trail near the end of the road. Between the two sections of the park along the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway, the U.S Forest Service manages Boyden Cave and offers tours in the summer that include a visit to the Bat Grotto (see where it placed on the list of Top 10 Caves in National Forests).
Best Trail
Woods Creek Trail leaves from near Cedar Grove and is an eight-mile roundtrip hike back to beautiful Mist Falls. Permits are required to backpack along the John Muir Trail, one of the most scenic stretches of the 2,655-mile Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail.
Photographic Opportunity
The General Grant Tree is a giant sequoia currently measuring 268.1 feet tall and 29 feet in diameter, making it by volume the second largest single-stemmed tree on the planet after General Sherman in Sequoia National Park. [Disclaimer: Not sure this photo is actually of General Grant.]
Closed in the winter, the steep and curvy Kings Canyon Scenic Byway is a paved road that always makes us feel a little nauseous due to the elevation change. Not far upstream from hectic Cedar Grove Village, a smooth section of the South Fork Kings River is traced by a quiet one-way dirt road that meanders through the forest on the north bank.
Camping
The National Park Service runs several large campgrounds clustered around Grant Grove and Cedar Grove. Sequoia National Forest also offers several campgrounds between these two separate sections of the park, including a nice one along the shores of Hume Lake.
John Muir TrailBighorn sheepJohn Muir TrailRavens about the park
Explore More – How long is the popular Rae Lakes Loop backpacking route, which can also be accessed from the east through Inyo National Forest over Kearsarge Pass?
We are currently in an ice age that has lasted 2.58 million years with climate fluctuations leading to melting during warmer interglacial periods, such as the one we are experiencing today. The Wisconsin Glaciation was the most recent in North America, which began roughly 100,000 BP (years Before Present) and reached its greatest extent 20,000 BP, and then repeatedly retreated and readvanced until finally ending 10,000 BP. As the ice melted, gorges were carved at the Dalles of the St. Croix River and the Wisconsin Dells. In 1958, conservationist Ray Zillmer conceived of the idea of an Ice Age National Park in Wisconsin, and after his death, Congressman Henry S. Reuss sponsored a bill establishing the multi-unit Ice Age National Scientific Reserve. In 1980, Ruess passed a bill creating the Ice Age National Scenic Trail, which was first thru-hiked the year prior by 20-year-old James J. Staudacher. In 2023, it officially became a National Park Service unit (along with North Country National Scenic Trail), although it is primarily managed by volunteers through the non-profit Ice Age Trail Alliance (www.iceagetrail.org).
Ice Age National Scenic Trail is covered in my newest travel guidebook American History 101, which will be released in November 2026.
Highlights
Interstate State Park, Chequamegon National Forest, Devil’s Lake State Park, Gibraltar Rock, Cross Plains State Park, Kettle Moraine, Potawatomi State Park
Must-Do Activity
The National Park Service has an administrative office in the 1,200-acre Glacial Passage Area that includes Cross Plains State Park and meltwater-carved Wilkie Gorge. Here visitors can get their Junior Ranger book (or print one at home) and passport stamps, which are also available at Devil’s Lake State Park, Interstate State Park, Chippewa Moraine State Recreation Area, Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest, and St. Croix National Scenic Riverway. In addition to enjoying forest scenery and wildlife sightings, a great part of hiking the trail is learning geology terminology like kame, drumlin, kettle moraine, pothole, esker, and glacial erratic.
Best Trail
The 1,200-mile trail is composed of over 100 segments from Interstate State Park on the St. Croix River east to Potawatomi State Park on the Door Peninsula. There are 675 miles of trail completed, connected by a series of road walks. The trail splits in two for a stretch north of Devil’s Lake State Park, with the eastern portion more developed currently.
Photographic Opportunity
In Devil’s Lake State Park, the famous Devil’s Doorway quartzite formation is accessed by a 2.1-mile loop trail that gains 488 feet of elevation cumulatively. The park also contains a bird effigy mound, like the ones seen in Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa.
$16 per vehicle ($13 for Wisconsin plates) at State Parks (and America the Beautiful passes are also accepted)
Road Conditions
Many portions of the trail involve road walking, so watch for pedestrians while driving.
Camping
Some parts of the trail allow camping anywhere, but others have designated sites so it is important for thru-hikers to plan carefully. Interstate and Devil’s Lake State Parks offer developed campgrounds (fee).
Devil’s Lake State ParkWondon thinks the Ice Age Trail needs more iceWestern terminus in Interstate State ParkPotawatomi State ParkEastern terminus in Potawatomi State Park
Explore More – Why was a ten-mile connector built off the Ice Age Trail to reach Timms Hill?
Start your U.S. National Parks, National Forests, and National Monuments adventure here!
