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Alabama

Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument

August 14, 2024 Raven About The Parks Leave a comment

Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument

Alabama

Managed by National Park Service

Established 2017

18 acres

Website: nps.gov/bicr

Overview

Created by President Barack Obama on January 12, 2017 (the same day as Freedom Riders and Reconstruction Era National Monuments), this site encompasses four city blocks of downtown within the larger 36-acre Birmingham Civil Rights District. In 1963, this area was where the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed and the Children’s Crusade (a non-violent protest march) was attacked by policemen with water hoses and dogs. The only portion of the site run by the National Park Service (NPS) is the A. G. Gaston Motel, which was bombed by the KKK after Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders stayed there from April through May 1963 to plan their non-violent campaign against segregation laws. The City of Birmingham and the NPS have restored the motel to its historic appearance and a park ranger is stationed there three days a week.

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments. It is now available for sale on Amazon.com.

Highlights

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, A.G. Gaston Motel, 16th Street Baptist Church, Kelly Ingram Park, St. Paul United Methodist Church, Bethel Baptist Church

Must-Do Activity

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is a history museum that opened in 1992 across from the 16th Street Baptist Church (see Photographic Opportunity). With a timed entry ticket, your self-guided tour starts with a short video, then an immersive walk through the struggle for civil rights in Birmingham and around the U.S. It includes powerful displays on the Freedom Riders bus burning and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” as well as the decades-long effort to bring to justice the bombers of the 16th Street Baptist Church. If you come on one of the three days per week that a park ranger is posted at the A.G. Gaston Motel, be sure to stop there afterwards to see the ongoing reconstruction work. Six miles north of the city in the Collegeville neighborhood, Bethel Baptist Church was bombed three times in 1956, 1958 and 1962, partly why the city earned the nickname “Bombingham.” The church is associated with the influential Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who has a statue outside the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Best Trail

Across the street from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Kelly Ingram Park features sculptures, interpretive signs, and an audio tour describing the violent attacks by police officers and dogs on civil rights protesters (many of them children) on May 7, 1963.

Photographic Opportunity

Across the street from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed on September 15, 1963, killing four young girls, an act of domestic terrorism that propelled the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Tours inside the church are by appointment only.

Peak Season

Spring and fall

Hours

The A.G. Gaston Motel is open Thursday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

https://www.nps.gov/bicr/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

No cost for the A.G. Gaston Motel or Kelly Ingram Park, but there is an admission fee at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (online reservations recommended).

Road Conditions

All roads are paved with a free parking lot next to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Camping

In northeast Alabama, De Soto State Park offers camping, in addition to excellent hiking trails to several waterfalls. There are also three backcountry campsites in Little River Canyon National Preserve available from February through September with a permit. Cheaha State Park and Joe Wheeler State Park both have campgrounds and lodges. Talladega, Tuskegee, and William B. Bankhead National Forests also offer car camping and backpacking opportunities.

Horseshoe Bend National Military Park (Alabama)

Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site (Alabama)

Explore More – When did the City of Birmingham establish the 36-acre Birmingham Civil Rights District?

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments

Arizona

Navajo National Monument

August 7, 2024 Raven About The Parks 5 Comments

Navajo National Monument

Arizona

Managed by National Park Service

Established 1909

360 acres

Website: nps.gov/nava

Overview

Navajo National Monument was created to protect the Keet Seel ruin on the Navajo Nation, although the Ancestral Puebloan people who lived here in the 1200s are more closely related to the Hopi and Zuni. Three years later, the ruins at Betatakin and Inscription House (closed to the public) were added to the National Monument. We had such a great visit that we had to add it to his list of Top 10 National Monuments.

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments. It is now available for sale on Amazon.com.

Highlights

Tsegi Point Overlook, museum, film, Sandal Trail, Keet Seel overnight trip

Must-Do Activity

During the pandemic, the National Park Service (NPS) closed all access to the ruins until 2023, but visitors can now reserve spots on the 20-person ranger-led backpacking trips to Keet Seel that are offered twice per month in the summer. This strenuous trip covers 17 miles total with numerous stream crossings and all water must be carried in. The hardest part is at the end, when a 1,000 foot climb awaits, but it is worth it to be one of the few who get to see Keet Seel, the 150-room ruin that is second in size only to Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park. You also get to eat lunch at a surprisingly large waterfall in Keet Seel Canyon. For those looking for a shorter five-mile trip with only 580 feet elevation change, weekend day hikes to Betatakin are led by park rangers (sign up the day before on a first-come, first-served basis).

Best Trail

From the NPS visitor center (which is actually on Navajo land outside the National Monument boundary), the paved Sandal Trail follows the canyon rim to an overlook of the Betatakin cliff dwelling. There are signs explaining the local plant species and their uses by indigenous people on the 1.3-mile out-and-back trail. The 0.8-mile roundtrip Aspen Trail and 0.8-mile Canyon View Trail also leave from the visitor center.

Photographic Opportunity

Outside the visitor center, a replica sweathouse and male hogan are on display, plus examples of three-toed dinosaur footprints left in the sandstone. Inside the visitor center, pottery and an example of a family dwelling are on display, plus a short introductory film is offered.

Peak Season

Summer

Hours

https://www.nps.gov/nava/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

None

Road Conditions

Highway 564 is paved to the visitor center and Sunset View Campground, then a good dirt road leads to the Canyon View Campground and gated trailhead for ranger-led hikes to Betatakin and Keet Seel.

Camping

The free Sunset View Campground has running water and is one of the nicest campgrounds in the entire NPS system (now added to the Top 10 National Park Campgrounds with Running Water). There are vault toilets at Canyon View Campground, which is also free. Campers are limited to a total of seven nights per year at the campgrounds.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument (Arizona)

Walnut Canyon National Monument (Arizona)

Explore More – When was the large white fir tree added above the main entrance to Keet Seel cliff dwelling?

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments

Mississippi

Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument

May 22, 2024 Raven About The Parks Leave a comment

Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument

Mississippi, Illinois

Managed by National Park Service

Established 2023

5.7 acres

Website: nps.gov/till

Overview

In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett “Bo” Till left Chicago to visit family in Mississippi, where he whistled at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman who ran the Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market in the town of Money. A few nights later on August 28, Carolyn’s husband (Roy Bryant) and his half-brother (John William “J.W.” Milam) abducted Emmett Till from his relatives’ house. They took Emmett to Milam’s farm where he was tortured and killed according to their admission in Look magazine a year later. After Till’s body was recovered at Graball Landing and sent back to Chicago for a funeral, a five-day trial took place in Sumner’s Tallahatchie County Courthouse where Bryant and Milam were acquitted of the crime. It is probably not a coincidence that the National Monument was proclaimed by President Joe Biden following the release of the 2022 film Till. Not open to the public but also part of the National Monument in Illinois, the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in the Chicago neighborhood of Bronzeville is where Mamie Till-Mobley insisted on an open-casket funeral service so the public could see the terrible results of the murder. Historians believe the outcry over this lynching of a 14-year-old boy helped lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Highlights

Emmett Till Interpretive Center, Tallahatchie County Courthouse, Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center (ETHIC), Black Bayou Bridge, Graball Landing, Greenwood statue, Bryant’s Grocery site

Must-Do Activity

Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center (ETHIC) is located in a former cotton gin near the site of Emmett Till’s torture and murder on the farm of “J.W.” Milam in Glendora, Mississippi. Established in 2005, there is an atmosphere to the museum that bears the full weight of history, heightened by the short introductory video showing Emmett Till’s family members’ recollections of the events of 1955. Inside, there is a recreation of the Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market storefront, as well as a coffin with the prop used in the film Till depicting Emmett’s shockingly disfigured head. The museum also has artifacts highlighting the Mississippi Delta’s history with slavery, indigenous people, and blues music (specifically Sonny Boy Williamson II). Although not part of the National Monument, we recommend a half-hour drive south to Money to see the ruins of Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market with a restored gas station next door, part of the Mississippi Freedom Trail.

Best Trail

From ETHIC, drive or walk to the Black Bayou Bridge where Emmett “Bo” Till’s body was dumped into the Black Bayou tied to a heavy fan from the cotton gin. We were grateful to get a personal tour from Tamita Davis who helps run ETHIC. It is also a short drive down a dirt road to Graball Landing on the Tallahatchie River where there is a small interpretive sign explaining it as the site Till’s body was recovered.

Instagram-worthy Photo

The National Park Service operates out of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, located in a strip mall opposite the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi. It has limited hours, but the courtroom where the September 1955 trial was held was unlocked when we visited on a Tuesday morning.

Peak Season

Spring and fall

Hours

In Sumner, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday 12-5, while the Tallahatchie County Courthouse is open to the public on Mondays when the center is closed. In Glendora, Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center (ETHIC) is open Monday through Saturday 10-5.

Fees

$12 per adult at ETHIC, $5 donation recommended at Emmett Till Interpretive Center

Road Conditions

Paved roads lead to the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner and Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center (ETHIC) in Glendora, where a gravel road in good shape leads to Graball Landing.

Camping

To the south, Delta National Forest offers online reservations for campsites (September through March when the forest is not seasonally flooded).

Related Sites

Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument (Mississippi)

Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument (Alabama)

Freedom Riders National Monument (Alabama)

Pullman National Historical Park (Illinois)

Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center (ETHIC) in Glendora, MS

Explore More – A statue of Emmett Till was added in 2022 to Greenwood, Mississippi’s Rail Spike Park, but what city in Colorado has his statue alongside one of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Hawaii

Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park

May 15, 2024 Raven About The Parks Leave a comment

Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park

Hawai‘i

Managed by National Park Service

Established 1916

344,812 acres

Website: nps.gov/havo

Overview

Hawai‘i National Park was created in 1916, before being split in 1961 into this park on the Big Island of Hawai‘i and Haleakala National Park on Maui. Encompassing two of the world’s most active volcanoes (Kīlauea and Mauna Loa), Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is constantly changing. Indigenous people considered Kīlauea Caldera and its bubbling Halemaʻumaʻu Crater as the sacred home of Pele, goddess of the volcano. This area first became a tourist attraction in the 1840s when Volcano House was still a grass shack. A small, wooden hotel was built in 1877 that now serves as Volcano Art Center Gallery, before the larger lodge was finished in the 1940s on the edge of the caldera. A strenuous backpacking trail summits the world’s largest shield volcano, 13,677-foot Mauna Loa, which erupted in 1926, 1942, 1950, 1984, and 2022.

To learn more about the separate Kahuku Unit and how to find solitude in this National Park that saw 1.6-million visitors in 2023, check out our expanded 2nd edition of our guidebook A Park to Yourself: Finding Solitude in America’s 63 National Parks.

Highlights

Volcano Art Center, Halemaʻumaʻu Crater, Chain of Craters Road, Kīlauea Iki Crater, Nāhuku (Thurston Lava Tube), Hōlei Sea Arch, Lava Tree Molds, Mauna Loa Overlook, Kīpukapuaulu Trail, Pu‘u Loa Petroglyphs Trail

Must-Do Activity

Arrive early or late at the visitor center to avoid tour bus crowds, then check with a ranger to find the best overlooks to view any volcanic activity in Halemaʻumaʻu Crater (depicted in our illustration below). Consider returning to view the molten lava after dark, although parking can be a challenge. The Chain of Craters Road leads 20 miles south from the forested caldera rim above 4,078 feet in elevation down to the sparsely vegetated seashore, descending through a wide range of environments before it dead ends into recent lava flows near the Hōlei Sea Arch and 1.5-mile Pu‘u Loa Petroglyphs Trail, where the crisp images chipped into the black lava have been spared from centuries of volcanic activity.

Best Trail

Kīlauea Iki Trail makes a four-mile loop descending 400 feet to the bottom of the crater that was a lake of lava in 1959. It is recommended to hike it in a counter-clockwise direction to avoid ascending the steepest sections.

Instagram-worthy Photo

Kīlauea erupted nonstop from 1983 through 2018, when lava poured in a near constant stream into the ocean, and it has been sporadically active since then. Lava made it into the #1 spot on our Top 10 Natural Phenomena to See in the U.S.

Peak Season

Year round or whenever a volcano is active

Hours

https://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

$30 per vehicle or America the Beautiful pass

Road Conditions

Chain of Craters Road is paved, but can be closed during volcanic eruptions, just as half of Crater Rim Drive has been closed since March 19, 2008. The side road to Hilina Pali Overlook is usually closed beyond Kulanaokuaiki Campground. The one-lane, potholed Mauna Loa Road is doable with a passenger vehicle if you take it slow, as is the unpaved road into the western Kahuku Unit.

Camping

The name of Kulanaokuaiki Campground translates as “shaking earth,” and this nine-site primitive camp has no drinking water, unlike the concessionaire-run Nāmakanipaio Campground and Cabins on Highway 11. Even though this is Hawai‘i, bring some warm clothes as it can be quite rainy and windy, especially when the volcano is erupting; the temperature around Halemaʻumaʻu Crater did not rise above 59°F all day during our 2023 visit.

Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park (Hawai‘i)

Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site (Hawai‘i)

Scott at the bottom of Kīlauea Iki Crater

Explore More – When was the 115,788-acre Kahuku Unit added to the National Park?

*This design we created to celebrate Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park is available on a variety of products at* Cafe Press

We designed this ‘ohi’a lehua logo for the park available on Amazon.com

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

California

Mono Basin National Scenic Area

May 1, 2024 Raven About The Parks 2 Comments

Mono Basin National Scenic Area

California

Managed by U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region

128,303 acres

Website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/inyo/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5129903

Overview

Established in 1984, this portion of Inyo National Forest is a geological wonderland that was once part of the former Mono National Forest. Along the edge of this ancient salt lake are ten-foot-tall tufa towers exposed after water levels dropped beginning in 1941 when river water was diverted to Los Angeles. Tufa is limestone that precipitated when the alkaline lake water combined with calcium from underground springs. Paoha Island in the center of Mono Lake is also a nesting area for snowy plovers and California gulls, giving its salty waters even more of a Pacific Ocean impression. This entire region is volcanically active as evidenced by isolated hot springs, cinder cones that erupted as recently as 350 years ago, and the forest devastation caused by a 1989 release of carbon dioxide from Horseshoe Lake. It is also rich in minerals, showcased by the mines at Bodie State Historic Park, a ghost town conserved in “arrested decay.”

Highlights

Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area Visitor Center, film, Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve, Panum Crater, Mono Craters, Bodie State Historic Park, South Tufa Trail

Must-Do Activity

Open May through October, the Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area Visitor Center is located on Highway 395, just east of Tioga Pass (the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park). It features interactive displays on geology and human history, the 20-minute film Of Ice and Fire: A Portrait of the Mono Basin, photo exhibits, and a bookstore. Situated atop a hill on the lake’s western shore, it offers an overlook of Mono Lake, Paoha Island, and the Mono Craters.

Best Trail

On the lake’s south side is the fascinating Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve, established in 1981. A short trail leads from the unpaved parking area to the shoreline. Just to the west, the 0.7-mile Plug Trail enters the cone of Panum Crater, a 650-year-old plugged dome volcano.

Instagram-worthy Photo

The fragile tufa formations are a great resting place for violet-green swallows and other migratory birds that come to feed on the lake’s abundant brine shrimp and alkali flies.

Peak Season

Summer

Fees

$3 per person at South Tufa Trail or America the Beautiful pass; $8 per person to enter Bodie State Historic Park

Road Conditions

There are well-graded dirt roads to Panum Crater, South Tufa, and Bodie State Historic Park. However, the routes on the north and east sides of Mono Lake are loose sand that require a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Camping

There are campgrounds at June Lake and along Highway 120 to Tioga Pass, but that road is closed in the winter. Dispersed camping is allowed in Inyo National Forest, but be careful on the sandy roads around Mono Lake.

Related Sites

Inyo National Forest (California-Nevada)

Manzanar National Historic Site (California)

Devils Postpile National Monument (California)

Death Valley National Park (California-Nevada)

Nearest National Park

Yosemite

Explore More – Most of the 27 Mono Craters are phreatic volcanoes that have been plugged or over-topped by rhyolite domes and lava flows; what does “phreatic” mean?

Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument

Navajo National Monument

Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument

Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park

Mono Basin National Scenic Area

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