Tag Archives: Top 10

List

Top 10 National Park Logos

October 28, 2019 Raven About The Parks Leave a comment

We have now created black-and-white designs for 50 National Parks, which are for sale on T-shirts and a variety of other products through Amazon and Café Press. Each of the logos is special to us, but we wanted to share the ones we liked best (check out our other Top 10 Lists). On our Café Press page, our original designs can be printed on mugs, pillows, stickers, and clothing. With the holidays coming up, they might make the perfect gift for the National Park fan in your life.

10. Yosemite National Park (California) depicts the view of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point

9. Big Bend National Park (Texas) depicts a javelina in front of Balanced Rock

8. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (Alaska) depicts mountains looming above Lamplugh Glacier

7. Sequoia National Park (California) depicts a sequoia tree grove in the Giant Forest

6. Great Basin National Park (Nevada) depicts a bristlecone pine tree snag in front of Wheeler Peak

5. Zion National Park (Utah) depicts the view of the Virgin River valley from atop Angels Landing

4. Guadalupe Mountains National Park (Texas) depicts a mountain lion lying on Guadalupe Peak overlooking El Capitan

3. Isle Royale National Park (Michigan) depicts Lake Superior near Scoville Point

2. Channel Islands National Park (California) depicts Inspiration Point on East Anacapa Island

…and finally the #1 logo we have designed for a National Park!

1. Glacier National Park (Montana) depicts an hoary marmot at Hidden Lake Overlook near Logan Pass

Honorable Mentions

Canyonlands National Park (Utah) depicts Chesler Park in the Needles District

Joshua Tree National Park (California) depicts a Joshua tree growing in Hidden Valley Campground

Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado) depicts Long House on Wetherill Mesa

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List

Top 10 Caves in National Parks

August 13, 2019 Raven About The Parks Leave a comment

Some of our favorite units in the National Park Service system include caves, from lava tubes to highly decorated caverns. This is a list of our 10 favorites. Check out our page dedicated to all of our Top 10 lists.

10. Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park (Hawai‘i)

Thurston Lava Tube is an electrically lighted half-mile walk through a high-ceilinged cave.

9. Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve (Oregon)

A marble cave surrounded by a beautiful old-growth forest.

8. El Malpais National Monument (New Mexico)

Short lava tubes are open to the public if you pick up your free cave permit at a visitor center.

7. Great Basin National Park (Nevada)

Lehman Caves is only 0.6 miles long, but it is full of beautiful formations, like Parachute Shield.

6. Wind Cave National Park (South Dakota)

Boxwork is an uncommon cave formation and 95% of the world’s known quantity is right here (see photo at the top of page).

5. Mammoth Cave National Park (Kentucky)

The many tour options will keep you coming back to this wonderful park.

4. Timpanogos Cave National Monument (Utah)

Start by hiking switchbacks up 1,092 feet, then your ranger guide will show you the gravity-defying helictite crystals.

3. Jewel Cave National Monument (South Dakota)

The Wild Caving Tour here is reportedly the most difficult in the entire National Park Service System.

2. Lava Beds National Monument (California)

Pick up a guidebook and chart your own course through dozens of unlit lava tubes.

…and finally our #1 cave in a National Park!

1. Carlsbad Caverns National Park (New Mexico)

Visit this incomprehensibly huge cave during the summer to witness the Evening Bat Flight Program.

Honorable Mentions

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park (Kentucky)

Reservations are recommended for the ranger-guided two-hour tour of Gap Cave.

Sequoia National Park (California)

Crystal Cave was the first cave Scott ever entered in 1988.

List

Top 10 National Historic Sites

August 6, 2019 Raven About The Parks Leave a comment

There are 77 National Historic Sites managed by the National Park Service and several others that are affiliated sites. Similar to the list of our Top 10 National Historical Parks, these choices represent our experience and not the significance of a place in the annals of U.S. history. In fact, most of these spots we never would have heard about when sitting next to each other in Mrs. Williams’ AP American History class back in high school. Check out all of our Top 10 lists here.

10. Grant-Kohrs Ranch (Montana)

All things “cowboy” are remembered here

9. Golden Spike (Utah)

Colorfully reconstructed train engines daily evoke May 10, 1869

8. Little Rock Central High School (Arkansas)

Learn about integration kitty-corner from this architectural beauty

7. Ford’s Theatre (Washington, D.C.)

Live theater is still performed at this infamous assassination site

6. Christiansted National Historic Site (Virgin Islands)

The yellow walls of this seaside fort are great for photographs

5. Bent’s Old Fort (Colorado)

Costumed reenactors take you back in time on the Santa Fe Trail

4. Minuteman Missile (South Dakota)

A great museum and guided tours recall the Cold War era

3. Tuskegee Airmen (Alabama)

Civil Rights pioneers are celebrated at this site created in 1998

2. Manzanar (California)

The U.S.A. is a great nation because it remembers the shameful parts of its past

…and finally our #1 National Historic Site!

1. Andersonville (Georgia)

Visiting the National Prisoner of War Museum is a powerful experience

Honorable Mentions

Weir Farm (Connecticut)

Now a National Historical Park, borrow art supplies to create your own memory of this artist colony

Brown v. Board of Education (Kansas)

Now a National Historical Park, find thought-provoking exhibits on segregation fill the classrooms of an old school in Topeka

List

Top 10 Non-Fiction Books Set During World War II

July 16, 2019 Raven About The Parks Leave a comment

Following up on our list of the Top 10 novels set during World War II, these are our favorite non-fiction works. If you feel that we missed an important one, we invite you to walk into your local library and count how many shelves are filled by this subject. The choices may betray our preference for pilots and air combat, which is perhaps why our first blog post covered Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site. Do not miss our other book recommendations under the Top 10 Lists tab.

10. God Is My Co-Pilot by Col. Robert L. Scott (1943)

One of the original “Flying Tigers” wrote his autobiography during the war.

9. The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw (1998)

These short biographical sketches focus on the post-war lives of servicemen and women.

8. Going Solo by Roald Dahl (1986)

An autobiography of his time as a young pilot by the author of The BFG, Matilda, and James and the Giant Peach.

7. In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors by Doug Stanton (2001)

The horrifying tale of the few survivors of a lone battleship torpedoed and sunk in the Pacific Ocean in 1945.

6. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Capt. Ted W. Lawson (1943)

A first-hand account of the lead-up and aftermath of the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942.

5. Night by Elie Wiesel (1960)

The first in a trilogy tells the story of the author’s survival in a concentration camp.

4. Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose (1992)

Better known as a TV miniseries, a book by the author of D-Day and Citizen Soldiers.

3. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (1947)

A 20th-century classic featuring writing that still elicits fear and dread in a reader.

2. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand (2010)

This well-written biography of Louie Zamperini can be summed up in one word: unbelievable.

1. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (1946)

This is one of the most inspiring books ever written and it starts with the author’s experience in a concentration camp.

Honorable Mentions

Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airman’s Firsthand Account of World War II by Philip Handleman and Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart Jr. (2019)

The latest in a growing library of books written about and by Tuskegee Airmen.

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown (2013)

The events described in one of the best non-fiction books ever written culminated in Germany before the war began.

7. The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II by Gregory A. Freeman (2007)

A gripping story of the daring rescue of Allied airmen stranded on the Balkan Peninsula.

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