A few years back I helped a friend move her car (and her stuff) from California to New York. We decided to take the “north route” and visited as many national parks as we could, to get a taste of the glory that is natural America. We nicknamed the trip “Mar and Erika Across America.” Here is a glimpse of the amazingness that one can discover in our own backyard, working from west to east.
California: Redwood State and National Forests and various roadside attractions
Home to the world’s largest trees, there are several forests that preserve the amazing Redwoods on the north coast of California. Outside of these preservation areas you can find some interesting roadside attractions including the Chandelier Tree (through which you can drive a car!), a life-sized Paul Bunyan and Confusion Hill, where gravity no longer makes sense.
Oregon: Crater Lake National Park, Ashland & the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Lava River Caves
Crater Lake is a caldera lake, formed by the by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. The commemorative Oregon State Quarter, released in 2005, features Crater Lake on its reverse.
Ashland is the home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, known for its summer repertory season and outdoor Shakespeare Theater.
The Lava River Caves are a part of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument which includes 50,000 acres of lakes, lava flows, and spectacular geologic features in central Oregon.
Oregon also has some pretty fantastic white water rafting.
Idaho: Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve and Arco
Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is a national monument and national preserve located in the Snake River Plain in central Idaho, U.S.A. The protected area’s features are volcanic and represent one of the best preserved flood basalt areas in the continental United States. In 1924, Calvin Coolidge declared the area a National Monument to “preserve the unusual and weird volcanic formations”. It’s been said that the Apollo astronauts performed part of their training at Craters of the Moon Lava Field by learning to look for and collect good rock specimens in an unfamiliar and harsh environment.
Arco was the first community in the world ever to be lit by electricity generated by nuclear power.
Wyoming: Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park
Jackson Hole is a valley located in the U.S. state of Wyoming, near the western border with Idaho.
The Teton Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in North America. A north-south range, it is on the Wyoming side of the state’s border with Idaho, just south of Yellowstone National Park. Most of the range is in Grand Teton National Park.
Yellowstone National Park is widely held to be the first national park in the world. It is the home to many geothermal features including geysers, springs, lakes, canyons, rivers and mountains. One of its most famous features may be “Old Faithful,” the famous cone geyser that erupts every 91 minutes, giving it the reputation of being the most predictable geological feature on earth.
South Dakota: Sturgis, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Badlands, 1880 Town, Corn Palace
Sturgis is famous for being the location of one of the largest annual motorcycle events in the world, which is held annually on the first full week of August.
The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, in the United States featuring 60-foot sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
The new Crazy Horse Memorial is currently under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills, in Custer County, South Dakota.
The badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. They are often difficult to navigate by foot.
1880 Town is just what it sounds like and the Corn Palace, a venue for concerts, sports events, exhibits and other community events, has exterior corn murals that are replaced and redesigned each year with a new theme.
Erika Diane 
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