Western Region
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Pinnacles
After arriving in Los Angeles early in the morning we rented a Chevy Malibu and drove north for about five hours. The previous evening we were in Hawaii and flew overnight to the mainland. We wanted to visit the newest national park in America which is located east of central California’s Salinas Valley. Rising out of the chaparral-covered Gabilian Mountains is Pinnacles (chaparral is a...
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Hawai’i Volcanoes
With a 12 hour layover trying to get to the Big Island, we took advantage of exploring the Island of O’ahu. Alisa’s Aunt is stationed at the Air Force base in Honolulu. We spent quality time with her family as we snorkeled in Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve and watched the huge waves in Waimea. Driving to the north shore and back to the airport took a...
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National Park of American Samoa
Our flight to Pago Pago in American Samoa left from Honolulu in the afternoon on Monday December 23rd. We landed in the evening and walked outside to an extremely humid environment. We were about 7,500 miles away from home. Our lodging on this small island was at Sadie’s by the Sea. It was dark as the hotel shuttle bus took us to our room....
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Great Basin
Great Basin National Park was our 42nd out of the 58 American National Parks. It was the eleventh of our summer vacation. We would wind-up driving over 4,500 miles to accomplish this task. Additionally, we would achieve tremendous success by hiking to the top of Wheeler Peak’s 13,063-foot summit....
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