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Travel Matters | by Stephen & Andie
  • Hot Tips

National Parks Too Crowded? Try These Other National Lands Instead

July 23, 2021
Horseshoe Bend, one of the U.S. National Lands to visit that we love

Since the dawn of social distancing the interest in U.S. National Parks has skyrocketed, and thus, they’ve become more crowded than ever before.

U.S. National Parks, National Forests, National Recreation Areas, Or State Parks: Which Is Better? 

Our National Parks are usually people’s first choice for which National Lands to visit. Some of the most popular ones (especially in the West) may require pre-booking, and are often booked solid for several months in advance. And while last-minute openings might pop up, you’d be doing yourself a favor by keeping our other National Lands in mind instead. They’re equally as amazing, and are well worth considering as an alternative.

What Are U.S. National Lands?

National Lands include National Parks, National Forests, and National Recreation Areas. They’re all seeing the largest on record, and State Parks across the country aren’t any picnic, either! (see what we did there?) 

Are U.S. National Lands Pet-Friendly?

If you’re dog people like we are, we’d like to remind you that our U.S. National Forests, National Recreation Areas and even State Parks are often more pet-friendly than National Parks. We have an article for you explaining some of the differences; National Parks vs. National Forests: Traveling With Dogs. So if you’re planning on traveling with your dogs, these alternative National Lands are absolutely worth considering.

What Are The Best U.S. National Lands To Visit?

There is a wide variety of U.S. National Lands to visit on your road trip, so we’ve created a little “roundup” of the various places that we’ve visited in the past year – most of them, with our pups!

Horseshoe Bend

Horseshoe Bend is not only absolutely breathtaking, but visiting is super-easy, dirt cheap, and you’ve basically got free reign to wander wherever you like, for the most part. Located in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Page, Arizona, this social media darling has become one of the most recognized and visited places in the states.

Just on the outskirts of Grand Canyon National Park, it’s about 140 miles from both the north and south rims. You’ll find the hike from the parking lot to the overlook (1.5 miles round-trip) to be very easy, with two shade structures along the trail. There is a viewing platform at the overlook, or, like we mentioned, you’re also free to roam. There is no shortage of boulders to perch yourself on and take in the stunning view.

It is best to see Horseshoe Bend in the late morning to early afternoon hours. The position of the sun during this time enhances the already-vibrant colors of the rock layers, and takes it to the next level. It is truly breathtaking. We were so impressed, that we rank Horseshoe Bend right up there with the Grand Canyon on our wow-factor list. Check it out in our vlog: Views For Days | Horseshoe Bend.

Waterfalls At DuPont State Recreational Forest

Located in North Carolina, DuPont State Recreational Forest is perhaps a lesser-known attraction, but no less beautiful. At over 10,000 acres, this state forest is home to at least six waterfalls. It also has gorgeous mountain views from atop Cedar Rock and Stone Mountain, miles of hiking trails, hidden lakes, and there’s even an awesome wooden-covered bridge. As far as chasing waterfalls, you will not be disappointed. You can easily get to three of them in one shot on a moderate-rated hike. Those are Hooker Falls, Triple Falls, and High Falls. Bridal Veil, Raven Cliff, Wintergreen, and Tumblestone Falls are all at DuPont as well, and it’s also a popular mountain biking and horseback riding retreat.

Here’s a fun fact: The Hunger Games was filmed at various locations here, including Hooker and Triple Falls! You can read about those here, and if you’d like to check out us and our pups getting in our steps chasing waterfalls, you can watch our vlog from DuPont here!

 Sequoia National Forest: Dog Friendly And Majestic 

Visiting Sequoia National Forest in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California is an experience we will cherish forever. It was an easy day-trip from our home in Los Angeles, and one that we still can’t believe we hadn’t taken sooner. It’s amazing the things you take for granted when they’re so easily accessible! Nonetheless, we’d always wanted to see these majestic beauties up close. Our dogs were coming on this trip and as we mentioned above, we found out that Sequoia National Forest was a much more pet-friendly choice for us than Sequoia National Park. The only “compromise” we made with that choice was not being able to see the General Sherman. “The General” is the largest known living tree on Earth, and is estimated to be between 2,300-2,700 years old!

We had plenty to be in awe of, though, and the forest did not disappoint. It has over thirty groves of giant sequoias. These trees are magnificent and indescribably massive! Sequoia National Forest has more than 2,500 miles of road, over 800 miles of trails, and plenty of recreational and camping facilities. And there’s no admission fee – just a suggested cash donation to park. At the time we visited, it was a mere $10! You’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t pay a visit to the park or the forest, at least once. 

Bonus: Hike To Dome Rock After Seeing Sequoias

After your visit to the sequoias, we recommend heading a little farther up the mountain for a moderate mile-and-a-half hike to Dome Rock. Dogs are allowed on this trail and the views from atop the rock are absolutely gorgeous. Do check in advance for any possible road or trail closures due to natural causes. We encountered this ourselves and had a difficult time finding our way to the top, since the trail was unmarked. You can check out our day of exploring Sequoia National Forest and our Dome Rock hiking follies in our vlog, for a look at what you’ll encounter when you visit!

This is just a small handful of the many National Lands our nation has to offer. Hopefully we’ve given you some insight into some you may not have known about or considered. And we’re always looking for our next road trip adventure, so let us know what some of your favorite National Lands to visit are!

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Tags:National Landsnational parksSequoia National ForestState Parkstravel with dogsUnited States
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Today we explore the Amazon jungle by night. Our flashlights reveal plenty of creepy crawlies, including unusual insects, cute frogs, a variety of spiders – including a bizarre one that looked like a robot, and Andie got her wish when we saw not one, but two tarantulas! Stephen was relieved to not run into any snakes, but later that night he was jolted awake by an an uninvited “guest” in our bed!

Only 2% of the #Amazon Jungle is in Ecuador, and part of that is in the #Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, which is where we visited during our Ecuador trip. It was our first visit to the world's largest rainforest, and we already can't wait to go back and see more!

This is the sixth video in our first-ever international series! Quito, Ecuador was the first international trip we took together back in 2011. Eleven years later, it’s where we filmed our first international series and first drone footage for our channel! 

We spent two weeks in Ecuador this time, including Quito, day-trips to Mindo and Cotopaxi National Park, the Amazon, and one of our top-3 bucket list destinations: the Galápagos Islands! 

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📍LOCATION: Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, Ecuador, South America

✦ PLACES VISITED IN THIS VLOG: 

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CHAPTERS:
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00:28 Lagoon Swimming
01:00 Caiman Search
01:38 Baby Snake
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Follow Our Mission to See ALL 50 STATES! 🇺🇸 🚐

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Oregon’s got #mood for days! Oregon is state no Oregon’s got #mood for days!

Oregon is state no. 22 in our mission to see ALL 50 STATES (plus DC & Puerto Rico)! Our first sleep and first morning of #vanlife was in Astoria, then we headed to Cannon Beach and were bowled over by the foggy views of majestic Haystack Rock. 

👉 LINK IN BIO 👈 to see more of the beautiful Oregon coast in our latest vlog, “First Night In Our Van!”

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#traveloregon #cannonbeach #oregoncoast #cannonbeachoregon #oregon #haystackrock #travelmatters #all50states #vanlife
We fell in love with Oregon! Swipe 👉 to see why We fell in love with Oregon! Swipe 👉 to see why!

After buying our Sprinter in Portland we headed for the Oregon coast to spend our first night in her in Astoria. The next day we explored town and also made our way to Cannon Beach. Both were nothing short of stunning! Our drives through the state just got more and more beautiful and we couldn’t stop thinking how grateful and excited we are to be new #vanlifers. 

This is going to be an amazing year!

📷 Our first coffee on our first morning after our first night sleeping in our campervan. 📍Astoria.

📷 Isn’t she lovely? 😍 That’s Haystack Rock behind Andie. You might recognize it from movies like Point Break and GOONIES! 📍Cannon Beach.

📷 Having too much fun watching a pile of giant sea lions sleeping peacefully. 📍Astoria

📷 Loving our lives! 📍 Cannon Beach

👉 Link in bio 👈 to see all of this and more in our latest vlog “First Night In Our Van!”

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#oregon #oregoncoast #astoria #cannonbeach #haystackrock #lewisandclarkrvpark #vanlife #sprintervan #sprintervanlife #all50states
Hello #vanlife! 🚐 We’re so excited to finally Hello #vanlife! 🚐 We’re so excited to finally share this news with you – we bought a camper van! *Join us at 12:15pm EST today (Monday)* for a live chat during the Premiere of our new vlog, where we spill the tea.

After months of behind the scenes planning and hunting, we settled on this beauty at the end of October: a 170” wheelbase, high top Sprinter, located in Portland, OR. In this video we fly to the Pacific Northwest to make the purchase and begin our two and a half week, cross-country journey from Portland back to North Carolina. But not before grabbing a rainy day lunch at one of Portland’s food cart havens – Cartlandia. Some hot grits from Grits Gone Wild warm us up to send us on our first outing in our new home on wheels.

We couldn’t be more excited, and this trip already kicks off our mission to see all 50 states (plus DC and Puerto Rico!). You’ll be seeing this cross-country trip, plus another month-long run in her over the holidays –  all in our upcoming vlogs!

Now — any guesses what we named her? 
Hint: any fans of the movie Role Models? 😜

PLACES VISITED IN THIS VLOG:

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#cartlandia

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$150 train ticket from New York to… New York? $150 train ticket from New York to… New York? 

We REALLY loved our first time doing some train travel in the U.S. together! We rode the Hudson River Rail aboard the 20th Century Limited – the last two remaining, fully restored, 1940s train cars from what was “The Most Famous Train In the World” in its day. 

Our journey took us from Penn Station in Manhattan up to Albany and back. 

Sit back and enjoy the views! 👉 Link in bio 👈 to see the vlog!

📷 1: on the platform in Albany

📷 2: Penn Station, NYC

🎥 3: enjoying the VIP lounge at Penn Station pre-boarding

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California sunsets just hit different. 🌅 We we California sunsets just hit different. 🌅

We were Angelenos for literal decades and we still can’t believe how many iconic places in California we took for granted and never visited! Morro Bay is just one of them, and we’re SO STOKED that a recent cross-country road trip (big announcement on that front soon!) took us right past the area. Naturally, we looked at each other, said “Morro Bay?,” and turned the 🚐 around to head back just in time for a gorgeous sunset. 

Now we’re even more determined to hit all the spots that we took for granted and we’ll always find excuses to make our way back through Cali! Yosemite, Redwoods, Death Valley – we’re talking to you! 

What other spots do we need to hit? Shout ‘em out in the comments!

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#morrobay #sunset #centralcoast #SLO  #SanLuisObispo #california #southerncalifornia #daytrip #roadtrip #californialandmarks
We saw ALL THE MANATEES today! This was our second We saw ALL THE MANATEES today!
This was our second attempt at @bluespringstatepark within a couple weeks. We saw zero manatees the first time, and committed to returning after spending some time in Southern Florida. Turns out, we happened upon some manatees in the marina @evergladesnps, but the water was so murky we could only see parts of them… if they surfaced. 

Today was the day we got to return to Blue Spring. The weather was much cooler this time (great conditions for spotting manatees in the springs), and when we pulled up to the entrance, the sign read “MANATEE COUNT *288*” For context, there was no count on the sign for our previous visit, so… YAY! 

Can’t say exactly what OUR manatee count was, but we easily saw dozens in a short amount of time – from adorable little babies to giants! The water was crystal clear. It was so serene – watching them graciously glide through, only occasionally making a splash. Hearing that beautiful sound when they surfaced for air. Today was an AWESOME day, and we’re so thankful that we had the flexibility to come back and spend some quality time with these beautiful, unique creatures. 🥰

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#manatees #bluespringstatepark #centralflorida #orlando #florida #therealflorida #wildlife #statepark #bluespring #bluesprings #manateestatepark #bluespringmanatees #travelmatters #travelvloggers
Is this seat taken? Nothing says “classic New J Is this seat taken? 
Nothing says “classic New Jersey” like Asbury Park! We visited the boardwalk for the first time this summer as part of our DIY food tour of New Jersey. 

A killer coffee roastery? ✅
Cereal pancakes? ✅
Disco fries? ✅
$27 milkshake??? ✅

LINK IN BIO to see all that, plus a unique Jersey twist on “the slushee” in our latest vlog, now live on YouTube! 

This is state #20 in our mission to visit all 50 states (plus DC & Puerto Rico) - join our adventures! 

PLACES VISITED IN THIS VLOG:
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@roastd.coffee
@thetopsdiner
@coneywaffleasburypark

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#newjersey #asburypark #newjerseyfood #foodtour #jerseycity #fortlee #jerseyshore #travelvlog #travelmatters
As you set your goals for 2023, don’t be afraid As you set your goals for 2023, don’t be afraid to be the orange fish. If an idea or dream scares you or feels too different, it’s probably the one you should go for!

We spotted these guys while snorkeling in the Galápagos Islands. See the full vlogs on our YouTube channel. LINK IN BIO!

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#fish #schooloffish #galapagos #galapagosislands #ecuador #travelmatters #travelvloggers #wildlife #conservation #underwatervideo #snorkeling🐠 
#newyeargoals #lifegoals
We saw so much cool wildlife in the Galapagos! See We saw so much cool wildlife in the Galapagos! See the full vlogs on our YouTube channel. LINK IN BIO!

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#galapagos #galapagosislands #ecuador #travelmatters #travelvloggers #wildlife #conservation #sealion #bluefootedbooby #tortoise #frigate #iguana #crab #fish
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