Appomattox Court House National Historic Park is located on such a beautiful piece of land - light breeze, rolling hills, and a major roadway within earshot… Even with the noise from vehicles passing, Kate found a rocking chair and took a few minutes to enjoy the peace and quiet of the grounds! Do you ever just take time to enjoy the little things like the breeze and the sunshine?

We drove southeast from Natural Bridge through the mountains to Appomattox Court House . This once bustling little village is now maintained by the federal government as a National Historical Park.

This is the place where in 1865, Robert E. Lee formally surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant bringing an end to the American Civil War . The surrender happened at the McLean House, the home of a Virginia Grocer who made a small fortune selling sugar to the Confederate Army during the war. Wimer McLean moved to Appomattox Court House in 1863 after fighting broke out at the first battle of Bull Run (which was practically in his back yard at his farm in Northern Virginia). He moved to Appomattox Court House to keep his wife and children safe and away from the war. Little did he know that in two years’ time the parlor in his home would be at the center point of the battle which led to surrender.

The New River Gorge National Park encompasses over 70,000 acres of land. That’s the equivalent of ~109 square miles or more than 53,000 football fields. It’s HUGE.

It was a bit rainy the day we visited, so we elected to drive down to Grandview, the Sandstone Visitors center, and the Sandstone Falls overlook after our stop at Canyon Rim.

Grandview definitely lives up to its name! After winding through residential and farmland, seeing all the amazing Catawba rhododendrons in bloom, we arrived at a large park, complete with an amphitheater, picnic areas, and open fields to play. Just a short walk to an overlook, and we were rewarded with incredible views of the gorge, forest, and river, which was more than 1400 feet below us.

We visited New River Gorge National Park during our stay in West Virginia. The main visitors center at Canyon Rim offers sweeping views of the gorge and river below. It’s located just southeast of the famous New River Gorge Bridge, so the overlooks here give you a sense of scale when comparing the bridge and the gorge.

The bridge is the longest steel single-span arch bridge in the western hemisphere and the 3rd highest bridge in the US. It was completed in 1977, bringing a much needed connection between the eastern and western sides of the New River. Every year during October, more than 80,000 people gather to commemorate the opening of the bridge on Bridge Day. During this celebration, you can watch hundreds of base jumpers dive off the bridge, one of the few exceptions to the ban on base jumping in National Parks. I bet that is a sight to see!

Continuing the story of the Sinagua people in the Verde Valley, we visited Montezuma Castle National Monument . This place is incredible. Montezuma Castle is not a castle at all. It’s a five-story, 20-room cliff dwelling built into a limestone cliff 800 years ago. It looks like something out of a fantasy novel, but it was once home to real families who farmed, hunted, and lived in harmony with the land.

We visited one of the lesser known parks while we were in Sedona - Tuzigoot National Monument . Wow- what a window into the past! This site preserves a 110-room pueblo built by the Sinagua people , who lived here between 1000 and 1400 AD.

On the drive around the park in the West/Tucson Mountain district, we stopped at Signal Hill Picnic area and took a short trail up to the largest petroglyph site in the Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park.

The Saguaro Cactus (pronounced saw-war-oh) only grows in the Sonoran Desert . This desert is located in Mexico, Arizona, and just a small portion of the Baja peninsula in California. These cacti can grow up to 50 feet tall and live over 200 years!

Located about an hour south of Tucson is a gem of a national park that many people have not heard about. Tumacácori National Historical Park takes you back in time to the late 1600s when Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries were traveling north from Mexico to bring European values and farming techniques to indigenous people of the area (O’odham, Yaqui, and Apache).