100 Great American Parks by Stephanie Pearson (TLC Book Tours)

 

What is your favorite American Park?

I think my favorites so far have been the Grand Canyon National Park and Custer State Park. 

The new National Geographic book, 100 Great American Parks by Stephanie Pearson, has everything you’ve come to expect in a National Geographic book.  It has awe inspiring beautiful pictures of the parks.  There are 100 parks in this book including all 63 national parks.  The foreword is by Garth Brooks discussing his travels as a touring musician and is very inspiring.  The introduction is full of interesting facts including that Boston Common was the first park in the United States in 1634 put in place as a space to graze cows.  Until 1817, a tree was used in the center for public hanging.  It has seen a lot of change over time.  Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the world.  The U.S. Park Service was established in 1916 to manage 420 units across 85 million acres.

The book is split into five parts.  It starts with “The West and the Pacific” and has a wonderful section about the Grand Canyon National Park describing it with both words and fantastic pictures.  The White Sands National Park pictures brought back some happy memories of a trip there in college. Part two is “Off the Mainland.”  The stunning pictures really made me want to visit Alaska and Hawaii even more.  Part three is “the East and mid-Atlantic.”  It gave me a new idea to try to look for the “Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Park” while we are in Maryland next month.  It made me excited about some places already on our list for our trip such as George Washington’s Mount Vernon. Part four is “the south.  I found out that Arkansas had the first National River, the Buffalo National River.  It looks beautiful. Part five is “the Midwest & Plains.”  My only complaint is this section is very scant.  As a lifetime Midwesterner, there are a lot more beautiful parks here than represented.  The only park from Michigan was Isle Royale National Park and the only park from Wisconsin was the Apostle Island National Lakeshore.  Meanwhile western states like California had ten parks included. 

The last section of the book is a great list on how to protect our parks.

What new park would I like to visit are reading this book?  I would say the Katmai National Park and Reserve in Alaska.

Favorite Quote:

“We all need a space to feel free.”

Overall, 100 Great American Parks is a beautiful coffee table book to remember great places you’ve explored, plan ahead for new places to visit, or to “travel” from your own home through the wonderful pictures.

Book Source:  A Review Copy from Hachette Book Group as part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

50 States, 500 Campgrounds by Joe Yogerst (TLC Book Tours)

Do you like to camp?  If so, do you tent camp, or camp in a cabin or camper?  We used to tent camp, but now we camp in our pop-up camper.  I also tent camp or in cabins  with Scouts.   I liked this statistic at the start of this book, “According to the data portal Statista, more than 40 million Americans camp each year, and they spend about $3 billion per annum buying camping equipment. And that’s just tent campers.  Millions more experience the great outdoors staying in cabins and glamping, and more than eight million American households own RVs.”  Wow!!

 This book takes into account that there are many different ways to camp from rustic to glamping, family adventures to romantic.  I also like that it starts with a section on responsible camping covering many of the items we cover in Girl and Boy Scouts (such as Leave No Trace).  They are important items for keeping our parks nice for everyone.  I noticed last year that with more campers, there seemed to be a lot more people that didn’t know about responsible camping. 

 The sections are split up by state in alphabetical order.  There are highlights about the state include how many national and state parks there are. Each park is listed as well as a symbol for what type of camping, address, when it’s open, rates, amenities, and where there are ADA sites.    It’s fun looking through all of the different types of campgrounds around the United States.  It is giving me ideas for future camping trips.

 I looked around to see if any campgrounds I’ve been too were included.  The only ones I could find that I’ve camped at were Indiana Dunes State Park, Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground (Michigan), Peninsula State Park (Wisconsin), and Devil’s Lake State Park (Wisconsin).  I’m kind of curious how the campgrounds were chosen.  Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground was pretty good but plagued by the fact that the RV dump station was right next to the pool.  PU!!  We did have the most beautiful campsite ever with our tent right on the straits of Mackinac.  It was awe inspiring opening up our tent each morning.  The way the Wisconsin State Campgrounds were listed was atrange.  The title was the area of the parks instead of the actual park name.  Nicolet Bay is a section within the Peninsula State Park campground.  The Quartzite campground is a section of Devil’s Lake State Park.  I would have titled the section Devil’s Lake State Park and state that you like a certain section of the campground best and why.

 Do you have any favorite places to camp?

 Overall, 50 States, 500 Campgrounds is a fun book to use to think about planning a camping trip to someplace new.

 Book Source:  A Review Copy from Hachette Book Group as part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.