Duke Dt Gardens

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USA

2025 Free Entrance Days in the National Parks:

• January 9 – National Day of Mourning for President James Earl Carter Jr.
• January 20 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• April 19 – First Day of National Park Week
• June 19 – Juneteenth National Independence Day
• August 4 – Anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act
• September 27 – National Public Lands Day
• November 11 – Veterans Day

The Southwest Road Trip

Scenic Drives:
• US Route 89A: You will pass by canyons, plains and forests along the way. As you travel eastward, it's breathtaking as your descend into House Rock Valley (near Page, Arizona) with Paria Canyon and Vermilion Cliffs in the backdrop.
• Moki Dugway on Utah State Route 261: This entails three miles of gravel, unpaved, narrow, steep, winding, 11% grade switchbacks! Got the idea? Please check road conditions and drive with extreme caution. Most vehicles can traverse without issue. If you are not totally consumed by the thrill of the drive, it offers spectacular views of Valley of the Gods below if you dare to look!
• Utah State Route 24: You can see Mars-like landscape in Goblin Valley State Park, which is 36 miles into Utah State Route 24 from Interstate 70.
• Scenic Byway 12 - All American Road: It's most scenic between Torrey and Escalante

Time Zones:
• April - October: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and the Navajo Nation (including Navajo Nation land in Arizona and national parks within the Navajo Nation in Arizona) all observe Daylight Savings Time (DST), except for Arizona.
• November - March: all on Mountain Standard Time (MST).

Please Help Defend Bears Ears National Monument, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument and Protect Public Lands under review by the Trump Administration. This is your land. It belongs to all of us, not up for grabs by a few lobbyists, politicians and businessmen. Oil and gas drilling doesn't make a compelling economic case when a global glut forces an extension of OPEC production cut. How many gold rush towns became ghost towns? Probably all. I've seen significant build up in tourism hubs like Moab, Utah and Monument Valley in my subsequent visits. Aren't tourism and recreation far more sustainable for the local economy? For all at stake - wildlife deserves to thrive in their natural habitat, native people deserve to safeguard their cultural heritage and sacred sites, ranchers deserve to keep their grazing rights and way of life, and for a visitor like me, we demand that this beauty be preserved for all. This land is beautiful. I hope you will get out there and see for yourself.

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National Parks in Utah

I'll return to Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Capitol Reef National Park and Zion National Park for the whimsical rock formations and their surreal colors. July to September is the rainy season, but flash flood is a concern in canyon country year-round. Always stop by the visitor center for the latest weather, road and trail conditions.

You hit two national parks - Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon along Scenic Byway 12. Better yet, you can hit the jackpot in Moab, Utah with two national parks - Arches and Canyonlands!

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Grand Canyon National Park North Rim

The South Rim of the Grand Canyon feels like a zoo to me. If you are looking for a less chaotic experience, head to the North Rim. The distance between the North Rim and the South Rim is four hours by car. Since your naked eyes can't really register the difference between the two, frankly, seeing one is like seeing both. However, the tradeoffs for this tranquility at the North Rim are first, the season is shorter (May 15th through October 15th) due to its higher altitude, and second, your only convenient lodging option is the Grand Canyon North Rim Lodge. If you have a hard time booking it, try Kaibab Lodge, which is 18 miles away and opposite to the North Rim General Store where you may find luck with free Wi-Fi. Another option is the Jacob Lake Inn, which is 45 miles away at the junction of US Route 89A and Arizona State Route 67.

From Las Vegas, it takes five hours by car via Interstate 15N, US Route 89A and Arizona State Route 67S to reach the North Rim. Around Grand Canyon North Rim Lodge, it's 1/4 mile to Bright Angel Point by foot, and 45 minutes by car to Cape Royal.

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Page, Arizona

Page, Arizona has become a tourist trap for obvious reasons - you can visit Lake Powell, Glen Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and Upper/Lower Antelope Canyons all at once. There's a Walmart and a Safeway Supermarket in town for you to stock up on provisions as well. For the same reasons, motel rates ($175 -$200 after tax as of June 2017) are above average too.

• Horseshoe Bend: Horseshoe Bend is located in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area on US Route 89. There's no gates, no admission fees. Pull over when you see cars parked on the side of the road and a open parking lot. Simply follow the crowds, after two hills, you will see more crowds with cell phones and selfie sticks by the rim of the canyon. Please, keep a safety distance from the rim and don't make your fellow visitors nervous!
  
  
• Antelope Canyons: From downtown Page, Lower Antelope Canyon is on the left-hand side on Arizona State Route 98, while Upper Antelope Canyon is on the right across the road. You are on Navajo Nation land at this point, and Antelope Canyons are only accessible by guided tours. There are three companies running the Upper Antelope Canyon tours, versus two for the Lower Antelope Canyon. Word on the street is that they are all the same. You can make an online reservation or walk-in if you are flexible with time and which one you visit. Mid-day tours in the Upper Antelope Canyon are particularly sought after because of the light beams that begin to appear in late March and last through early October each year. I showed up at the parking lot for the Upper Antelope Canyon Navajo Tours at 10.30am the day after Memorial Day (2017) and got the 11am tour. It's $40 per adult and $28 per child, payable by cash or credit card. There's also an $8 Navajo Nation permit fee that's only payable by cash. If you are interested in the more extended (and expensive) photo tour, you do require a reservation. The tour started and ended with a three-mile, ten-minute jeep ride and took about an hour inside the narrow canyon. I recommend that you wear clothes with pockets where you can keep your wallets and cell phones because purses and backpacks are not allowed on this tour. You will have ample opportunities to take photos. The tour itself doesn't feel too rushed, but it's definitely packed with domestic and foreign visitors alike, plus cameras and cell phones everywhere.

Tourist traps are usually not my thing, but the experience in Page is unique enough, I'll return to take the Lower Antelope Canyon tour. (As of June 2017, both Ken's and Dixie Ellis' tour cost $25 per adult, not including the Navajo Nation permit fee.)

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Monument Valley

Monument Valley is monumental. If you have seen John Ford's old Westerns, the mesas and buttes will look familiar to you.

Stretching across the Arizona and Utah border, Monument Valley is not a national park nor a state park but a tribal park managed by the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Department. Navajo people still call it home today. There's $10 entrance fee for a motorcycle, and a $20 entrance fee for a private vehicle with a party up to four, $6 per additional person (as of June 2017). Due to the severely uneven dirt road surface, it's challenging, to say the least, to drive inside the park even if you have a 4-wheel drive. To see most everything, you need to hire a Navajo guide for a jeep tour. You can try to haggle a little with the driver/guide in visitor center's parking lot beforehand. A tip was expected of us at the end. The ride was bumpy, sandy and dusty, so hold on to the railings and your hat!

FYI, just outside of Monument Valley at Mile 13 on US Route 163 is where Forest Gump decided to stop running!

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Mesa Verde National Park

It's intriguing to think how the ancestral Pueblo people decided to settle high up in the cliffs in the Four Corners, and how after seven hundred years, they ultimately determined that it was time to migrate south. Mesa Verde National Park protects six hundred such cliff dwellings, and offers you the chance to put yourselves in their footsteps and in their homes. Tickets for ranger guided tours are available at the visitor center for Cliff Palace, Balcony House and Long House. It's $5 per person (as of June 2017), and takes about an hour each. These are "hands-on" experiences where you will climb in or out of the dwellings just like the ancestral Pueblo people did. Since Cliff Palace and Balcony House are close together on the Cliff Palace Loop, you can schedule these two tours together in one morning or one afternoon. Note that it takes approximately an hour to drive up to the Cliff Palace Loop from the visitor center near the park entrance.

Back in town in Cortez, Colorado, you can stock up on provisions at the Walmart or the Safeway Supermarket. I'll also return to La Casita De Cortez for its friendly service, real inexpensive delicious Mexican food!

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Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument covers 1.87 million acres of unspoiled nature and public lands that YOU, the American people, own. It was the last place in the continental US to be mapped and the largest national monument in the US to date. It's also one of the national monuments under review by the Trump Administration. So why are we going backward on the 1906 Antiquities Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt now? For whom and for whose benefits?

• Grosvenor Arch: Grosvenor Arch is a sandstone double arch named after Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, a president of the National Geographic Society (1920-1954) and the first full-time editor of National Geographic Magazine (1899-1954). To get to the arch from downtown Cannonville, Utah, take Main Street/Kodachrome Road, which becomes Cottonwood Canyon Road, to Kodachrome Basin State Park. Continue on Cottonwood Canyon Road, which becomes an unpaved dirt road at this point, for ten miles and then turn left for another mile. It's about 18 miles in total from Cannonville, Utah. Most vehicles can handle the dirt road without issue if the road is not wet.
  
  
• Dry Fork, Peek-A-Boo and Spooky Slot Canyons: These have to wait till next time when I return to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument!

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Assateague Island National Seashore

Nobody knows for certain where the Assateague wild horses, or ponies came from. But against all odds, they continue to live in this harsh environment, graze on the marshes, wow and play tricks on visitors. They do kick hard, so keep a distance for your own safety and help keep them wild and healthy by not feeding them. We want to return to see the wild ponies of Assateague Island for another hundreds of years.

Have you read Marguerite Henry's Misty of Chincoteague? If you are interested in seeing the "Chincoteague" ponies or the "Pony Penning" that's held every July on the Virginia side of Assateague Island, you have to drive back inland for fifty miles to access that part of the island. There's a fence separating the Maryland herd from the Virginia herd on the state border, and the Virginia herd is owned and managed by Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company.

Even if you don't have a chance encounter with the wild ponies, you can go bird watching, enjoy the white-sand beaches and dunes, join a ranger-led walk, hike the trails, or watch people kite-surfing. This barrier island has something for everyone.

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Channel Islands National Park

To see how California once was, you can head to the inlands of Catalina Island. For an even more authentic experience, Channel Islands National Park protects and preserves the rich biodiversity and the ragged landscape of the five islands that comprise this national park - Anacapa Island, Santa Barbara Island, Santa Cruz Island, Santa Rosa Island and San Miguel Island.

In terms of logistics, Channel Islands National Park's main visitor center is in Ventura, California. Island Packers is the concessionaire that provides public transportation to these islands with boats departing from Ventura and Oxnard. An advanced reservation is required since schedule and availability vary for each of the islands and are subject to weather. Most islands have limited facilities, so please bring your trash out. There are camping sites and kayak rentals on Santa Cruz Island, which is about 1.5 hours away. Once you set foot on shore, your own feet are the only means of transportation around the islands. On Santa Cruz Island, combining the hike to Cavern Point and Potato Harbor is a popular option. If you are lucky enough to see the island foxes that are only found in Channel Islands National Park, as the ranger said, resist the cuties and don't feed them! It's against the law, people!

Back on the mainland, you will find the best and most authentic Taiwanese food in the US in LA County and Orange County. Here are a few of my favorites - sesames noodles at Pine and Crane, soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung, traditional Taiwanese breakfast at Four Sea and typical Taiwanese dishes at Class 302 Cafe.

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Crater Lake National Park

Although the snowy Crater Lake has its indisputable beauty, I'll return to Crater Lake National Park hopefully for a change of scenary. Definitely later than early July next time.

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Glacier National Park

I'll return to Glacier National Park to experience the vastness and the greatness of the American West again. Remember to check road status before heading out to Going-to-the-Sun Road!

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Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton is my favorite. I never get tired of looking at those mountains. I'll go horseback riding in Grand Teton again. I guess subconsciously, sightseeing on horseback gives you a very different perspective. By the way, it's nestled between Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park.

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Virgin Islands National Park

Laurance Rockefeller was instrumental in setting aside more than half of the island of St John as a national park in 1956. Thanks to that effort, today's visitors get to experience the pristine beaches of this Caribbean paradise void of development. The only detractions are probably the day-trippers and cruise crowd from St Thomas. I'll return to St John for the white sand, the bright sun and the turquoise water!

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Memphis, Tennessee

I'll return to Memphis for Central BBQ and to revisit the National Civil Rights Museum, which was partially closed when I visited due to a renovation.

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia or Philly for short, is the city of brotherly love and the home of cheesesteak. Dalessandro's in Roxborough, a neighborhood next to Manayunk, is well known and excellent. But before we declare this the best cheesesteak in Philly, do try the cheesesteak and the juicy and perfectly seasoned roast pork sandwich from John's Roast Pork. It has been run by the Bucci family since 1930 using their family recipe and it's been declared "America's Classics" by James Beard Award in 2006. By the way, if you are put off by the long wait at Dalessandro's, go across the street and have a cheesesteak at Chubby's Steaks. It's a respectable alternative.

Speaking of long waits at another Philly landmark, South Philly Barbacoa is well worth the time. The husband and wife team serves lamb and pork tacos until they sell out three days a week from Saturday to Monday in the heart of the Italian Market. Their slow cooked meat was so impressive that the couple was nominated as semifinalists for James Beard's best chef for Mid-Atlantic award. If you are not ordering by the pound, don't forget to order a soup to go with your tacos. Tacos and soups are all $4 each (as of November 2018).

Equally important, you can't go visit Philly without stopping by Reading Terminal Market. I'll return for DiNic's, The Original Turkey, Beck's Cajun Cafe, Beiler's Bakery, and the list goes on. Public parking is $4 at 11th & Arch Street and $7 at 12th & Filbert Street for 2 hours with a $10 purchase and validation from a single merchant.

Once I learned that there's a large Vietnamese community in Philadelphia, I had to check out their pho (Vietnamese noodle soup). I picked Pho Saigon and Pho 75 to try first because they both are in strip malls - no effort required in finding parking on the street. Pho 75 serves pho only and accepts cash only, while Pho Saigon offers a full menu and takes credit cards. Both easily passed with flying colors. You know the broth is good when it's full of flavors and not overpowered by salt. Yes, I'll return for another bowl of pho.

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Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Fancy a side trip out of Philly? You will be surprised by what you can see in Doylestown. Moravian Pottery and Tile Works offers tours of the workshop every half an hour for $5 (per adult) where you can observe handmade tiles being produced in a manner similar to that developed by its founder and builder, Henry Chapman Mercer, using Mercer’s original molds and clay that’s sourced locally. Nearby in the park, you can visit his home known as Fonthill Castle. If you have more time, Mercer Museum is roughly one mile away, and Kids' Castle in Central Park is a fun stop for adults and kids alike. Fancy a side trip out of Philly?

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Planting Fields Arboretum

This Gold Coast estate reminds me of those manor houses and gardens in the Cotswolds. Coe Hall was first built in 1915 as a residence and later rebuilt in a Tudor Revival style after a fire in 1918. The Olmsted Brothers, who inherited the landscape architectural firm from their father Frederick Law Olmsted (who co-designed Central Park), had a hand in the design of the grounds. The greenhouses and plant collections are world class, yet this 400-acre estate has a naturalistic and English park feel unlike other botanic gardens.

Although operated by a foundation, Planting Fields Arboretum has been a New York state park since 1949.

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New York, New York

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Brooklyn, New York

How Sweet It Is!

For those of you who want to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge from the Brooklyn side so you walk towards Manhattan's skyline, the stairs to go up the bridge are at the intersection of Washington Street and Prospect Street. The nearest subway station is "High Street" on the A/C line (NYC Subway Map here). You should also know that Brooklyn Bridge is the "Times Square in the Sky".

And for those of you who want to have a panoramic view of the New York City Harbor from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, there are entrances near all of the fruit streets (Cranberry, Orange, and Pineapple) and Clark Street at the northern end of the Promenade. If you are getting out of the High Street A/C subway station, you want to be near the back of the train if you are coming from Manhattan (or near the front of the train if you are coming from Brooklyn or Queens). You need to exit from the Cadman Plaza West entrance. From there if you walk along the path between the buildings, you can follow Cranberry Street until you reach the Promenade (the northernmost entrance is on Columbia Street between Orange Street and Cranberry Street). If you are taking the 2/3 trains to the Clark Street station, just follow Clark Street to the Promenade.

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Hyde Park, New York

If you are taking a day off, you can combine a meal at the Culinary Institute of America, aka CIA, with a visit to the Home of Franklin D Roosevelt, who was born, raised and buried in the compound. Or visit the Vanderbilt Mansion just down the road on Route 9. Or visit Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt's beloved cottage, and learn more about a woman who was ahead of her time.

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Red Hook, New York

Summer isn't complete without visiting the Hudson Valley and having Holy Cow Ice Cream. I'll return, Holy Cow.

And just very recently, the Historic Village Diner has become a "I'll Return" spot.

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Kinderhook, New York

I'll return to Samascott Orchards to pick-your-own suncrisp apples, black raspberries, concord grapes, tomatoes... By the way, do you know that Kinderhook is the birthplace as well as the resting place for the eighth president of the United States, whose first language was Dutch? You can visit the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site if you are interested in the history.

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