A Windy Climb into Legend: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Climbing the dune at Sleeping Bear with five kids — the legend behind the name, the wind off Lake Michigan and the run back down.
The Cave that Slipped through the Cracks: Wind Cave National Park
Wind Cave National Park with five kids — boxwork formations underground, bison and prairie above, and no crowds at all.
Granite Faces in the Black Hills: Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial
Two granite monuments in the Black Hills, half an hour apart — how they compare, and how long to allow for each with children.
Columns in the Clouds: Devils Tower National Monument
Devils Tower with five kids — the base trail, the climbers overhead, and the Wyoming monolith Roosevelt made America’s first national monument in 1906.
Standing in the Shadows of Impossible Choices: Little Bighorn National Monument
Little Bighorn with young children — the markers scattered on the hillside, both sides of the story, and why it stays with them.
Mesa Verde: Snowflakes, Telescopes, and Stone Palaces
Mesa Verde with five kids at 8,000 feet — snow-dusted mesas, hundreds of ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings, and a scale that dwarfs the canyons before it.
Four States, Four Limbs, and Forty Bucks: Navajo Nation and the Four Corners
The only place in America where four states meet — the classic one-body-four-states photo at Four Corners, and why $40 for twenty minutes still felt worth it.
Turn East: A Detour to Canyon de Chelly
A ranger at the Grand Canyon told us to detour to Canyon de Chelly, so we did — the Arizona canyon most families drive right past, seen with five kids.
Montezuma Castle: Bark Rangers and Cliffside Castles
A cliff ‘castle’ the kids hoped held a queen — Montezuma Castle, Arizona, twenty degrees hotter than the Grand Canyon rim we’d just left, with five kids.
Cliff Dwellings, Fruit Snacks, and the Island in the Canyon
300 steps down to 750-year-old Sinagua cliff dwellings — Walnut Canyon’s Island Trail near Flagstaff, walked with five kids and a lot of fruit snacks.