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Tag: restaurants

Moab Restaurants and Accommodations

Moab Restaurants and Accommodations

Arches National Park

Arches National Park has an advantage that few parks share: access to an abundance of great restaurants. Its location just down the road from the town of Moab provides a choice of many cuisines, such as sushi, barbecue, quesadillas, Asian fusion, burgers & fries, and vegan options. Moab is also about 1.5 hours from Canyonlands NP, which isn’t that far in park terms. We visited Moab in the spring of 2018, and again in 2019, so we were able to…

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Rapidan Camp Loop Trail

Rapidan Camp Loop Trail

Shenandoah National Park

Spring is a great time to go for a hike and see wildflowers in Shenandoah National Park. This time, we decided on a hike to Rapidan Camp in the Central District. The camp was a summer getaway for President Herbert Hoover between 1929 and 1933. It is also important as it helped initiate the construction of Skyline Drive. In 1933, the Hoovers donated the land to Shenandoah National Park. It was later used as both a boy scout camp and…

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Restaurants & Accommodations

Restaurants & Accommodations

Crater Lake National Park

There are no large towns near Crater Lake National Park, so choices for local restaurants and accommodations are limited. Here’s what we experienced both inside and outside the park. If you’re interested in car camping, there are two campgrounds in the park – check out our Mazama Campground post for more info. Note: This trip was back in 2017 when the park’s concessionaire was Xanterra. It’s now Aramark, so options inside the park may have changed. There’s only one hotel…

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Restaurants & Accommodations

Restaurants & Accommodations

Redwood National Park

For us, vacation planning includes making a list of restaurants we’re interested in, along with a rating of how interested we are in each one. Some places turn out to be duds, while others are truly amazing. We’ll visit anything from a hole-in-the-wall to a food truck to the occasional higher end establishment in search of great food. There are no restaurants or lodging (aside from campgrounds) in Redwood National & State Parks. In 2010, Redwood Hostel, previously the only…

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Mathews Arm Campground

Mathews Arm Campground

Shenandoah National Park

Over the years, we’ve been to Mathews Arm Campground many times. It’s the closest campground in Shenandoah National Park to our home in the DC suburbs. It had been about a year since we had camped there, so we wanted to stay there at least once before the weather cooled off. We considered the campground to be our home-away-from-home since we found it to be well-organized, quiet, and close to hiking trails.

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Tucson Eats and Drinks

Tucson Eats and Drinks

Saguaro National Park

We have 2 main interests in life: the outdoors and great food. Saguaro National Park is conveniently located just outside of Tucson, so we got to check out a sampling of its restaurants on our trip. Tex-Mex Tex-Mex cuisine is seriously lacking in DC, so we were excited to try some in the southwest. Tucson Tamale is a local institution that I had read about before our trip. We visited during the week and at an off-time, so we had the…

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Schoodic Point & Schoodic Head Trail

Schoodic Point & Schoodic Head Trail

Acadia National Park

It was our last day in Maine, and we had gone to Schoodic Peninsula to check out the newest addition to Acadia NP.  We had already explored the Schoodic Institute and Sundew Trail.  Before our trip, we had seen photos of waves crashing onto rocks at Schoodic Point.  And a ranger at Schoodic Information Center had recommended hiking up to Schoodic Head, which would be the last hike of our trip. Schoodic Point The drive to Schoodic Point from the…

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Southwest Harbor Shops and Restaurants

Southwest Harbor Shops and Restaurants

Acadia National Park

Southwest Harbor is small town on the southern end of MDI’s west side. Our first taste of it was seeing the harbor itself on the drive in. There are several piers, and one had a small pulloff. It looked so picturesque with boats scattered around, and we just had to stop and take some photos. The harbor is small, so we definitely recommend stopping to take in the views. To us, this was quintessential Maine. Southwest Harbor is also the…

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Seawall Campground

Seawall Campground

Acadia National Park

Our journey to Isle au Haut and Duck Harbor Campground finally came to a close.  We had used up our maximum 3 nights to stay in the campground.  So it was time to venture back to Mount Desert Island where we hadn’t yet visited the western half of the island and our next home, Seawall Campground.  The weather had been great each day on Isle au Haut, but on the day we left the skies were grey and foggy.  As we…

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Stonington to Isle au Haut

Stonington to Isle au Haut

Acadia National Park

We like to go off the beaten path, so it’s only natural that we would go to Duck Harbor Campground.  It’s a primitive, remote campground on the sparsely populated island of Isle au Haut, and boasts hiking trails, bogs, and mountains to explore.  About half of the island is part of Acadia National Park.  What’s not to like? Our journey to Isle au Haut began in Bar Harbor, where we had just gone kayaking and checked out of Blackwoods Campground.  We headed…

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