From the category archives:

Rivers

The Capital with Kids – Part 1

By Cindy Murphy-Tofig
Summer in Washington D.C. means steam rising from the sidewalks and tourists standing on the wrong side of the Metro escalators (stand on the right, walk on the left).
But it also means that many of the museums and monuments are open later, giving you plenty of time to visit dinosaurs, fly to the [...]

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Never Boring in Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Story and photos by Lynn DeBruin
The tiny flashlight was pointed downward as I deftly negotiated the dirt and pebble-strewn path toward the hot springs. But my eyes kept drifting high above the trees, at a mesmerizing sky ablaze with a million stars.
It was so dark – and yet so bright – on this moonless night [...]

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A Scenic Driving Tour of Northern New Mexico

By Hope S. Philbrick
If you fight traffic as part of your daily commute, it may be difficult to imagine that a driving vacation could be stress-free, relaxing, and, yes, even fun. But New Mexico offers all that with its spectacular vistas, spacious roads and natural vibe.
“New Mexico is full of open space,” says Steve Lewis, [...]

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Muscle Shoals, Alabama: Offers Everything for the Music Lover, Plus More

Story and photos by Bobby L. Hickman
Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers
And they’ve been known to pick a song or two
Lord they get me off so much
They pick me up when I’m feeling blue
Now how about you?
—“Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd

When the Euchee Indians dwelled in northwest Alabama, they called the portion of [...]

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Georgia’s Little Amazon Offers Long Quiet Stretch in Nature’s Midst

Story and photos by Bobby L. Hickman
“Where is everyone?” I asked our guide, Scott Taylor.
We’re two hours into a seven-mile paddle down the Altamaha River in south central Georgia on a clear August weekend morning, and we’ve only seen two bass boats.
“Seems a little crowded to me,” Scott finally answers. “Most days I don’t see [...]

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Oil Spill Dwarfs Florida’s Other Environmental Problems

By Bill Steiden
Stand on the wood-planked city pier in the Gulf Coast island town of Anna Maria on a sunny spring afternoon and you’ll be dazzled. The water stretching before you shades from clear Caribbean blue to the deeper green of central Tampa Bay. The shores are bright with sugar-white sand. Tall stands of long-needled [...]

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Camping Connection – From Natural Disasters to Natural Beauties

By Bill Steiden
A vast, open field at a mile’s elevation in North Carolina, bisected by a tumbling river and surrounded by green peaks.
A languid lake filled with the drowned corpses of a great cypress forest in a lonely corner of northwestern Tennessee.
Another lake, like a giant azure eye, winking from its high cauldron at the [...]

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River Town, Music Town, Fun Town – That’s Memphis! Part 2

Story and photos by Betsy Marvin
We sit gazing at the opulent lobby of the Peabody, “the city’s living room,” waiting to grab a cab for the airport. Back in 1935, David Cohn in God Shakes Creation described the space:

“The Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel and ends on Catfish Row in [...]

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River Town, Music Town, Fun Town – That’s Memphis! Part 1

Story and photos by Betsy Marvin
Big fans of the historic hotels of America, we’d long wanted to see the storied Hotel Peabody, and a winning bid for two nights there, in the annual (May) National Trust online auction fundraiser, provided the opportunity for a weekend getting to know Memphis. Our chance to sample a few [...]

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Camping Connection – Florida’s Flatwater

By Bill Steiden
The popular image of canoeing is eternally linked with 1972’s Deliverance – four men shooting deadly Class V rapids on a wild, remote river in wooden canoes. And that wasn’t the riskiest part of their adventure.

But nowadays, the backwoods folks are in the tourist trade, and they’ll tell you that kind of river-running [...]

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