Travel National

What if we were less reliant on our cars? What if there were safe cycling paths to take us places instead? What if those paths led to the next town, the next village and the countryside beyond? This was the dream of a group of Bristolian idealists in the 1970s when they founded Britain’s National Cycle Network, which now runs to nearly 13,000 miles across the country. Journalist Laura Laker sets off on an odyssey around the UK to see where the NCN began, and where it is now.

Dear Bob and Sue is the story of our (Matt and Karen Smith's) journey to all 59 US National Parks. We wrote the book as a series of emails to our friends, Bob and Sue, in which we share our humorous and quirky observations. It is at times irreverent, unpredictable, and sarcastic, all in the spirit of humor. We describe a few of our experiences in each park but do not provide an exhaustive overview of each experience or park.

The pioneering advocate of wilderness preservation, John Muir (1838-1914) was influential in the creation of many national parks.

Learn about the beauty of Yellowstone National Park with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series.

Steaming rivers, stone forests, and bubbling lava are a daily occurrence at Yellowstone National Park. It's the oldest national park in the world and is renowned for its pristine nature and extreme climates. Nowhere else in America can you take a vacation where you drive by a herd of buffalo, watch boiling water shoot into the sky, and feel the slight tremour of earthquakes below your feet.

Learn about the history of the National Gallery in London with iMinds Travel's insightful audio knowledge series. The National Gallery of England, situated in the capital city of London, houses an impressive 2,300 works of art. With such an expansive collection, many connoisseurs of fine art rank it as second only to the Louvre in terms of the world’s great galleries.

In the lonely expanse of Northern Australia lies the second biggest national park in the world. It is a place where fire transforms landscapes, floods drown flatlands, and ancient writing haunts cliffs. In this tropical wilderness, ancient fish spit water at passing insects, unnamed waterfalls tumble into vast gorges, and giant crocodiles rule the dark rivers. This is Kakadu National Park - Australia’s natural and cultural treasure.

Yellowstone is a land of extreme diversity. Nowhere else will you find wolves, bison, and grizzlies living among the largest concentration of hot springs and geysers in the world. The park’s 2.2 million acres is an incongruous landscape of bubbling hot, lunar-like geothermal features, lush green rolling meadowlands, snow covered mountain peaks, colorful canyons, waterfalls, lakes and untamed rivers. It is a park so large, so complex and so fascinating it seems fitting that it owns the title as our world’s first national park! Travel Audios’ park approved audio tour will help you understand what you are seeing and smelling! It is not a mile-by-mile guide; it can be listened to anywhere. It features an impressive group of knowledgeable Park Ranger geologists, biologists and naturalists who explain the geological processes that created the landscape and why this area in Wyoming is such a geothermal hot spot. They’ll tell you about their studies and observations of the park’s wildlife and their experience with massive forest fires.

The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks. For 12 years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.

Does time heal all wounds? Or do some last forever? Pennsylvania, 1971: Graham Davidson is a young man with survivor’s guilt after the death of three siblings. Estranged from his father and seeking a direction in his life, Graham learns about vision quests from a Crow Indian. He secures seasonal employment in Yellowstone National Park and embarks on a spiritual journey. Wyoming Territory, 1871: Under a full moon at a sacred thermal area, Graham finds himself in Yellowstone a century earlier - one year before it was established as a national park.

Aside from crowds of hikers, campers, and general tourists, there's a dark side to these three locations in California; the famous Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Mount Shasta. From strange disappearances, grisly murders, and bone-chilling paranormal hauntings to ghost sightings, these pristine locales have a lot more to offer than just serene hiking trails or camping. In this second installment of National Park Mysteries & Disappearances, Steve Stockton, along with Bill Melder, presents the listener with a side to these locations you've never heard before.

For 50 years, Freeman Tilden's Interpreting Our Heritage has been an indispensable sourcebook for those who are responsible for developing and delivering interpretive programs. This expanded and revised anniversary edition includes not only Tilden's classic work but also five additional essays by Tilden on the art and craft of interpretation, a new foreword by former National Park Service director Russell Dickenson, and an introduction by R. Bruce Craig that puts Tilden's writings into perspective for present and future generations.

Actor and award-winning travel writer Andrew McCarthy's featured story recounts his quest to uncover his family's Irish history while 25 other prominent writers tell their own heartfelt stories of connection. Spanning the globe, these stories offer personal takes on journeying home, whether the authors are actively seeking long-lost relatives, meeting up with seldom-seen family members, or perhaps just visiting the old country to get a feel for their roots.

Looking for thrilling Instagram worthy hikes without doing all the research? You’ve seen all those picture-perfect landscapes of Zion National Park and said to yourself, “I will make it there one day". After you've finally booked your trip, you realize you haven’t planned a single thing, nor do you know what to expect except from what you see in photos. Don’t panic. It's never too late. Planning for a hiking trip isn’t easy, but it isn’t as hard as you think either.

America's northern border is the world's longest international boundary, yet it remains obscure even to Americans. Travel writer Porter Fox spent two years exploring its length by canoe, freighter, and car - and in Northland, he delivers the little-known history of the region and a riveting account of his travels. Fox follows explorer Samuel de Champlain's adventures; recounts the rise and fall of the iron, wheat, and timber industries; crosses the Great Lakes on a freighter; and tracks America's fur traders through the Boundary Waters.

Deserts are environments that can be inhospitable even to seasoned explorers. Craig Childs has spent years in the deserts of the American West, and his treks through arid lands in search of water reveal the natural world at its most extreme.

As Tammy explores mountains and beaches in paradise, she’s fueled by the allure of new cultures, creating memories that have made her who she is today. Throughout her island adventures to the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and Curacao, as well as hikes through national parks in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, surprises lurk at every turn—from navigating floods to fending off avian ambushes. Embracing the chaos, Tammy turns each misadventure into a story worth telling.

Banff is one of the most renowned tourist destinations in Canada and the most popular in the Canadian Rockies. It is the oldest national park in Canada, the second in North America (following Yellowstone in Wyoming) and the third oldest park in the world (following Royal in Australia). It encompasses 6,641 square kilometres (2,564 square miles) including the Lake Louise area and part of the Icefields Parkway.

When Steve Sieberson and his wife unexpectedly found themselves in Britain with an entire summer on their hands, they readily agreed to avoid the usual tourist attractions, opting instead for a road trip to the UK’s far-flung national parks. As they set out, however, he envisioned bracing days of energetic hill-walking, while she assumed they would relax in tearooms and cozy pubs.

The USA's national parks truly are places of wonder: staggering landscapes of jaw-dropping dimensions and incredible diversity where you can stand on the very edge of civilisation. They are the earth's breathing spaces, precious places to conserve nature and wildlife for future generations. And they are playgrounds filled with countless places to hike, camp, climb, swim and paddle, where you and your family can create lifelong memories of freedom and wide-open spaces.

Spanning more than 84 million acres, the national parks have something for everyone. Whether you want to traverse rocky mountain cliffs, see majestic wildlife like black bears and buffalo, or walk the rims of active volcanoes, any outdoor adventure is possible. You just have to know where to go. Which is exactly where this book comes in handy.