I really recommend Devil’s Hole State Park/Whirlpool State Park (they connect and overlap at parts) in Niagara Falls! Fort Niagara and Artpark are two other parks close to NF that aren’t as popular with tourists but are absolutely beautiful! Niagara Falls State Park is good for the falls part but is lacking in most other areas, in my opinion. Not that you asked for my opinion.
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Or brown here, green there.
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All opinions/recommendations are welcome! I’ve never been there before, so good to know!
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You’ve got me more than a little curious. And that’s about an hour away from my home near Niagara Falls, Ontario. I haven’t been stateside since the pandemic started, but hopefully it will be close to normal crossing next bug season.
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Hey hush! Don’t let everyone in on the secret
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I’ve got a lot more where that came from! It’s a great area. I have NY family that I visit usually monthly and they’re a buncha nature nerds so they’ve taken me to a lot of places in that region. The more touristy places are fun to experience but lack the more naturey side of things, so for iNatting I’d suggest the other places more than NF State Park, by a lot.
The cool thing is that NF State Park connects to Whirlpool State Park, and Whirlpool connects to Devil’s Hole, and Devil’s Hole connects to Artpark. So, it’s like all different angles along the water. There’s actually a trail you can walk all the way to Artpark from NF State Park but it’s like 9 miles, so stopping at each separately is probably more ideal! Fort Niagara is a little further down but it’s about 10 minutes away from Artpark, so all these spots are pretty close to one another. And they all have spots where you can go into woodsy areas and areas where you can get close to the water, which NF State Park lacks.
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Have you ever been to Queenston Heights Park? Artpark is directly across the water from there! And have you ever been to Queens Royal Park in Niagara on the Lake? Fort Niagara is right across from there! I love being able to see the parks from across the water. Gives such a different perspective!
We seriously need to get out maybe later this month…I would love to head towards Petrified Forest NP and do more hiking there (also: they allow dogs). Know any good camp spots for a van-with-a-bed that we travel in? Off the beaten trail / middle nowhere is bonus but we do not have AWD (confident on dirt roads but currently not best tyres on it for lots of sharp/rockyness). Nice campgrounds with showers ok too 'cause probably want a few of those here n there. Coming from Alabama so probably coming across on 40 if we do it. Camping/hiking spots between alabama and there please suggest too. Last time we went out west we made it to ABQ in one long drive because we were so excited we couldn’t sleep so we went with it haha but that won’t be happening this time. National forests with good pulloffs that allow overnight parking is perfect - we don’t need anything, just not to be bothered and like seclusion :) (must allow dogs) (feel free to DM me to not clog thread ha!)
Our setup (so this was established dry camp spot in a NF…and perfect, litterally was a pulloff along a dirt road there)
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If you mean int he Texas panhandle or NM I can help. I haven’t been to Arizona since high school and I’m 39.
Palo Duro Canyon is awesome and you can have leashed dogs on trails or at your campground. It’s not too far from I-40 and it’s worth spending a day or three in. Depending on when you’re passing through there’s a lot of different wildlife. I’d highly advise working on your dog with snake avoidance; western diamondback rattlesnakes are very plentiful there. I moved a while back and even before that hadn’t gone further west than Tucumcari or further east than Eufala in years though. Lake Eufala State Park is cool though, not a bad place to spend a day or so. Not sure of the dog rules there.
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I haven’t really travelled much for the past few years as I’m still recovering my finances due to being unemployed in 2020 and some of 2021, as well as some changes in life circumstances (family matters).
I’m hoping to travel again at least locally within my country next year (2023). My initial thinking is one of the national parks, e.g. Kruger or Addo, or one of the provincial parks in KwaZulu Natal.
Maybe I’ll travel again internationally in a few years. If I do, I hope to go somewhere I’ve never been before, so pretty much everywhere outside of Europe, although I wouldn’t mind going there again, this time to add to my iNaturalist list (had gone before with my family to visit relatives and family friends, so these visits were never nature-oriented. Main areas I’d like to go to are South America and Asia mainly.
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Oh, Utah is utterly scenery! If you can, skip I70 and take some of the old, smaller highways. Scenic Byway 12 is a cherished and time-honored way to see this amazing and majestic scenery. Boulder Mountain Lodge was the nicest place we stayed along the route. I understand it underwent some important improvements a few years ago.
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I am not much of a long way vacation traveler actually. I am more of a mover. Why go on holidays somewhere when you can actually move and live there instead? So that is what i did in the past few years.
We for now decided to stay at least one more year in Colombia with not intentions to travel abroad… I might have to plan a trip back home to Germany in summer maybe, as my nephew will have his first day in school and there are (almost… one is still on the way but should be there any time now) two more members of my family I haven´t met yet and really should at some point :-)
Other then that… more exploration of andean habitats in Colombia I guess
PS: I am excited for you guys planing to go to Ecuador! So far, it is the only country I could imagine to settle down to at some point. Loved life and nature there so so much!
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Have not to them specifically; but as a working SAR K9 she is trained to leave wildlife alone and has auto leave it for copperheads. Thats a good thing though! Really easy to do if you can get scent (buy online or taxidermist place) to train auto leave it in a positive reinforcement manner. Old school was shock cages :’( not good for dog or snake. Actually for copperheads i just picked up sheds!
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I’m hoping to go to New Zealand in this rough timeframe, perhaps after I finish graduate school – specifically, to see Holacanthella (among other things of course!). Arthropods are not given the same attention as mammals and birds when it comes to tracking endangered species, but given Holacanthella’s reliance on endemic, old-growth forests, I am highly doubtful that it will be around much longer with how hard climate change is already hitting Oceania.
For similar reasons, if anyone is interested in visiting a place to see its wildlife – please, go sooner rather than later. It may not be an option soon enough.
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I’m hoping the Galapagos. A friend invited me to go to Australia next year and if I can save the money I will for sure. Maybe Costa Rica again.
I have a long list of places I want to go. But those are the only ones in the forefront of my mind right now.
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Wish I’d known how to do that with Caspian for the giant toads. Y’all may have noticed that I always refer to him in the past tense.
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Technically the truth haha
Anytime I can get outside is great, we don’t travel much besides Montana or other neighboring states every few years. Luckily we’ve got a lot of good places in Minnesota
I applied for an opportunity to do some laboratory research in Mississippi as part of a six-month developmental assignment starting in March. I used to live in Arkansas when I was still in elementary school, but I haven’t spent much time in that part of the US since, so I’m excited to do some exploring while I’m out there. Unfortunately, I’m not quite sure where to start looking. I love visiting State and National Parks, but Mississippi doesn’t seem to have a lot to offer beyond old battlefields and historic parks (I’m not really interested in that sort of thing), and it doesn’t look like Mississippi has a lot of designated wilderness area, either (only three, and they’re all in the southernmost tip of the State, which is pretty far from where I’ll be). If I get a long weekend, maybe I can go drive the Natchez Trace Parkway or take a trip up to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, but I could use some more suggestions if we’ve got anyone familiar with the region on here.
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This summer–Evergreen, Colorado (near where I grew up) and maybe back to Alamogordo to visit some elderly family/play around on the lava flows and white sands again.
Next year, IDK. Part of me wants to get the kids up to the Badlands and Black Hills or maybe try the east coast somewhere–I’ve never been. But that’s a hell of a drive with 2 kids and a dog.
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Natchez Trace has some good stuff but the signs in MS especially when about native peoples are racist. I talked to the park staff about that one. Their answer was yeahhhh we know but dont have funding to replace the signs. I Also felt MS ran out of things and started making up stuff as well. Like one of the stops was “this is where the MS-FL line used to be back in like 18xx”. Uhm. Okay? Haha! Most the good stops are more up towards Florence, AL and the middle and Northern of the Trace. That area does have some nice hiking trails. Their site is good though with which have trails and those and the mounds are the stops worth doing IMPO.
Not much farther is the Shoal Nature Preserve, some really cute trails.
Sipsey Wilderness is excellent to get lost in for days (but please, not literally!) which may be close enough for ya. It would be far closer than GSMNP. It is the largest wilderness area east of the MS river.
MS does have a few National Forests, dont overlook those. In the SE the national forests tend to be excellent.