By Viktor Blok
Visitors to an Arizona national park see and enjoy some of the attractions that draw millions of people each year to similar preserves across the country. These include dense forests, diverse vegetation and diverse wildlife. At the other end of the spectrum is Petrified Forest National Park, which is named for areas of petrified trees, vegetation, and giant reptiles, amphibians, and dinosaurs that lived centuries ago.
It’s one park among a number that offer unusual – and in some cases unique – reasons to visit. These enclaves can serve as travel destinations in their own right or places to include in a vacation travel itinerary. The Petrified Forest is named after trees that flourished about 225 million years ago, fell and remained dormant until quartz replaced the wood, resulting in multi-colored stone logs. The red and lavender deposits around the logs explain the name of the Painted Desert, which stretches from the Grand Canyon to the Petrified Forest.
Other surprising settings greet guests elsewhere in the national and state parks. The bleached soil at New Mexico’s White Sands National Monument would be right at home on a tropical beach. Its dunes, which reach heights of 60 feet, were formed thousands of years ago when rain and melting snow dissolved gypsum crystals. Mineral mini-mountains provide a unique opportunity for sand sledding.
The moon, not a beach, comes to mind for people who look at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in Idaho. It encompasses three main areas of molten rock, lava tubes, and other volcanic features that duplicate the surface of our nearest lunar neighbor.
The cinder cones of the Craters Monument, which look like free-form sculptures, are repeated at Dune Peninsula Park in Tacoma, Washington, which was once the site of a lead and copper smelter. A major environmental project has transformed the former source of pollution into a beautiful park that pays homage to the bestselling science fiction writer and former area resident Frank Herbert, author of the Dune books. The park is landscaped with stone steps and metal sculptures, and a walking path leads past quotes from various volumes of the series.
Other parks also serve as places where art meets nature. Whimsical works are scattered throughout the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, part of Newfields, the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Many of the installations invite people to touch and even climb on them. In the Play Patch, visitors can use sticks, stones and other natural materials they find to create their own art.
The Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, New York occupies a former landfill. Today, it is an open-air gallery that hosts rotating exhibitions of works by artists from around the world. The name of the space is related to the large Greek community located nearby. The park is also a venue for plays, concerts and other outdoor performances.
What could be considered art in a different form is on display at Sign Park in Casa Grande, Arizona. Anyone who approaches this place from dusk to 11:00 pm is immersed in the glow of vintage neon lights collected from the surrounding area. Typical are much of the art deco that identifies the Goddard Shoe Store, which operated from 1945 until the late 1950s, and the sign for the Horse Shoe Motel. It features an image of a man waving, and a light behind the moving hand once indicated when there was a vacancy on the property.
Then there are parks that offer more than their basic appeal. Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park’s main claim to fame is that it is the site of the longest known underground system in the world. To date, more than 425 miles of its passes have been explored. Lucky explorers may catch a glimpse of some of the animals that make their homes there. Apart from rare species of bats, they include salamanders, shrimps and eyeless fish, which do not need to be seen in the dark surroundings.
Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park may resemble the Sahara desert, but it also contains a surprising variety of biodiversity. In addition to sandy shores, there are wetlands, lakes and forests.
Dozens of handmade birdhouses draw crowds to the Arroyo Bird Park in San Juan Capistrano, California. They are scattered among fake evergreen trees along with gnomes, blown glass sculptures and countless other trinkets that visitors have left behind. Some of the birdhouses serve as memorials to deceased people. Not surprisingly, the park is a great place for birdwatching.
WHEN YOU GO
www.nps.gov
www.nps.gov/crmo
www.metroparkstacoma.org
www.discovernewfields.org
www.socratessculpturepark.org
www.neonsignpark.com
www.sanjuancapistrano.org.
Dune sledding is a popular pastime at New Mexico’s White Sands National Monument. Photo courtesy of Sandra Foyt/Dreamstime.com.
. The landscape at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in Idaho resembles that of the moon. Photo courtesy of Mkopka/Dreamstime.com.
Dune Peninsula Park in Tacoma, Washington was the site of a lead and copper smelter until an environmental project turned it into a park. Photo courtesy of George Cole/Dreamstime.com.
Viktor Blok is a freelance writer. To read articles by other Creators Syndicate authors and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
Dune sledding is a popular pastime at New Mexico’s White Sands National Monument. Photo courtesy of Sandra Foyt/Dreamstime.com.
