Natural Areas
Not every place worth seeing has a sign at the entrance or a ranger at the gate. Some of the best landscapes I have found were sitting right out in the open, a long way from anywhere, doing what they have done for thousands of years whether anyone shows up or not.
These are the natural areas I have wandered into that do not fall under a national or state park. Some sit on federal land, some on private property the owners have opened up, and some are looked after by a nearby town. What they share is open country, room to roam, and a piece of the landscape that made me stop the car and stay a while. Take a look at the ones I have found so far.
Visited Natural Areas
Amboy Crater sits out in the Mojave along a quiet stretch of Route 66, a cinder cone volcano roughly 79,000 years old, rising up from the flat desert floor with nothing around it for miles. It is bigger than it looks from the road and stranger than you expect up close. Standing on the rim looking out at what remains of Amboy has a way of making you ask questions you did not come with. Come take a look.
Turquoise water pouring over red rock, deep in a side canyon of the Grand Canyon. Reaching Havasupai Falls means a ten mile hike down to one of the most remote villages in the country, and the kind of place that does not look like it belongs in the desert. Here is what it took to get there.
Rising from the flat plains of western Kansas like something out of another world, Monument Rocks was the first site in Kansas designated a National Natural Landmark. These towering chalk formations have been sculpted by millions of years of wind and water into shapes that stop you in your tracks. Getting there requires a drive down dirt roads through ranch land with no services in sight, but that is part of what makes it worth it. Come take a look at what is standing out there in the middle of nowhere.
Monument Valley straddles the Arizona and Utah line on Navajo Nation land, the red sandstone buttes that stand in for the whole American Southwest in a hundred old Westerns. A 17-mile loop road runs past the Mittens and the rest, and Navajo guides can take you deeper into country you cannot reach alone. Here is what to know before you go, plus a look back at a 2006 visit.
Oak Creek Canyon runs twelve miles along Arizona 89A between Flagstaff and Sedona, dropping through red rock walls, running water, and trees you do not expect to find in the desert. The road is the experience. Pull off at the creek, take the overlooks, and give yourself more time than you think you need.
Orlando Wetlands Park is not a nature preserve in the traditional sense. Built by the City of Orlando in the late 1980s to filter reclaimed water, it sits on former dairy land just east of the theme parks in a town called Christmas. What began as an engineering fix is now home to more than 200 species of birds, along with alligators and all kinds of other wildlife. Come take a look at what I found when I walked the boardwalk.
Valley of the Gods sits in the red rock country of southeastern Utah, a quiet basin of sandstone buttes and spires you can drive through on a 17-mile dirt loop. There is no gate and no fee, just the road and the formations and usually nobody else around. Here is what to know before you go, plus a look back at a 2006 visit.