National Parks

Vacation planning resources for the U.S. National Parks, including Yosemite, Glacier, Death Valley, Grand Canyon. Info, tips and photos by Tom Bricker.

Yosemite National Park Photo Spots & Tips

Yosemite National Park is quite possibly the most beautiful location in all of California (or even the United States) with great options for photography ranging from unique mountains to rivers to waterfalls to even gorgeous lodging. It’s truly an oasis for landscape photographers, and it’s no surprise that it draws us in herds. If you’ve […]

Hike Report: Half Dome’s Diving Board in Yosemite

For today’s 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service, I wanted to share a hike I made over the weekend to the “Diving Board” in Yosemite National Park, a spot made famous by Ansel Adams’ “Monolith” photo. This location stands a stone’s throw from the face of Half Dome, offering a close-up view of that […]

Things To Do In Great Smoky Mountains National Park

With its large size and variety of year-round offerings, it’s no surprise that Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the United States’ most visited National Park, with over double the number of annual visitors that the second most popular National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, sees. This post provides a guide to Great Smoky Mountains […]

Things To Do In Grand Canyon National Park

Here are my tips for visiting Grand Canyon National Park, and our top 10 things to do at the Grand Canyon. This post specifically covers the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, which is where over 90% of visitors to Grand Canyon National Park go. (The South Rim is the side closer to Phoenix, Arizona […]

Glacier National Park Photos

I recently visited Glacier National Park in Montana with a few other photographers and spent a few whirlwind days photographing sunrises, sunsets, the Milky Way, and everything in between. It was an excellent trip, one that offered a lot of fun with fellow photographers and great variety in the scenes we photographed. After visiting Yosemite […]

Why You Should Visit Death Valley National Park

Quick: say what first comes to mind when you think of Death Valley National Park. Although I can’t hear you through the computer screen (the technology for that isn’t quite there yet), I’m betting your answer had something to do with absurd heat, dunes, or miles of barren land. Maybe it skewed more comically towards […]

Cuyahoga Valley National Park – Blue Hen Falls Self Portrait

This photo is from Blue Hen Falls in Cuyahoga National Park, which is located between Akron and Cleveland, in a fairly urban part of Ohio. I’ll have more on the National Park itself in a later post. Blue Hen Falls is a pretty popular waterfall in Cuyahoga. Thanks to a tip from Kristin, I explored […]

You Can’t Close Nature – Acadia National Park During the Gov’t Shutdown

Over the weekend, we trespassed in Acadia National Park. Like many stupid criminals that inadvertently boast about their actions on social media, I feel no remorse for what I did. Call it what you will (I prefer civil disobedience), but I think I did the right thing. Regardless of your political beliefs as far as […]