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Trail Sign

Mammoth Cave National Park has recently opened a new hiking and biking trail called, Mammoth Cave Railroad Hike and Bike Trail. A nine-mile gravel and wooden boardwalk trail, it was opened in December 2007. We stopped at Mammoth Cave on our way home from our vacation and spent some time on the trail. Although better known for the famous caverns, what we discovered above ground left us wanting to come back again and again and see this beautiful path in all the different seasons. A little over 6 hours away from Chicago, off of I-65, makes this a very feasible weekend adventure.

Old railroad lines make great biking and hiking paths, but this is not a trail for a beginner bicyclist. There are numerous hills and three areas that are so steep, they recommend you get off your bike and walk it up the hill. It was a recommendation we thought highly of as we attempted to ride part way up the hill before hopping off the bikes and walking. Even that was strenuous! We did, however, have great fun riding down those steep hills!

Mammoth Cave

The path winds through some awesome forests and deep ravines. Since we were there in the Fall, we caught gorgeous fall foliage. We also got to see several deer including an amorous buck. The valleys and hills were well worth the ride with new glimpses of fantastic fall color as we rounded a bend. Pictures just never do it justice. We had the trail all to ourselves although we did see some other people biking it as we arrived in the park.

Stu riding down the trail

The trail passes a couple of cemeteries where several of the original settlers in the area are buried. You can also stop at Sloan’s Crossing Pond where normally you can see wildlife, but the water levels were way down when we were there so there was mostly mud to see. There are also several historic places and a privately owned cave, Diamond Caverns that you will pass by as you travel this path.

Furlong Cemetary

You will be sure to get a workout as well as see some great landscapes while riding or hiking the Mammoth Cave Railroad Hike and Bike Trail. Be sure to bring plenty of water, snacks and a repair kit as this nine-mile one-way trail could leave you stranded with a long walk back if not prepared. My back tire went flat while we were on the trail and we would have had a long walk back if not for my husband’s forethought to bring a repair kit and not just an air pump.

Trail Specs:
Length: 9 miles, one-way
Difficulty:  Moderate
Elevation Change: 12% steepness grade for hills

Trail Map

Zion National Park marks its 100th anniversary later this month.

The July 31 event will include speakers, dedication of the rehabilitated Grotto Museum building, Paiute dancers and an evening chamber music concert.

The ceremony begins at 9:30 a.m. Entrance into the park will be free that day.

The park was established as Mukuntuweap National Monument by President William Taft on July 31, 1909. It was rededicated as Zion National Park a decade later.

The Associated Press

The co-owners of a classic 1937 motor coach restored the vehicle and donated it to Mount Rainier National Park, where the coach and others like it were used for decades to ferry tourists.

Mount Rainier motor coach

By Erik Lacitis
Seattle Times staff reporter
The Seattle Times Company

A couple of guys work hard, take small businesses and make them successful, they’ve got a right to treat themselves.

That is how on Monday afternoon, park officials here were given the keys to a deco-style, canvas-topped, nearly 30-foot-long, 18-passenger, completely redone 1937 Kenworth Touring Motor Coach that used to take tourists to Mount Rainier.

The coach was returning home, courtesy of two Gig Harbor men:

Art Redford, 69, who founded Honey Bucket, the portable-toilet business with the instantly recognizable name; and Frank Pupo, 72, who owned the Northwest chain of Sam’s Tire Service.

The coach had been a rust heap sitting under power lines in a Pierce County field just outside Tacoma, surrounded by weeds and blackberry bushes.

Sixty-thousand dollars later, the heap became a vehicle that onlookers can’t help but ooh and ahh about.

Redford couldn’t let this classic piece of machinery with its beautiful lines end up sold for scrap.

Only five or eight (the exact number is lost in history) had been built by Kenworth, the venerable Kirkland truck-building company.

In the early 1980s, Redford used to drive by the field and look at the dilapidated vehicle. It brought back memories of his Tacoma childhood.

“I grew up in Fern Hill, and in the 1940s and ’50s, I’d ride my bike to Pacific Avenue, and I’d see it go up to the mountain, loaded with people,” says Redford.

That memory never left him.

From the 1930s until 1962, the coaches were specially built for the Rainier National Park Company to take tourists from the Olympic Hotel in Seattle, and the now-closed Winthrop Hotel in Tacoma, to the mountain.

Only three of the coaches are known to have been restored — this one, one that’s now in Montana, and another in Alaska.

Redford paid $350 for the coach in February 1984.

He figured it’d take maybe $15,000 to refurbish the vehicle, and recruited Pupo to help.

They had much in common. Both had taken over their father’s small businesses and grown them into something big.

“It sounded intriguing to me,” says Pupo.

But that $15,000 estimate soon was forgotten.

“The hood was missing, the wood on the floor was rotted, the engine wouldn’t work, the headlights were gone, the running boards were rusted out, the bottoms of the doors were basically missing, the canvas roof had collapsed,” remembers Redford.

It took three years to refurbish the old coach.

Then, Redford and Pupo used it for special trips with family and friends.

The coach went to Husky and Seahawks games; Redford’s kids used it for their weddings; it was loaned out for charity events.

The coach can cruise on the freeway at 50 to 55 miles an hour. It has a 40-gallon tank, uses regular gas, and gets 5 miles per gallon.

Twenty-five years later, Redford and Pupo decided it was time to part with the coach.

So they gave it to the park, the only conditions being that it be used as a working vehicle and never be sold.

Monday, the park gladly accepted, although it’s still figuring out just how to use the coach.

For now, it’ll be displayed at the historic Longmire gas station at the park entrance.

Redford says he’s sentimental about parting with the coach, “but I’m happy.”

The coach has come home, ready to stoke a new generation’s imaginations.

By Joe Follick & Lloyd Dunkelberger

Although state politicians find it difficult to agree on solutions to major threats facing Florida, ranging from hurricanes to a growing jobless rate, they do seem to be uniting against one new scourge: pythons.  more

Multilingual exclamations of surprise and wonder spring from the lips of millions of visitors who annually arrive from all over the world to stand awestruck at the Grand Canyon’s rim. A mile deep, and more than eight miles at its widest, the Grand Canyon reveals layers of exposed limestone, shale, and sandstone walls that extend from Lees Ferry below the Glen Canyon Dam to Pearce Ferry on upper Lake Mead.

Grand Canyon

Beheld from one of its rim viewpoints, the Grand Canyon is indeed stupendous, fantastic, and awe-inspiring. Even if there were enough adjectives in English to drop one for each of the 277 miles of Colorado River plunging through the canyon’s gorge, such a string of superlatives could not capture the majesty of what it’s like to gaze into the Grand Canyon for the first time. Yet, below the rim, accessible by miles of hiking trails, there’s another canyon that very few of the five million annual visitors to Grand Canyon National Park ever see. It’s a place of high-elevation Boreal forests and low-elevation desertscapes, a landscape of rushing streams and abundant wildlife. This trail guide covers an area with over 300 miles of trails.
TRAIL GUIDE

Activity Type: Hiking
Nearby City: Flagstaff, AZ
Length: 300 total miles
Trail Type: Many Options
Skill Level: Easy to Strenuous
Trailhead Elev: 1600 feet
Top Elev: 9089 feet
Local Contacts: National Park Service 
Local Maps: Grand Canyon National Park Trails Topo Map

USGS Bright Angel, Grand Canyon, Phantom Ranch, Cape Royal, Grandview Point, Bright Angel Point, Vulcans Throne, Vulcans Throne SE, Whitmore Rapids, Mount Trumbull SE 

Source; Trails.com

By Stu Marks