Mystery Castle Phoenix Arizona

Mystery Castle is possibly Phoenix's most unique attraction. In 1927 an individual named Boyce Luther Gulley traveled to Phoenix in hopes that the mild climate would improve his health. His daughter, Mary Lou Gulley, was a fan of building sandcastles at the beach. 

Since Phoenix is so far from the oceans, Gulley set about creating the real-life fairytale sandcastle. He began work in the year 1930 and continued to work for 15 years, ending in 1945. 

The demolition of bricks, desert rocks railway refuse, and many scrapyard materials and car parts, among others, are used to construct the structure. The 18-room interior features 13 fireplaces that are accessible during a guided tour that explores the unique structure and its diverse collection of furniture and antiques from all over the globe.

Kings Canyon National Park California

Enter the park via the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway (Route 180), having spent the night in Fresno or Visalia. Better yet, wake up already in Grant Grove Village, perhaps in the John Muir Lodge. Stock up for a picnic with takeout food from the Grant Grove Restaurant, or purchase prepackaged food from the nearby market. Drive east a mile to see the General Grant Tree and compact Grant Grove’s other sequoias. If it’s no later than midmorning, walk up the short trail at Panoramic Point, for a great view of Hume Lake and the High Sierra. 

Either way, return to Route 180 and continue east. Stop at Junction View to take in several noteworthy peaks that tower over Kings Canyon. From here, visit Boyden Cavern or continue to Cedar Grove Village, pausing along the way for a gander at Grizzly Falls. Eat at a table by the South Fork of the Kings River, or on the deck of the Cedar Grove Snack Bar. 

Now you are ready for the day’s highlight, strolling Zumwalt Meadow, which lies a few miles past the village. After you have enjoyed that short trail and the views it offers of Grand Sentinel and North Dome, you might as well go the extra mile to Roads End, where backpackers embark on the High Sierra wilderness. Make the return trip—with a quick stop at Roaring River Falls—past Grant Grove and briefly onto southbound Generals Highway. 

Pullover at the Redwood Mountain Overlook and use binoculars to look down upon the world’s largest sequoia grove, then drive another couple of miles to the Kings Canyon Overlook, where you can survey some of what you have done today. If you’ve made reservations and have time, have a late dinner at Wuksachi Lodge.

Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery.

Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery. FAMILY A large colony of elephant seals (at last count 22,000) gathers every year at Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery, on the beaches near Piedras Blancas Lighthouse. The huge males with their pendulous, trunklike noses typically start appearing onshore in late November, and the females begin to arrive in December to give birth—most babies are born in the last two weeks of January. 

The newborn pups spend about four weeks nursing before their mothers head out to sea, leaving them on their own; the “weaners” leave the rookery when they are about 3½ months old. The seals return in the spring and summer months to molt or rest, but not en masse as in winter. You can watch them from a boardwalk along the bluffs just a few feet above the beach; do not attempt to approach them as they are wild animals. The nonprofit Friends of the Elephant Seal runs a small visitor center and gift shop (250 San Simeon Avenue) in San Simeon. 

Alaska Highway - A wilderness road trip through Canada and Alaska

RUNNING THROUGH SOME OF the most rugged terrains on the planet, the Alaska Highway is an epic 1,387-mile (2,232 km) journey through boreal forest, remote mountain ranges, and alluvial landscapes carved by rivers and ancient glaciers. Constructed during World War II as a strategic link between Alaska and the lower 48 states, the route stretches from Dawson Creek in northeastern British Columbia through Yukon to Delta Junction near Fairbanks, Alaska. 

Once gravel, the entire length of the highway is now paved, though stretches can still be potholed and rough. The major obstacle to driving the highway is extreme northern weather—it can snow even at the height of summer this far north. Grizzlies, moose, and other critters are also apt to wander across the road. Drivers should expect a general lack of amenities. 

Many businesses are seasonal, and even during the best weather, traffic is extremely light along much of the highway. The weeklong journey on the Alaska Highway offers one of the world’s most rewarding wilderness road trips. Along the way are Muncho Lake, historic Whitehorse in Yukon, and vast Kluane National Park and Preserve. The best online resource for driving the highway is The Milepost.

Badlands National Park

The White River BADLANDS could be considered a pocket-sized cousin to Arizona’s Grand Canyon. What’s most impressive about the “Badlandscape” is not its scale, as at the Canyon, but rather its sheer strangeness. More than 35 million years ago this area of southwest South Dakota was a saltwater sea; later it became a marsh, into which sank the remains of such prehistoric mammals as saber-toothed cats and three-toed horses, to be covered with white volcanic ash. 

Drying as it evolved, the terrain became unable to support the deep-rooted shrubs or trees that might have preserved it, and over the last few million years erosion has slowly eaten away layers of sand, silt, ash, mud, and gravel, to reveal rippling gradations of earth tones and pastel colors. The crumbly earth is carved into all manner of shapes: pinnacles, precipices, pyramids, knobs, cones, ridges, gorges, or if you’re feeling poetic, lunar sandcastles and cathedrals. 

While the Sioux cherished these incredible contortions of nature for harboring bighorn sheep, mule, deer, and another tasty prairie fare; early French trappers didn’t share the native's enthusiasm, dubbing these white hills the Mauvaises Terres à Traverser, or “bad lands to travel across;” they have also been brutally described as “hell with the fires out.” 

The most spectacular formations can be found within the Badlands National Park, particularly its northern sector, while the poverty-stricken Pine Ridge Indian Reservation encompasses the southern stretches. Clean-cut Wall, just a few miles north of the park boundaries, is the most–visited commercial center in the region.