Family Adventures on America's Byways

Published on Apr 1, 2008 in Featured Travel Stories and The Holidays with Friends and Family

All across the nation, jackets are being unpacked with a warm welcome for the first time all year. Break out the boots, shake out your sweaters, and unpack the camera, because soon the colorful panorama of fall will fade into the monochromatic shades of winter, leaving nothing left to worry about but where to take your family for the holidays. Luckily, America’s Byways have you covered. From New York to California, America comes to life with a variety of memorable activities for any family.

Journey to California, where breathtaking giant sequoias and sierra redwoods await you at Calaveras Big Trees Park on the Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park (check first that the roads are not closed for the season.) These gargantuan kings of the plant kingdom range from 250 to 300 feet tall. The Louis Agassiz tree in Calaveras Big Trees Park contains enough wood to build 40 five-room homes, weighs 4,000 tons, and is almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty. At the Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, you’ll find the largest tree in the world, the General Grant tree, which measures 28 feet in diameter. Up close, the General Grant gives an awe-inspiring perspective as it towers hundreds of feet above you. For a better idea of the immensity of these huge trees, have everybody in your family hold hands in a human chain around the trunk and see if you can get all the way around.

Kids and dinosaurs are a great combination. Have yours create their own version of Jurassic Park with the prehistoric giants in Utah and Colorado on the Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway and the Trail of the Ancients. 150-million-year-old creatures such as the stegosaurus, triceratops, Utah raptor, and the almighty T-Rex will thrill them at the Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita, Colorado where they will learn about ancient life from robotic displays, real dinosaur bones, and life-size cast skeletons. Take them to the fieldhouse at Dinosaur National Monument near Vernal, Utah where replicas of dinosaurs forever frozen in stone tower over visitors. Also in Vernal is Dinosaurland, which brings the dinosaur experience to life with life-size exhibits, an indoor excavation pit for the kids, and even dinosaur hunting licenses. Travel further south to Price and show the kids just how big and mean the "terrible lizards" look with a visit to the College of Eastern Utah Dinosaur Museum. Finally, the Dinosaur Museum in Blanding, Utah takes you on an expedition to meet dinosaurs from around the world and the silver screen, including the original brontosaurus model used in the 1933 version of the movie King Kong.

Everyone in the family will find something to marvel at and chuckle over at Tinkertown on the Turquoise Trail in New Mexico. Created by local artist Ross Ward, this amazing museum of stone and glass-bottle walls features 22 rooms filled with wagon wheels, old-fashioned storefronts, and hand-carved wooden figures. From a rough western town to a hilarious big top rendition, miniature wooden cowboys and circus performers demonstrate the magic of craftsmanship. Hear your fortune for a quarter or admire wacky collections of wedding cake couples, antique tools, and bullet pencils as you explore this ongoing tribute to American culture and the imagination.

If your family has a flair for adventure, take them east to the Wilderness Road in Kentucky and relive the glory days of the wild frontier at Fort Boonesborough. Explore the same trails blazed by Daniel Boone over a hundred years ago or join in the pioneer way of life with artisans, hunters, farmers, traders, scouts and other townspeople in bonnets and homespun cloth as they recreate life at Kentucky’s second-oldest settlement along the Kentucky River.

Perhaps sampling seafood caught fresh from the ocean is more to your taste? If so, head out to America’s coastal byways for a seafood sensation your tastebuds will never forget. Head northeast to snag a lobster or two straight from the Atlantic Ocean near the Schoodic National Scenic Byway and the Acadia Byway off the coast of Maine. These sweet, succulent crustaceans are considered the best in the world and can be caught with simple lobster traps. Several local businesses in towns scattered along the coast provide guided tours to help newcomers learn the art of lobstering. Travel south to the Gulf Coast and cruise the bayou at Calcasieu or Sabine Lakes along the Creole Nature Trail in Louisiana where you can take the family to catch their own oysters, crabs, and shrimp. Although a fishing license is required, these tasty shellfish will satisfy their appetite for seafood in the midst of lush flora and fauna on the bayou. Just east of our country's Pacific Ocean coastline, join your family and search rocky tidepools in the beaches of northern Washington for mollusks, sea stars, and snails along the Strait of Juan de Fuca Highway-SR 112. Although these fascinating creatures cannot be removed from the shoreline, you’ll find crab, clams, and excellent saltwater fishing nearby at either Sekiu or Neah Bay.

The final frontier comes to the home front at the Kennedy Space Center near Florida's Indian River Lagoon Scenic Highway as you peruse early rockets and strap yourself into a cockpit much like the one shared by Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon in the movie Apollo 13. Feel the excitement of a simulated launch into space and learn about the experiences of astronauts such as Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride, and Jim Lovell. The thrill of space exploration comes alive on two IMAX screens in presentations narrated by actors Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise. Sign your family up for astronaut training in a two-day, on-site space camp where you’ll ride antigravity simulators, launch your own rocket, and work together to perform a shuttle mission. Have your camera ready for your own encounter with a real astronaut!

Finally, strap on your boots, grab your musket and travel up north for a visit to Fort Ticonderoga on the Lakes to Locks Passage in New York. Uniformed interpreters explain the exciting history of the fort during daily musket and artillery demonstrations. American Revolution-style drummers entertain with a sense of pride and patriotism worthy of the fort’s rich heritage. Escape the noise and rush at the end of the day as you stroll through King’s Garden and enjoy the tranquility offered by a dazzling array of colors from giant poppies, iris, heliopsis, and asters (in season.)

With so much to see and do along America’s Byways, the winter will fly by, but the memories your family will share will last forever.

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