San Miguel’s only problem may be its own popularity. It is so nice that too many people want to come to visit or move there altogether. In the last decade San Miguel has topped both Travel & Leisure and Conde Nast’s lists for the best city in the world on multiple occasions.
The Painted Hills are part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument and are located near Mitchell, Oregon on Highway 26. It’s actually a pretty compact area and it includes five trails and a couple of viewpoints so that you can both look at and get out into the hills. They say the Painted Hills are best seen in the late afternoon or after moisture but I have to add one more key timing element to that list and that is to see the hills when the wildflowers in the area are in bloom (early June in our case) because they add a tremendous amount of color to the borders of the Painted Hills.
We didn’t just magically appear at Glacier National Park in our van. The journey to and fro was full of lots of amazing things and we had quite an enjoyable drive getting there and back. This is a picture story of our 12 day trek to Glacier NP and back.
Try this on for size – according to the National Park Service, Glacier NP is over a million acres in size, has 175 mountains large enough to be given a name, and includes 762 lakes, 563 streams, and over 200 named waterfalls within the park boundaries. Add to that 25 named glaciers, and over 745 miles of maintained hiking trails and you have a recipe for fabulous getaway in nature.
If you are planning a trip and your drive is going to take you near Page, Arizona then plan ahead and book a hike through one of the Antelope slot canyons for a memorable visual experience.
The constant variations of the valley colors due to the light conditions and weather give Monument Valley an ever-changing beauty. John Wayne called it God’s treasure and I have to agree with the Duke.
