The Mountain Park Environmental Center Restores the Spirit of the WPA

Built by the WPA in 1939, the Horseshoe Lodge has been renovated as an earth-friendly eco-lodge. Book one of the nature-themed rooms, then go out and explore the 17,000 acres of San Isabel National Forest or the Pueblo Mountain Park.

Oh, Grand!

Location	Grand Canyon
Type	Great Base Lodging
Duration	As Long as You Can Afford to Stay
Highlights	Did we mention the Grand Canyon?

Here's something I'm thankful for : the far-sighted visionaries who created our national parks and then had the added wisdom to build splendid lodges in the middle of them. For those of us who want our outdoor experiences mixed with a bit of comfort, these rustic landmarks can be as much of a destination as the parks themselves.

The Urban Ambler

Location	Austin, Texas
Type	Great Urban Baselodge
Duration	How Long Have You Got?
Difficulty	Depends on how well you handle your liquor.
Highlights	Live music all night long

I’m a city girl at heart, for whom walking will probably always remain largely a practical act, a way of getting there, spiritual in the sense that it delivers me to the houses of food and drink that are my temples.  Austin, Texas has a lot of these places of worship, so when my husband suggested we spend a few days there, there was much rejoicing.

American Legacy Route:
The Gila Trail

Feet Needed: The Gila Trail.  Click read more to see the map.

How old is the Gila Trail?  Let’s just say it was built by bison. No, make that mammoths.  Fifteen thousand years old, it’s really a network of trails and routes that animals and other people followed along the Rio Grande, the Gila, and other rivers.  Later, various Native Americans made it a major trade route.  The first non-American to explore parts of the route was probably Esteban the Black, a Moroccan who