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Rocky Mountain Ramble
Reader's Digest — Trail Ridge Road is open May to October, weather permitting; other roads are open year-round. No fuel or indoor overnight accommodations are available in the park. Bear Lake Road and Moraine Park (in Rocky Mountain National Park). Rocky Mountain ...More…
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White Sands National Monument
Reader's Digest — Ever changing and always beautiful, these vast, brilliantly white dunes trace their existence to the layers of gypsum in the surrounding mountains. Seasonal rains and snow dissolve the gypsum and carry it to Lake Lucero, southwest of the ...More…
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Petrified Forest Arizona
Reader's Digest — The park's geological story began over 200 million years ago, when pinelike trees were carried by waterways here and buried in the silt of a huge floodplain. The silica-rich waters slowly penetrated the logs' tissue. Eventually the silica ...More…
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Dead Horse Point State Park
Reader's Digest — Toward the end of the last century, packs of wild mustangs roamed the mesas around what is now called Dead Horse Point, a stone promontory surrounded by high cliffs overlooking the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below. Cowboys fenced the narrow neck ...More…
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Buffalo Bill Historical Center
Reader's Digest — Dubbed "the Smithsonian of the West" by author James Michener, this place is famous for celebrating America's frontier heritage. Inspired by its flagship Buffalo Bill Museum, established in 1927, the 237,000-square-foot complex has expanded ...More…
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Snake River Valley Wine Country
Reader's Digest — In the 1860s French and German immigrants began producing fine wines in the Snake River Valley, making Idaho nationally renowned for its award-winning wines. Unfortunately, Prohibition caused the wineries to shut down. Today 16 of Idaho's 32 ...More…
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Gates of the Mountains
Reader's Digest — Some 300 million years in the making, Meriwether Canyon, through which the Missouri flows, is spectacular to see. Limestone cliffs, intricately folded and studded with fossil remains from the ancient Mississippian sea, rise sheer above the river ...More…
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Salmon-Bitterroot Country
Reader's Digest — Driving conditions are best in summer; winters are cold and snowy, especially at higher elevations. Painted Rocks State Park, with camping and watersports, southwest of Hamilton, MT, on Rte. 473. Lake Como, nestled in a valley to the west of ...More…
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Trail Ridge Road
Reader's Digest — With more than eight miles lying above 11,000 feet and a maximum elevation of 12,183 feet, this scenic route, which crosses the U.S. Continental Divide, is the highest continuous paved road in the nation. Cutting through Rocky Mountain National ...More…
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New Mexico North
Reader's Digest — Sonoma County Tourism Program, 520 Mendocinio Ave, Ste. 210, Santa Rosa, CA 95401; tel. 800- 576-6662, www.sonomacounty.com Traversed long ago by ancient Indians, Spanish conquistadors, and traders from the East, the richly varied journey along ...More…
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Utah Byways
Reader's Digest — Canyonlands by Night (sound and light show on a Colorado River cruise, from May through October), Rte. 191, Moab. Arches, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands national parks. Natural Bridges National Monument. Utah Travel Council, 300 No. State St., ...More…
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North to Jackson Hole
Reader's Digest — Fossil Butte National Monument (fossil displays), west of Kemmerer, Wyoming. Lava Hot Springs, Idaho (known for its hot mineral pools). Periodic Spring (the spring gushes every 18 minutes from an opening in a canyon wall), in Bridger-Teton ...More…