6 Must-Visit National Parks for Homeschoolers

It’s the ultimate homeschool field trip: Plan a learning and outdoor adventure to one of these great U.S. National Parks this summer. (And of course we have a book recommendation for every park!)

PHOTO: National Park Service

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When the United States first set aside the land that would become Yosemite National Park as protected wilderness during the Civil War, it was doing something brand-new. For the first time, a country was valuing wild-ness over development — and using its own legislative system to do it.

In a way, this made perfect sense: The United States didn’t have the centuries-old cathedrals and castles Europe did. What it did have was a continent full of natural wonders: mountains, geysers, prairies, mesas, beaches, forests. (It was also, of course, a continent full of independent nations and cities that had existed long before European colonizers — when artist George Caitlin first suggested the idea of a “nation’s park” in 1832, his idea was as much to protect Native Americans and their way of life as it was to protect the west’s wildlife and wild spaces.) More than century later, thanks to the efforts of committed conservationists like John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt, the United States parks system includes 392 national parks, monuments, battlefields, seashores, recreation areas, and other protected spaces. All of them are worth a visit — the writer Wallace Stegner called the United States’ national parks system “the best idea we ever had” — but these six should absolutely be on your homeschool bucket list.

1. Yellowstone

First established: 1872

Yellowstone was the first national park, due in large part to privately funded expeditions that reported geological and natural marvels like exploding geysers, alpine lakes, and roaming bison.

Why you should go this summer: Late spring is baby animal season at Yellowstone, so summer visitors might spot wolf pups, little pronghorns, or elk and bison calves roaming the park with their parents. (Take one of the park’s Xanterra tours to improve your wildlife-spotting chances.) Join the crowd to wait for Old Faithful geyser to erupt — it’s one of the rare experiences that feels totally worth the wait-time. Check out the spectacularly hued rainbow geology of the Grand Prismatic Hot Spring. Take a paddling trip to explore Yellowstone Lake, and bring your binoculars to keep an eye out for birds and wildlife. 

Recommended reading: Letters from Yellowstone by Diane Smith

National Park Service Photo by David Quinn

2. Grand Canyon National Park 

First established: 1919

“The Grand Canyon fills me with awe,” said Theodore Roosevelt, who believed the geological wonder was the one sight every U.S. citizen should see. “It is beyond comparison — beyond description; absolutely unparalleled throughout the wide world.”

Why you should go this summer: Though things get crowded in summer, by the end of August and into September, the park quiets back down. If you’re visiting in the busy season, get a more private view by walking the level, wooded trail to Shoshone Point — since it’s not accessible by car, this lookout point gets significantly fewer visitors. The 3-mile Kaibab Trail to Cedar Ridge delivers the most bang for your hiking buck, with great views and beginner-friendly terrain. 

Recommended reading: Carving Grand Canyon: Evidence, Theories, and Mystery by Wayne Ranney

3. Great Smoky Mountains National Park

First established: 1934

Great Smoky Mountains National Park attracts the most visitors of any national park — more than 10 million in 2015 alone. (That’s more than twice as many visitors as the second-most popular park received.)

Why you should go this summer: June and July are the park’s busiest seasons, but August and September are much quieter — and warm days, a plethora of summer wildflowers, and lots of young wildlife make these months a magical time to visit the park. Greet the sunrise at Cades Cove, where the misty valley will help you appreciate the “smoky” name and the waking-up wildlife is often out and about. This is one park where being an early bird is a smart move. (You can always declare an early bedtime.) Walk up to the observation tower at Clingmans Dome to get a panoramic view of the Appalachian mountains. 

Recommended reading: Bear in the Back Seat: Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park by Carolyn Jourdan

4. Rocky Mountain National Park 

First established: 1915

It’s easy to get your Rocky Mountain high at this park, where visitors can go from sea level to 12,183 feet at the park’s highest point. It took a lot of pressure from local nature lovers to protect this park, which miners, loggers, and other developers had their eye on during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Why you should go this summer: September, when the elk move to lower elevations in search of mates and the tundra turns crimson, is one of the most picturesque times to visit. The sheer variety of ecosystems in this park is staggering, and you can explore them all in the summer: wetlands, pine forested woodlands, montane areas, and alpine tundras stud the mountainous landscape, waiting to be discovered. Stand in the middle of the continental divide, and watch the water on one side head toward the Atlantic Ocean while the other side flows toward the Pacific. 

Recommended reading: A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Lucy Bird

President Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir standing on rock at Glacier Point, Yosemite, May 1903; Yosemite Falls and cliffs of Yosemite Valley in distance.

5. Yosemite National Park 

First established: 1890

“No temple made with human hands can compete with Yosemite,” wrote John Muir, whose conservationist crusading helped this California wilderness become one of the country’s first established national parks.

Why you should go this summer: By June, the entire park is open to visitors, which gives you an all-access pass to explore the park, including the many run-off waterfalls that peak in the spring and early summer. (By August, many have dried out for the season.) Rent a raft to float down the Merced River, a seasonal activity that can provide top-notch wildlife viewing. Wild- flowers come late to the park’s higher elevations, which means you can enjoy fields of wildflowers well into the summer. Though lots of people take advantage of the summer fun at this park, Cascade Creek is almost never crowded and makes a great spot for free play and nature exploration.

Recommended reading: The Camping Trip That Changed America by Barb Rosenstock

6. Acadia National Park

First established: 1916

The mountains meet the sea at this oldest national park east of the Mississippi. Acadia was originally named Lafayette National Park, for America’s favorite fighting Frenchman, but its name was changed to Acadia, in honor of the area’s original French settlement, in the 1920s.

Why you should go this summer: Museums and the nature center are open, tours are plentiful, and special events like concerts and plays occur during the summer months in Acadia. It’s also — barely — warm enough to take a dip at Sand Beach, home to some of Maine’s coldest water temperatures. Rent bikes to explore the carriage roads that criss-cross the park.

Recommended reading: Beckoning Landfall by Eric Berry

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Homeschool Field Trip: Birdwatching in New Mexico

Take a homeschool field trip: The end of winter is prime birdwatching season at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, when geese, cranes, and other winged wonders fill the sky at the beginning and end of each day.

Photo by Alex Briseño via Creative Commons

There’s not really a bad time for birdwatching at the Bosque del Apache, but you will find the greatest concentration of avian inhabitants at the refuge between November and mid- February. The sandhill cranes— exotic birds with gangly legs and dramatic six-foot wingspans—are home for the winter, and watching them take off together in flight as the sun rises and settle back down to the water in an angular ballet at sunset, gleefully squawking their staccato songs, makes for some of the most mag- ical birdwatching you’ll ever do.

The Bosque del Apache in Socorro, New Mexico (about an hour and a half drive south of Albuquerque and just eight miles from San Antonio) is an ecology story with a happy ending. When the refuge was established seventy years ago, only seventeen long-limbed sandhill cranes wintered here. Today, thanks to carefully established habitats and water management, more than 15,000 cranes — not to mention snow geese, Canada geese, hawks, eagles, blackbirds, crows, roadrunners, herons, spar- rows, grebes, and coots — call the preserve home, along with occasional reptiles, amphibians and mammals, such as mule deer, coyotes, and jackrabbits. (Check at the visitor center for a list of what wildlife rangers and visitors have recently spotted in the park.)

Arrive before sunrise for the best view of cranes taking flight. (Bundle up — those early mornings get chilly.) You’ll see lots of people at the Flight Deck, but if you keep driving 30-ish yards down the road, you’ll get a private show. Don’t race off after the first dramatic flight; if you stick around, you’ll see the late risers splashing in the water before spreading their wings to launch into the sky.

Afternoon is the perfect time to explore the refuge on foot. The three-mile Canyon National Recreation Trail has great habitat views, and you can settle in for some serious birdwatching at the Phil Norton Blind on the Farm Loop, where birds hunt in the surrounding fields. If you don’t feel like hiking, drive the 12-mile Wildlife Drive loop that circles the refuge; pull over to check out sights that strike you.

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Homeschool Field Trip: Birdwatching in New Mexico

Winter is prime birdwatching season at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, when geese, cranes, and other winged wonders fill the sky at the beginning and end of each day.

Photo by Alex Briseño via Creative Commons

There’s not really a bad time for birdwatching at the Bosque del Apache, but you will find the greatest concentration of avian inhabitants at the refuge between November and mid- February. The sandhill cranes— exotic birds with gangly legs and dramatic six-foot wingspans—are home for the winter, and watching them take off together in flight as the sun rises and settle back down to the water in an angular ballet at sunset, gleefully squawking their staccato songs, makes for some of the most mag- ical birdwatching you’ll ever do.

The Bosque del Apache in Socorro, New Mexico (about an hour and a half drive south of Albuquerque and just eight miles from San Antonio) is an ecology story with a happy ending. When the refuge was established seventy years ago, only seventeen long-limbed sandhill cranes wintered here. Today, thanks to carefully established habitats and water management, more than 15,000 cranes — not to mention snow geese, Canada geese, hawks, eagles, blackbirds, crows, roadrunners, herons, spar- rows, grebes, and coots — call the preserve home, along with occasional reptiles, amphibians and mammals, such as mule deer, coyotes, and jackrabbits. (Check at the visitor center for a list of what wildlife rangers and visitors have recently spotted in the park.)

Arrive before sunrise for the best view of cranes taking flight. (Bundle up — those early mornings get chilly.) You’ll see lots of people at the Flight Deck, but if you keep driving 30-ish yards down the road, you’ll get a private show. Don’t race off after the first dramatic flight; if you stick around, you’ll see the late risers splashing in the water before spreading their wings to launch into the sky.

Afternoon is the perfect time to explore the refuge on foot. The three-mile Canyon National Recreation Trail has great habitat views, and you can settle in for some serious birdwatching at the Phil Norton Blind on the Farm Loop, where birds hunt in the surrounding fields. If you don’t feel like hiking, drive the 12-mile Wildlife Drive loop that circles the refuge; pull over to check out sights that strike you.

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5 Road Trip Field Trips for Black History Month

It’s not as though you need an excuse to add more diverse history to your homeschool studies, but February is a great month to explore some of the terrific Black history-focused museums around the country. If you can score passes to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, you won’t want to miss your chance to check out this latest addition to the Smithsonian museums. But if Washington, D.C. isn’t on your February travel list, there are several other Black History Month destinations worth a field trip. 

Exhibit at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Birmingham, Ala.

Birmingham earned the not-so-esteemable nickname Bombingham during the 1950s and 1960s when racial tensions led to horrific violence in the Alabama city, so it’s appropriate that the city’s civil rights institute is located across the street from one of the black churches bombed during those tumultuous years. Inside, the museum does a terrific job showing what life was like for Black Americans from the 1800s through the end of the 20th century—and how different their lives were from the lives of contemporary white Americans.

Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

DuSable Museum of African American History
Chicago

Many people don’t realize how much of the Windy City’s history was shaped by Black Americans — did you know, for instance, that the founder of Chicago, Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, was an African-French Haitian? The DuSable attempts to repair that omission, chronicling and interpreting the lives of Chicago’s Black community and serving as a fulcrum for Black activism and social justice in the midwest.

Slave pen exhibit at the National Underground railroad Freedom Center (Wikimedia Commons)

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Cincinnati

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center sits on the Ohio River, once a symbol of freedom for enslaved people since it separated free Ohio from slave-holding Kentucky. A highlight of the museum is the reconstructed “slave pen” — a sort of holding jail for enslaved people before they went on the auction block, but there are a number of noteworthy exhibits focusing both on the institution of slavery and the struggle for freedom.

Exhibit at the Museum of the African Diaspora (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Museum of the African Diaspora
San Francisco

A museum that focuses on Black achievement and history beyond slavery and civil rights? Count us in. There are many stories to tell about the black experience in the United States, but the Museum of the African Diaspora honors Africa’s art, culture, and global influence with a frequently rotating selection of exhibits. (Bonus: The museum bookstore is amazing.)

International Civil Rights Center & Museum (Photo: Wikimedia commons)

International Civil Rights Center & Museum
Greensboro, N.C.

The Woolworth lunch counter where four black college students staged a sit-in in 1960 became a touchstone of the civil rights movement, so it’s a fitting spot for North Carolina’s civil rights museum. The lunch counter is still there — along with a number of exhibitions that highlight the challenges, triumphs, and tragedies of the civil rights movement. 

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