Robert Cross

Established as a national park: Feb. 26, 1919. Area: 35,000 acres. Visitors: 3,097,954 in 1995. Location: About 100 miles northeast of Portland, Maine, 47 miles south of Bangor and 268...

GETTING THERE Commuter flights connect to Bar Harbor from Boston and Rockland, Maine, but most visitors arrive by car. Out-of-state license plates represent the entire Eastern Seaboard. Interstate Highway 95...

1. Schoolhouse Prairie. Near the southern border, open farm land and historic ranch buildings overlook a scenic, forested valley. 2. Tall Trees Grove. Certified the tallest tree in the world...

GETTING THERE Both American and United Airlines recently were charging an identical $469 round-trip fare, including taxes, from Chicago to San Francisco. The trip north to Eureka-Arcata, closest airport to...

Established as a national park: Oct. 2, 1968. Also adjoins three state parks established in 1923, 1925 and 1929. Area: 110,232.4 acres -- 75,451.84 federal and 34,780.56 state. Visitors: 373,653...

BADLANDS/WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARKS, S.D.--In countries where the peculiarities of nature inspire fits of whimsy, the outstanding features of sites like Badlands and Wind Cave National Parks most likely would...

Visitors approaching the Badlands from the east will be struck by the panorama of weird rock formations and the apparently endless sea of prairie. On the great traditional American drive...

Established as a national park: Oct. 1, 1890 Area: 747,956 acres (1,169 square miles), about the size of Rhode Island. Yosemite Valley is seven miles long, about a mile wide....

GETTING THERE A surprising number of people consider Yosemite a day trip from San Francisco, the nearest major city, but that's a drive of 195 miles each way. Fresno, Calif.,...

Yosemite officials say the average day-tripper spends only two hours in the park. These are the essentials they should try to see. On busy days, two hours probably will not...