A National Parks Reader Question

My heart-smart, homemade ketchup recipe

Our latest National Park Coddiwomple is racing toward us. I’m still planning where our travels will take us, but the possibilities have taken hold. Traveling in summer instead of winter means we’ll have different options.

The heart of our road trip will be in the American West, but getting there and back again offers possibilities to visit places we’ve never been, or have visited only once. 

Yes, there will be time spent in bison country, more than a month in the sprawling landscapes of the Southwest, interesting folks met along the way, and the titillating joys of long road trips shared by three friends.

Out of all the National Parks in the continental U.S. (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), which one is at the top of your travel wish list?

You can use this map as a cheat sheet. (Click to expand the image.)

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Edit: I chose to shut the comments down. I was simply hoping to see the park you most wanted to visit next. Instead, people kept telling me where we should go.

Giving Back

To celebrate possibilities, all annual subscriptions and gift subscriptions are $10 off this week. As always, half the proceeds of this sale will go toward animal rescue. Since we’ll visit Kanab, not far from Zion National Park or Bryce Canyon National Park, we’re raising money for Best Friends Animal Society.

Give a reader the gift of adventure.

Recipe from Our Kitchen: Heart Smart Ketchup

As a heart and kidney failure survivor, it’s healthier for me to make most of the food I eat. Soups and condiments contain massive levels of sodium and fat. I love food, and I’m always experimenting, always tweaking. This homemade ketchup is out of this world. It will last in your refrigerator for five days, but it won’t last that long!

If you don’t have date paste available in your local grocery store, it’s easy to make your own. Here’s one simple recipe (click here). Or you can order it from The Date Lady (click here).

Samwise in Arches National Park.

Emily giving up the shit that weighs her down in Joshua Tree National Park.