Two Chicks with Hiking Sticks

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve is the largest national park in the U.S. — 13.2 million acres that almost never got protected at all. In this episode, Susan and Monica dig into the Russian explorer the park is named after, the 1978 deadline that nearly opened the land to development, and the wild story of Kennicott: a copper mining town that made $200 million in ore and then vanished almost overnight. Plus: the infamous 60-mile, pothole-filled McCarthy Road, hiking the north side's Caribou Trail, and an honest debate about whether the trip out to Kennicott is actually worth it.

Featured: Kennicott Mining Town, McCarthy Road, Caribou Trail, Wrangell & St. Elias Mountain Ranges

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Two Chicks with Hiking Sticks head to Dayton, Ohio to explore the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park — the six-site park honoring Wilbur and Orville Wright AND poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. 

We walk the Wright Cycle Company shop and discuss where the Wrights proved flight was practical. Come with us as we uncover how a bicycle shop, a poet, and a prairie changed the world.

📍 Featured: Wright Cycle Company | Huffman Prairie Flying Field | Paul Laurence Dunbar House | Wright Brothers Memorial Hill

🥾 Trails covered: Wright Brothers-Huffman Prairie Trail, Eastwood MetroPark Buckeye Trail, and more easy/moderate options great for 50+ hikers

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#DaytonOhio #WrightBrothers #NationalParkService #PaulLaurenceDunbar #AviationHistory #NPS #HikingPodcast #NationalHistoricalPark #TwoChicksWithHikingSticks #HuffmanPrairie #OhioTravel #HistoryPodcast

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This week Susan and Monica cover White Sands National Park — our 62nd of 63 — and there's way more going on here than sand. We get into why it sat as a "national monument" for 86 years before finally becoming a national park in 2019 (spoiler: it involved a defense bill), why the park sometimes has to shut its only road down for active missile testing next door, and the 21,000–23,000-year-old human footprints that are rewriting what we know about the first people in North America.

Plus: the Mescalero Apache and early farming cultures who called this basin home, a ghost story called Pavla Blanca, and an honest-to-goodness unsolved 1896 disappearance.

📍 Featured: Dune Drive, the White Sands Missile Range, the fossil footprint fields

🥾 Good to know: check road closures before you go — missile testing can shut the only way in for hours

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#WhiteSandsNationalPark #NewMexico #NationalParks #NPS #GypsumDunes #IceAgeFootprints #MescaleroApache #PavlaBlanca #TwoChicksWithHikingSticks #HikingPodcast

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This week we're at Tumacácori National Historical Park, a 360-acre National Historical Park protecting the ruins of three Spanish colonial missions along Arizona's Santa Cruz River. We dig into Padre Kino's 1691 mission and the Anza Trail's road to San Francisco.

📍 Featured: Mission San José de Tumacácori, Tumacácori Museum

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#Tumacacori #ArizonaMissions #NPS #SantaCruzRiver #HikingPodcast #TwoChicksWithHikingSticks #NationalHistoricalPark #AnzaTrail #SonoranDesert #ArizonaHiking

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Two Chicks with Hiking Sticks heads to Lassen Volcanic National Park — and it turns out the story behind this "hidden gem" is way weirder than we expected. We dig into how a failed political fight only got resolved because the mountain literally erupted, how the devastating 2021 Dixie Fire reshaped huge parts of the park, and why the man the park is named after might not have deserved the honor at all.

🌋 In this episode:

• The political fight and eruption that created the park
• The lasting scars (and recovery) from the 2021 Dixie Fire
• The surprisingly shady history behind the park's namesake

👍 Like, subscribe, and tell us: should this park be renamed?

#LassenVolcanicNationalPark #NationalParks #NPS #Lassen #CaliforniaTravel #HikingForSeniors #TwoChicksWithHikingSticks #OutdoorAdventure #NationalParkService #HikingPodcast #Volcano #DixieFire #NationalParkHistory #TravelPodcast #ExploreCalifornia

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Susan and Monica head to Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park just outside Macon, Georgia — a site with evidence of continuous human habitation for 12,000 to 17,000 years. We cover the Great Temple Mound (55 feet high, built basket by basket by South Appalachian Mississippian laborers), the massive 1930s archaeological excavation, and the uncomfortable truth behind it: the human remains that were disinterred and are still being repatriated to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation nearly 100 years later. We also get into the bigger questions this place raises — who owns a mound if it's on your land, whether Ocmulgee deserves to become the 64th official U.S. National Park (it's currently in subcommittee for 2026), and why letting the Muscogee Nation frame their own story matters. Plus: scorpions, sock etiquette, and Monica's Acoma Pueblo shirt.

🥾 Two Chicks with Hiking Sticks explores the intersections of culture, history, and the natural world through National Park Service sites and the local places around them.

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📍 Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park, Macon, GA

#OcmulgeeMounds #NationalParkService #TwoChicksWithHikingSticks #MaconGeorgia #MuscogeeNation #NationalHistoricPark #HikingHistory #GeorgiaTravel #NPS #IndigenousHistory #NextNationalPark #Repatriation #ExploreGeorgia #PublicLands #NativeAmericanHistory

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We're covering one of the least-visited parks in the whole system — North Cascades National Park in Washington State. This place has over 300 glaciers, turquoise glacial lakes, ancient Indigenous trade routes crossing the mountains 10,000 years ago, and a wild history of dams, clear-cut forests, and an international fight with Canada that just got a nearly $1 billion resolution THIS YEAR. Plus: the fire lookout summer that inspired Jack Kerouac, our must-see spots, best trails, and — obviously — a Bigfoot check-in. Grab your sticks and come hike it with us!

⏱️ Chapters below

🥾 Established 1968 | 300+ glaciers | No entrance fee

📖 Jack Kerouac's fire lookout summer

🦫 The bear-sized beaver that used to roam here

⚡ The Skagit River dam fight that's still unfolding

Like what you heard? Subscribe, drop a comment with questions about this park (or the next one we should cover), and check out our Zazzle merch store and buy-us-a-coffee at the links in our channel description.

Go hike your own hike. 🥾

#NorthCascadesNationalPark #TwoChicksWithHikingSticks #NationalParkPodcast #HikingPodcast #PNWHiking #WashingtonState #AmericanAlps #NationalParks #OutdoorAdventure #HikeLikeAGirl #ExploreWashington #GlacierCountry #JackKerouac #SkagitRiver #JuniorRanger

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Most people have never heard of the Mexican-American War — but it gave the United States everything from New Mexico and Arizona to California. And it all started right here, on a quiet coastal prairie near Brownsville, Texas. Join Susan and Monica as they dig into one of the most underrated — and most important — National Park Service sites in the entire country: Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park.

We're talking about the war that literally completed the map of America, the only NPS site dedicated to preserving where it started, and the surprisingly moving story of thousands of people who became U.S. citizens overnight just because someone drew a new border. Plus — what the heck IS the difference between a National Historic Site and a National Historic Park? Susan explains it all.

🗺️ In This Episode:

Why Palo Alto is the ONLY place in the U.S. preserving the Mexican-American War

The Six Flags of Texas — and the wild 300-year story of who controlled this land

Moses Austin, Stephen F. Austin, and the empresario system that sparked it all

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo — and the Mexicans who became Americans without moving an inch

The Civil War's LAST battle — spoiler: it happened near Brownsville

Hiking, birding, and why this is the perfect South Padre Island add-on

Monica coins a brand new word for us all: "United Statesians" 😂

📍 Palo Alto Battlefield NHP | 7200 Paredes Line Road, Brownsville, TX 78526

🕗 Open daily 8AM–5PM | Free admission | nps.gov/paal

🐦 Birders: The Rio Grande Valley is one of the top birding destinations in North America — this area is a must!

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If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and drop a comment below — tell us where YOU want us to go next. As always… hike your own hike! 🥾

#PaloAltoBattlefield #MexicanAmericanWar #NationalParks #NPS #BrownsvilleTexas #TexasHistory #TwoChicksWithHikingSticks #HikingOver50 #RioGrandeValley #SixFlagsOverTexas #TexasNationalParks #HiddenGemNPS #ManifestDestiny #SouthPadreIsland #BirdingTexas #HistoryPodcast #NorthAmerica #USHistory #TreatyOfGuadalupeHidalgo #HikeYourOwnHike

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Join Two Chicks with Hiking Sticks as we explore Petroglyph National Monument on the edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico — home to an estimated 20,000-25,000 petroglyphs carved into volcanic basalt by Ancestral Puebloan peoples and Spanish settlers over the last 700+ years. In this episode, we hike the easy-to-moderate trails of Boca Negra Canyon, Rinconada Canyon, and Piedras Marcadas Canyon, explore the monument's volcanic geology and five dormant cinder cones, and dig into the deep cultural history that makes this landscape sacred to nearly 20 Indigenous nations today.

🥾 Trails featured: Boca Negra Canyon (Macaw & Cliff Base Trails), Rinconada Canyon Loop, Piedras Marcadas Trail 🌋 Featured geology: West Mesa basalt escarpment, reverse topography, dormant volcanic cones 🏛️ Managed by: National Park Service + City of Albuquerque

Two Chicks with Hiking Sticks is a podcast that informs, entertains, and educates through the rich intersections of culture, history, and the natural world — spotlighting National Park Service sites and the local gems around them.

📍 Petroglyph National Monument, Albuquerque, NM 🔗 nps.gov/petr

#PetroglyphNationalMonument #NationalParkService

#PetroglyphNationalMonument #TwoChicksWithHikingSticks #NationalParkService #NPS #Albuquerque #NewMexico #HikingPodcast #NationalMonument #PetroglyphNM #DesertHiking #TravelPodcast #NationalParks #AncestralPuebloan #RockArt #WestMesa #NMTrue #ExploreNewMexico #HikingForBeginners #OutdoorPodcast #CultureAndNature

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Ever wondered what it's actually like to visit Mount Rainier National Park? In this episode, Susan shares her firsthand experience visiting in August 2024 — and she and Monica break down everything you need to know before you go, from the park's layout to the logistics that can make or break your trip.

Mount Rainier is one of America's most iconic national parks — and one of the most misunderstood. It's not just a pretty mountain. It's an active stratovolcano, the highest peak in the Cascade Range at 14,410 feet, home to 25 glaciers (including Emmons Glacier — the largest in the contiguous U.S.), and 91,000 acres of old-growth forest. Plus it has some of the most spectacular wildflowers you'll ever see.

But here's what nobody tells you: this park takes serious planning. There's no road that circles the volcano. No gas stations inside the park. Very little cell service. Parking fills up by 9 a.m. on summer weekends. And the four main areas — Longmire, Paradise, Sunrise/White River, and Ohanapecosh — are each an hour or more apart with no straight roads connecting them.

Susan stayed in Packwood, Washington to reach multiple sides of the park, and walks you through how she tackled the Nisqually Entrance (Longmire Museum, Wilderness Info Center, Henry Jackson Visitor Center), why the Sunrise Entrance is worth every effort, and what the deal is with the Ohanapecosh area construction closure in 2026.

Monica and Susan also get into critical safety tips — including why elevation changes at Rainier can turn deadly fast if you're not layered up — plus why talking to the park rangers before hitting the trail is non-negotiable.

They wrap with Susan holding up the four official trail guides the park provides (yes, physical ones — with maps on the back!) and remind you: download your AllTrails maps while you still have WiFi at the visitor center.

🥾 Whether you're planning your first Pacific Northwest road trip or adding Rainier to a circuit with Crater Lake, Olympic, and North Cascades — this episode is your starting point.

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📌 Resources mentioned:

Mount Rainier National Park official site: nps.gov/mora

Trail info & maps: alltrails.com

America the Beautiful Senior Pass (62+): store.usgs.gov/senior-pass

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Hike your own hike — we'll see y'all next time! 🥾🥾

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