Beyond Nature: America's Most Unusual Parks

Visitors to a national park in Arizona see and enjoy some of the attractions that draw millions of people each year to similar reserves throughout the country. They include dense forests, varied vegetation and diverse wildlife. But there also are some differences for those in the Petrified Forest National Park. It is named for areas for areas of fossilized trees, vegetation and giant reptiles, amphibians and dinosaurs that lived eons ago. This is one park, among a number, that provide unusual, in some cases unique, reasons to visit. These enclaves can serve as travel destinations themselves or places to include in an itinerary for a vacation trip.

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Some parks offer adaptive equipment for people with a mobility impairment, empowering travelers to explore once-off-limits landscapes. A number of them provide sign language interpretation tours for the deaf or hard-of-hearing, tactile maps for those who are blind or have low vision, and sensory guides for travelers with cognitive disabilities. Visitors with a partial or total disability which limits their activities are eligible for an Access Pass.

The Petrified Forest is named for trees that thrived about 225 million years ago, fell and lay dormant as quartz replaced the wood, resulting in multi-colored stone logs. The red and lavender sediments around the logs account for the name of the Painted Desert, which stretches from the Grand Canyon to the Petrified Forest

Other surprising settings also greet guests elsewhere in national and state parks. The bleached soil at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico would be at home on a tropical beach. Its dunes, which reach a height of 60 feet, were formed thousands of years ago when rain and snowmelt dissolved gypsum crystals. The mineral mini-mountains provide a unique opportunity for sand sledding.

The moon, rather than a beach, comes to mind for folks who check out Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve in Idaho. It encompasses three major areas of molten rock, lava tubes and other volcanic features which duplicate the surface of our closest lunar neighbor.

The cinder cones at the Craters Monument, which resemble free-form sculptures, are echoed at Dune Peninsula Park in Tacoma, Washington, which once was the site of a lead and copper smelter. A major environmental project transformed the former pollution source into a lovely park, which pays homage to the best-selling science fiction novelist and former area resident Frank Herbert, author of the Dune books. The park is landscaped with stone staircases and metal sculptures, and a walking trail leads past quotes from different volumes of Dune.

Other parks also serve as places where art comingles with nature. Whimsical works are scattered about the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park in Indianapolis. There are no "Stay off the sculpture" signs and many of the installations invite people to touch and even climb on them. At the "Play Patch," visitors may use sticks, stones and other natural materials they find to create their own art..

The Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, New York occupies a former landfill site. Today it's an outdoor gallery that hosts rotating exhibits of works by artists from around the world. The name of the space relates to the large Greek community that is located nearby. The park also is the venue for plays, concerts and other outdoor performances.

What may be considered art in a different form is on display at the Sign Park in Casa Grande, Arizona. Anyone approaching that location from dusk to 11 pm is immersed in the glow of vintage neon lights that have been collected from the surrounding area. Typical are a large Art Deco piece that identified the Goddard Shoe Store, which operated from 1945 until the late 1950s, and the sign for the Horse Shoe Motel. It includes an image of a man waving, and the light behind his moving arm once indicated when the property had a vacancy.

Then there are parks that offer more than their primary appeal. The major claim to fame of Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky is that it's the site of the longest known underground system in the world. To date, more than 425 miles of its passageways have been surveyed. Lucky explorers may catch sight of some of the animal life that makes its home there. In addition to rare species of bats, they include salamanders, shrimp and eyeless fish, which have no need to see in the pitch-dark surroundings.

Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado might resemble the Sahara Desert, but it also contains a surprising range of biodiversity. In addition to the sand banks, there are wetlands, lakes and forests.

It's dozens of man-made, hand-made birdhouses which draw many people to the Arroyo Bird Park in San Juan Capistrano, California. They're scattered among fake evergreen trees along with gnomes, blown glass sculptures and countless other trinkets that visitors have left behind. Some of the bird houses serve as memorials, with obituaries for people who have passed away. Not surprisingly, the park is a great place for bird watching.

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Author Credentials: Victor Block has been a travel journalist for many years, and has written for major newspapers, magazines and travel websites and served as an editor of Fodor's Travel Guides. He is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and the North American Travel Journalists Association. Victor is a regular contributor of reviews to the Disabled World travel section. Visit Victors's biography for further insights into his background and expertise.