Private

What a great walk. Right on top. Right along the edge. Of a 9th century Moorish castle. And a romantic 19th century palace. Both in the World Heritage Site of Sintra, Portugal. Three or four hours. Five miles. 1,800 calories. Burned.

I celebrated National Parks Week a little early this year. I started in Zion National Park. Just before sunrise, on the banks of the Virgin River in southern Utah. Ended up on Angels Landing. It's a wonder you can actually get there. And it's wonderful when you do.

Maine's Acadia National Park has dozens of scenic trails with wonderful ocean, mountain, bay and island views. And that luscious lobster roll has less than a third of the calories you burned on your Way up and down Sargent Mountain.

From Observation Point in Zion National Park, you almost sense geological time. You see how a meandering river spent ten million years cutting through thousands of feet of sandstone and limestone. Carving the contours of massive geological features.

The Yellowstone hike that has it all. Cliffs and mountainsides. Meadows where you expect to see bison. Forests. Wide-open moonscapes with bubbling, steaming geothermal pots. Wildly colorful canyon walls. And the view from the bottom of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. Right alongside the great rushing river.