"Travel Triumphs" by mrclay2000

Closest I've been to a brown or grizzly bear with nothing between us but will: 250 feet, Kodiak Island, 2003
Closest to a black bear with nothing between us but will: 10 feet, Yellowstone, 2000
Closest to a moose with nothing between us but will: 60 feet, Rocky Mountain NP, 2002 (see photo)
Closest I've been to an animal that eats people with nothing between us: 5 inches, alligator, Everglades NP 2001
Largest count of bears seen on a single trip: 8, Alaska, 2003
Largest count of moose seen on a trip: tied at 9, Alaska 2003, Rocky Mountain NP 2002
Number of times I've been before a moose that might have charged me: once, Rocky Mountain NP 2002
Number of times I've encountered a bear while hiking: 2, Kodiak Island 2003, Grand Teton NP 2000
The animals that have passed within 40 feet of my tent while I was in it: black bear (Yosemite 1999), elk (Rocky Mountain NP 1998, 2000, 2002), bull moose (Rocky Mtn NP 2002)
Number of nights slept inside a tent within grizzly or brown bear country: 32
Number of nights I've tented inside a national park: 52
Most consecutive nights spent in a tent: 10
Number of nights spent in the tent in a river bed: 2 (both Alaska)
Number of nights spent in a tent in Alaska: 19
Most consecutive days spent without benefit of soap or shower: 9
Number of hikes where bear tracks didn't keep me from continuing: 3 (two Montana, one Alaska)
Number of hikes where bear tracks stopped my hike in its tracks: 2 (both Montana)
Area of broadest maturity on my travels: bear appreciation (from terror in 1999 to familiarity in 2003; a story showing the change appears in my Personal Travelogues, Monsters from the Id -- it must be noted that in Alaska in 2003 my bear bell (i.e. cow bell) clanked thoughtlessly from my pack, but in Montana in 1999 it was an extension of my arm, making relentless racket to ward off the bears).
Farthest I've ever been from a graded road: about 30 miles, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
Longest hike in one day: 22 miles, Gunsight Pass from Jackson Glacier Overlook, Glacier NP, Montana
Common mammal I didn't know existed in North America before 1998: pronghorn antelope (states in which I've now seen one: Wyoming, South Dakota, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska

Paris from the second stage of the Eiffel Tower; Florence seen from the Duomo cupola; Rome from the uppermost landing of the dome at St Peter's; Pope John Paul II during his Sunday speech from the Vatican Palace; Venice from the Rialto Bridge and the Piazzetta San Marco; the sunken lane at Antietam; the Mona Lisa & the Venus de Milo; Basilique St Denis (burial place of French kings); Westminster Abbey (burial place of English sovereigns); St Peter's (burial place of past pontiffs); Fatih Camii (burial place of past Roman Emperors and Ottoman sultans); JFK's grave at Arlington; Grant's Tomb (NYC); the White House and the U.S. Capitol; Boston Common; Elfreth's Alley; Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell; stalactites and stalagmites; Dealey Plaza; Little Round Top at Gettysburg; the graves of my two favorite presidents (Jackson, Polk); the graves of my favorite painter (J.M.W. Turner) and composer (Rossini); the grave of my favorite American Statesman (Alexander Hamilton); the grave of Herman Melville, author of my favorite novel; 3 of Tennis' 4 Grand Slam venues (Wimbledon, Roland Garros, Flushing Meadows); the Statue of Liberty, Stone Mountain and Mt Rushmore; Lakes Tahoe, Champlain, and the Great Salt Lake; St John the Divine (NYC), Notre Dame (Paris), St Paul's (London), Haghia Sophia (Istanbul) and St Peter's (Rome), some of the biggest in the world; Four Corners; Delicate Arch; all the 50 states but OR, WA, HI, MI; Forts Ticonderoga & McHenry; the land walls and hills of the two past capitals of the Roman Empire; Manhattan from a helicopter; a humpback whale venting steam; bull elks bugling at rivals and thrashing through willows; porpoises leaping at the bow of an oceangoing ship; a bald eagle ripping open salmon; tidewater glaciers; moose and elks sparring during the rut; harbor seals and sea lions; a red fox snatching up muskrats; a bull elk mounting his concubine (I've tried to block that one out. . ); otters (Montana & Florida); pelicans; porcupines; weasels; martens; endangered crocodiles; caribou; puffins, egrets, herons & ibises

There are three places in the United States where I feel most American: Little Round Top at Gettysburg; the National Mall in Washington DC and Manhattan. In DC I remember the first landmark I ever saw with my own eyes there: the Washington Monument. My eyes merely noted that it appeared in person the same as it appeared in photographs. I felt more alive to the Vietnam Memorial and the White House. In New York City I glimpsed the Statue of Liberty while heading south on 12th Avenue but I left the Big Apple without getting her portrait. I gravitated as if by divination to the World Trade Center. All other destinations faded for me that fated afternoon in 1995. When I left New York City over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, I glimpsed again toward Manhattan and my blood went on ice: the two towers stood there guarding the southern tip of the island above the little green figurine we know as Lady Liberty. At Gettysburg, the nation fought for its national life. In the last decades of the 18th century, the American code was written in ink; in the 19th century it was written in blood. The cobblestone walls on Little Round Top and the Sunken Lane at Antietam are inextricably linked with my emotional-intellectual being.

National Park I've Seen the Most: Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, 18 days total
Favorite National Park: Glacier National Park, Montana
Park with the most concentrated wildlife: Everglades NP, Florida
Park with the best wildlife viewing (megafauna): Yellowstone NP, Wyoming (I put Yellowstone above Denali because bison commonly cross the road between traffic jams and bears and elks are often seen within 100 yards of the road)

How long I was there (readings have suggested that the average visitor stays at a park 4-7 hours and goes little more than 100 feet from the park road):
Yosemite, 5 days
Yellowstone, 3 days
Grand Teton, 3 days
Glacier, 8 days
Glacier Bay, 4 days
Denali, 4 days
Kodiak Island, 5 days
Great Smoky Mountains, 4 days
Lake Clark, 5 days

States in which I've pitched my tent: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming

States in which I've spent the night (while traveling for pleasure): Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming

Ford's Theater in Washington DC; Niagara Falls; Olympic, Isle Royale and Gates of the Arctic National Parks; a polar bear in the wild

Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick, Bronx, New York
Alexander Hamilton, financier, Secretary of Treasury, New York City
Robert Fulton, successful steamboat pioneer, New York City
Benjamin Franklin, financier and entrepreneur, Philadelphia
Sacajawea, guide to Lewis and Clark expedition, Ft Washakie, Wyoming
J. C. Penny (Penney), department store founder, Bronx, New York
Meriwether Lewis, Corps of Discovery leader, Gordonsburg, Tennessee
Billy the Kid, young outlaw and gunslinger, Ft Sumner, New Mexico
Wild Bill Hichkok, lawman and gunslinger, Deadwood, South Dakota
Gioacchino Rossini, composer of The Barber of Seville, Florence, Italy
. John F. Kennedy, U.S. President, Washington DC
Galileo Galilei, astronomer, Florence, Italy
Oscar Wilde, playwright, Paris, France
James Knox Polk, U.S. President, Nashville, Tennessee
Eugene Delacroix, painter, Paris, France
Niccolo Macchievelli, political writer, Florence, Italy
F. W. Woolworth, department store founder, Bronx, New York
Andrew Jackson, U.S. President, Nashville, Tennessee
Jim Morrison, American singer/songwriter, Paris, France
David Farragut, U.S. Admiral and war hero, Bronx, New York
U. S. Grant, U.S. President, New York City, New York
Betsy Ross, U.S. icon, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Geronimo, Apache chief, Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Jesse James, outlaw and gunslinger, Kearney, Missouri
Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer, Prague, Czech Republic