Revisit to Castillo De San Marcos- St Augustine Florida

September 6, 2014 Saturday

Today, I decided to revisit my local park, Castillo De San Marcos.  I had been there three or four times before, but not with my list of historical markers with me.  Turns out there are some 25 markers at the Fort, which gives you a deeper understanding of what took place here.

America Begins Here

A monument not only of stone and mortar but of human determination and endurance, the Castillo de San Marcos symbolizes the clash between cultures which ultimately resulted in our uniquely unified nation.  Still resonant with the struggles of an earlier time, these original walls provide tangible evidence of America’s grim but remarkable history.

Turns out the Fort has seen 6 flags fly over it, at different times, Native Americans, Spanish, Colonial African Americans, English, Minorcan, and lastly, the United States. 

Multiple stops on the Old Spanish Trail

There are probably 50 stops in six states for this trail:  justifiably so- it was a long and important one:

On this trip, I got stamps at 4 locations in Barstow, California, One at the Mojave Desert Preserve, two near Las Vegas, the BLM office and Red Rocks, and also at Lake Mead in Nevada.  

For the BLM office in Nevada:  

Several stamps plus the Trail stamp at Red Rocks outside of Las Vegas:

One at the Alan Bible VC at Lake Mead in Boulder City NV:

One at the Mojave HQ in Barstow:

And several at the 3 other stops in the Metro Barstow area:

New Park, that probably shouldn't be a park, but is a park...

We actually drove by the entrance for this park, well, building.  To say it is under development would be too kind.  It was like this is an afterthought.  Hope it gets a lot better, but I've at least been there.  

The NM is really just a house, in the middle of nowhere....

Another 50 plus year revisit- Death Valley NP California

Same deal here, last visited here with the family in either the middle 50's or 60's-  Cooper and I drove over on our way out of Las Vegas-  Went to the Furnace Creek  Visitor Center, the other at Stovepipe Wells was closed.....

New Park- Devil's Postpile Mammoth Mountain, California

Finally get to Fort Point in San Francisco!

Took a second try, but Cooper and I got to Fort Point NHS, at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge-  Also got the lighthouse....

New Park Lake Mead NRA Boulder City Nevada

Got to 2 different visitor centers for this park while we stayed at Boulder City-  Also got to visit Hoover Dam-  

It was amazing to see how much the drought had affected the height of the water of the lake, it was down like 100 feet!