Ranger Tales
📖 Visitor guides

First-timer’s guides to the places worth the drive

Honest, detailed guides to national parks, state parks, and historic sites — the highlights, a perfect one-day plan, the hidden corners most visitors miss, and every practical detail. Then hear it all narrated on a Ranger Tales audio tour.

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National Parks

First-timer guides to America’s national parks — what to see, when to go, and how to hear every overlook’s story on the drive.

1 guide
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State Parks

The under-sung gems: state parks worth the trip. Trails, waterfalls, timing, and the stories behind them.

3 guides
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Historic Sites

Battlefields, forts, monuments, and main streets — the places where the history actually happened.

Coming soon
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Scenic Drives

America’s great drives — byways, mountain roads, and legendary curves. What to see, where to stop, and the stories that play as you drive.

2 guides
Latest guides

Start here

A waterfall tumbling through the mossy sandstone gorge at Old Man’s Cave, Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio.
Logan, Ohio

Hocking Hills

The complete first-time visitor guide to Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio — all 7 hiking areas (Old Man’s Cave, Ash Cave, Cedar Falls, Conkle’s Hollow, Rock House, Cantwell Cliffs, Whispering Cave), a perfect one-day plan, the best time to visit, parking, pets, what to pack, and where to stay.

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Multnomah Falls plunging in two tiers beneath the Benson Bridge in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon.
Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

Multnomah Falls

The complete first-time guide to Multnomah Falls and the Columbia River Gorge waterfall corridor — Wahkeena, Horsetail, Latourell, and Bridal Veil falls, the summer timed-entry permit, parking, a perfect drive, and a self-guided audio tour you can book online.

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Sunlight filtering through towering old-growth coast redwoods along the main trail at Muir Woods National Monument, California.
Mill Valley, Marin County, California

Muir Woods

The complete first-timer’s guide to Muir Woods — how the required parking and shuttle reservations work, the Route 66 Muir Woods Shuttle from Sausalito ($3.75 round trip), fees, hours, the best trails and groves, why dogs aren’t allowed, and a self-guided audio tour that plays as you drive in.

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The Detroit skyline seen across the water from Belle Isle Park on the Detroit River.
Detroit, Michigan

Belle Isle

The complete first-time visitor guide to Belle Isle Park in Detroit — the free aquarium and conservatory, the James Scott Memorial Fountain, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, the marble lighthouse, skyline views, what the Recreation Passport costs, hours, parking, and a self-guided audio tour that plays as you drive the island.

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A tightly curving stretch of US-129, the Tail of the Dragon, winding through the forested mountains at Deals Gap.
Deals Gap — the North Carolina / Tennessee line

Tail of the Dragon

The complete first-timer’s guide to Tail of the Dragon — 318 curves in 11 miles on US-129 at Deals Gap. How to drive it safely, the 30 mph speed limit and heavy patrols, the Tree of Shame, the roadside photographers, the Fugitive dam and Fontana, when to go, and a self-guided audio tour that plays as you drive.

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The two-lane Avenue of the Giants road running through a tall stand of coast redwoods in Humboldt Redwoods State Park.
Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Northern California

Avenue of the Giants

Plan your Avenue of the Giants drive: the 31-mile redwood route on Highway 254, which end to start, how long it takes, the stops worth making (Founders Grove, the fallen Dyerville Giant, Rockefeller Forest, the Drive-Thru Tree), fees, dogs, and a GPS audio tour that plays as you drive.

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🎧 Get the tour

Listen in the app

Download the tour, leave your phone in your pocket, and let it play itself as you go. Works offline.

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