Franklin Court and the Benjamin Franklin Museum

A couple blocks from Independence Hall is a nondescript brick building, a tunnel like pass leads in to a courtyard where the home of Benjamin Franklin once stood. This area is known as Franklin Court. Franklin Court is managed by the National Parks Service and contains several different areas, all dedicated to the life of Benjamin Franklin. The largest area and the one you will spend the most time in is the Benjamin Franklin Museum.

How to Get There:

If you have parked at the National Constitution Center and are seeing the city center sites around Independence Hall then Franklin Court is just a short walk away. If you are standing facing Independence Hall from across the street you just turn left and walk a few blocks. You will have to cross to the Independence Hall side of the street at one of the lights. There will be sign posts pointing the directions to the various historical sites and you just have to follow the ones showing the way to Franklin Court. Don't get confused by signs pointing toward Franklin Square, this is a different place entirely. 

Be aware that the Franklin Court sites close at 5:00 PM during the off season (September to May). If you are going during the summer check their website for the current  hours. Just make sure to give yourself enough time for your visit. It is best if you can start your historic Philadelphia activities early in the day so you can avoid long lines and have plenty of time for everything.

What You Will See:

The areas of Franklin Court are: the Benjamin Franklin Museum, the Print Shop, the Post Office, the Ghost House, and the Fragments of Franklin Court. Each of these has something to teach you about the life of Benjamin Franklin, but the museum is the most involved and will take the most time.

Benjamin Franklin Museum

Readers who have been following the blog for a while know that I like museums a lot, but because of my own work in the museum field I can sometimes be critical of the educational impact of their exhibits. The Benjamin Franklin Museum however, was one of the best designed museums I have ever visited. 

In the museum you learn about the life of Benjamin Franklin through the lenses of five qualities he prized. Each section of the museum focuses on a different quality with displays, artifacts, and media explaining what Franklin thought and did about each of them. There is a good balance in the museum between different types of information. The animation style they used in their video displays wasn't my favorite, but that's not too big of a complaint.

The museum costs $5.00 for adults and $2.00 for children. You pay at the front desk when you enter the museum building but all of the exhibits are downstairs underneath the buildings and the court yard. You should allow about an hour for the museum, because it is a focused museum it doesn't take too long but there is quite a bit that you can do there. 

Print Shop

The print shop is probably the second coolest thing to see at Franklin Court, so if you are short on time after seeing the museum be sure to go here next. The print shop is on the left side of the tunnel if you are looking from inside the square, there are signs but they aren't always easy to see. The door immediately to the left of the tunnel goes to the Fragments of Franklin Court exhibit, but if you go around the side you will find two doors that go to the print shop, you enter through the one on the right and you will exit through the one on the left. 

The print shop is not where Benjamin Franklin's actual shop was, but it is set up to look like a shop from his time period. National Park rangers run the fully functioning printing shop and will explain all the different parts to you. I think during busy times they might be a little more formal about it, but when we were there there weren't many people so they just answered question that we asked. It is fun to see real printing demonstration. 

Seeing the print shop is free and should take you between 10 and 30 minutes.

Post Office

The post office is on the right side of the tunnel, but it was closed the day we were there so we don't know much about it. Just like the print shop you enter it from the door inside the courtyard rather than the one facing the street.

The purpose of the post office is to commemorate Benjamin Franklin's role as the organizer of the postal system and first post master general. I am told that it still functions as a post office so you can actually send mail from it.

Ghost House

I don't know what goes through your mind when you read the words "ghost house" but it's probably not what it actually is. In this case ghost house has nothing to do with Halloween and is actually referring to the outline of Franklin's old house that use to stand in the court. You can see how large it was because there is wrought iron frame in the exact dimensions of the house. 

Covered holes inside the house frame let you look down on pieces of the actual foundation of Benjamin Franklin's house, and engraved paving stones throughout the court tell you where different parts of the home and grounds were located. 

It is pretty cool to see especially if you have just been to the museum and learned all about Franklin's life. It will only take you a few minutes to walk around see it.

Fragments of Franklin Court

This is a special exhibit run by the National Parks rangers and it is inside the door immediately to the left of the court's entrance tunnel. It turns out that among the many thing Benjamin Franklin created in his life time, one of them was a fire proof house. This building happens to be that house and it has been stripped down to bare walls to show the things that Franklin did to make it fire proof. 

I get the sense that this must be the loneliest ranger job in the city because there is just a single ranger at the exhibit and it seemed like very few people stop to see it. It's kind of cool to see, and really doesn't take very long. It does however involve climbing stairs which means that it is not a fully accessible site. There is no cost for going in. 

Sum Up:

Franklin Court as a whole gives you a great glimpse into the life of one of America's greatest founders. It isn't on the absolute must see list for Philadelphia, if your strapped for time or lines are long then you'll want to focus on Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. But I think if you can make the time to see it you definitely should. It is a great place especially to take kids who may not have liked standing in line al that time for the Liberty Bell this is a place where they can get some hands on time and learn something in the process.

As a side note Benjamin Franklin's grave is located not far from here in the cemetery at Christ's Church. We were unable to visit it on this trip, but I have been there before. Some people like to visit graves, some people don't, do whatever suits you.

Visiting Gettysburg National Military Park

Since we just returned from a whirlwind trip to Pennsylvania we are going to take a quick break from Europe posts here at the blog to tell you about some of things we saw in that great state.

The entire state of Pennsylvania is special to me because of my time as a missionary there, but Gettysburg holds an especially special place in my heart because of the feeling that rests there, a place where history literally hung in the balance and turned. A place where thousands of men gave up their lives, on both sides, for something that they believed in. It was place of wounding and later a place of healing, and that is an odd combination to find. So forgive me if I'm a little bit passionate about this place, it is a site that I think everyone needs to visit and soak in its history.

How to Get There

Getting to Gettysburg is not particularly difficult, assuming that you are using a modern GPS system which I assume most of you are. There are a few navigational things to keep in mind however. When you visit the battlefield if you are not on a guided tour you will be following the Auto Tour route, which is outlined in red on the park map. You will probably not be stopping at every stop on this tour as that would take a lot of time, so before hand you should map out the stops that you especially want to visit. Then you should follow the route as marked on the map, we began by attempting to go backwards, and that was not a good choice. It puts you against the flow of traffic and will cause you problems in finding signs and with one way roads. 

When you go to the visitor center there is plenty of parking so you should be fine unless you are there at a particularly busy time. Be aware that backpacks are not allowed in the visitor center and museum so leave those in your car or bus. 

What You Will See

Visitor Center

I recommend that you start with visitor center so that you can see the film, cyclorama, and museum before going to the battlefield, I think this help to put the places you see in perspective. If you arrive early however you will have to wait for the visitor center to open at 8 am. In the visitor center you can purchase a combined ticket for the film, cyclorama and the museum. It is $12.50 for adults and $8.50 for children.

Film

There is a film that helps to put the battle of Gettysburg in historical context. It is pretty well put together and certainly worth watching. The Civil War involves complex political issues and while the film certainly has a pro north bias it does do a good job of showing some of the issues at hand. 

Cyclorama

From the film you are taken directly upstairs to view the cyclorama. The cyclorama is a 360 degree hand done oil painting of the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg. You will see an impressive presentation here using the cyclorama and projection. This will help you to get a sense for where different action went on during the last day of the battle.

The cyclorama is also important for its own historical significance because it was created to help people learn about the battle and was featured in multiple locations before making its permanent home in Gettysburg. I think it is definitely worth seeing while you are at Gettysburg, I like it better than the film actually. 

Museum

Gettysburg features a well put together museum that leads you through the history of the battle from the beginnings of the Civil War to the giving of the Gettysburg Address. The museum and the film are meant to compliment each other ands they follow a similar pattern and portions of the film are featured throughout the exhibits. If you watched the film before going to the museum you don't have to sit and watch these clips. 

The exhibits in the museum are fairly text heavy which makes it hard to take everything in. There is no audio guide for the museum so you are left to read everything if you want the information. There are plenty of places to sit down and take rests to watch film clips. There are a few fun interactive throughout the museum that give you chance to engage a little with history. 

Battlefield

The battlefield is of course the main event, and your time at the visitor center should really be aimed at setting the stage for your battlefield tour. If you decide like we did to do the tour on your own you should follow the auto tour route. You can get a map from the rangers at the the visitor center. As I said previously try to plan out the stops you want to make before leaving the visitor center and then follow the route in numeric order.

Be aware that there are hundreds of monuments at Gettysburg, ranging from tiny stone markers, to information plaques, to monoliths, to statues, to buildings. You cannot stop to read them all, but when you do stop at particularly important locations you might want to walk a little bit to see some of the markers nearby. You can also drive slowly along the road, especially if you are there on a less busy day, and see at least some of the state names on the larger markers.

Some of the places I suggest stopping are the eternal peace flame, the Longstreet tower, Little Round Top, Devil's Den, and the Pennsylvania monument. If you had a relative who fought in the battle it would be worth your while to figure out where they were positioned and see whatever monuments are there.

Longstreet Observation Tower

The battlefield can take as much time as you have and will likely make up the bulk of your visit. It is nice to be able to look out and just ponder what happened here and why. Sometimes it is so peaceful now that it almost hard to remember that the reason we visit is because so many men died here in an incredibly bloody conflict.

Cemetery 

The cemetery is an important part of Gettysburg and worth your time to visit. The cost of the war becomes more real when you look down rows and rows of graves. This of course is where President Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the cemetery so it is an excellent place to reflect on those immortal words.

The parking lot of cemetery is located up the hill from the cemetery and is just a gravel lot with cord showing parking places. The large cemetery entrance off the street does not actually allow for entrance by car so that can be a little confusing. 

Sum Up

Gettysburg is an extremely important historical site and one you should definitely visit if you can. It is a long excursion to do it well so plan on at least half a day for it. You will probably be pretty tired by the end of it and kids definitely will be. Since everything is accessible by roads though there isn't a ton of walking you have to do, so that helps some.

Canyonlands National Park Overlooks

Canyonlands National Park is broken up into three areas or districts: Island in the Sky, Maze, and Needles. If you are also visiting Moab, you are going to want to stay in the Island in the Sky district. While this district is small, it is also the most family friendly and is the easiest district to do. Two of our favorite things to do were an easy sunrise hike at Mesa Arch and a fun hike up Whale Rock.

Even though the Island in the Sky district is pretty easy, we were still pretty tired by the afternoon after doing about 3 hikes. We still wanted to see more of Canyonlands but didn't want to do more hikes. So we stopped at a few of the outlooks in the Island in the Sky district and were not disappointed by the views.

How to Get There: 

We went to two outlook points on our trip to Canyonlands National Park. The first we went to was the Green River Overlook. From the Visitor's Center head southwest. Once you get to the fork in the road turn right. Follow the signs a short while later and take the first left. Follow that road to a nice parking lot. 

We tried going to Grand View Point Overlook, but with limited parking it wasn't going to happen. From what we have heard, it is the best overlook in the Island in the Sky district. So if you want to go there make sure that you're early. To get there just take the south fork where the three main roads converge. It is the farthest point South. 

After not being able to go to Grand View Point, we went to another overlook on the way called Orange Cliffs Overlook. This one had way less people but still offered a beautiful view.

What You Will See: 

The Green River Overlook was where I really saw why this National Park is called Canyonlands. For miles all you see is beautiful canyons. There is a nice paved path from the parking lot to the overlook. At the overlook there is a fence to keep you away from the edge of a cliff face and there are also large boulders that are fun to climb on and offer a slightly different view. There are also signs that give you different information about the canyons that are before you.

The Orange Cliffs overlook is very small but gives another beautiful view of the canyons. There is not a paved path;  you just walk out onto large rocks. We went off the main path a little bit and Ben was able to climb up a small mountain pretty easily and quickly.

Sum Up:  

Overlooks at Canyonlands are a great break from hiking the beautiful trails of the park. They offer incredible views that really show you why this place is called Canyonlands National Park. 

Chimani Releases 59 New National Park Apps

Whenever I talk with someone about going to visit a National Park these days I always recommend that they check and see if there is Chimani smartphone app available for where they are visiting. Chimani apps have been extremely helpful to us in the last year while visiting the Grand Canyon, Arches, and Canyonlands National Parks.

Yesterday (June 1st, 2016) Chimani released apps for the parks that they had not completed yet, meaning that there is now a Chimani app to guide you through each of the U.S. National Parks. This is an impressive feat and the folks over at Chimani asked us here at Yellow Van Travels to help get the word out about it.

Chimani was only able to produce these apps so quickly because of generous support from Subaru of America. Now I have never had a Subaru, so I can't speak to what kind of cars they are, but I can say this is a worthy cause for them to invest resources into.

I have not looked at all 59 of the apps that Chimani has for National Parks, but the ones I have looked at all appear to run very similarly. This is great because it means you only have to get use to the interface once and then as you travel across America to the different parks it will remain mostly consistent, although some parks will have different features or categories depending on what the park has available.

One of the biggest advantages of Chimani apps is that they can be used without an internet connection as long as you download the map data before leaving the internet. This is extremely helpful since, as you adventures know, cell service in the parks is almost always spotty at best.

Another big reason these apps have been developed is to try and reduce waste in National Parks. The paper guides that the parks have traditionally given out often end up in landfills, or worse as litter. Some parks, like the Grand Canyon, have even stopped giving guides out recently. So be sure before you go to a National Park that you download the corresponding Chimani app and get the correct data downloaded on it, then you can make your trip a little easier, give the environment a little boost, and have yourself an adventure.

Garden of Eden in Arches National Park

Arches National Park is home to an alien landscape, you will hear that several times if you watch the intro video. One of the locations that exemplifies this with almost no exertion on your part is the Garden of Eden. Why is it alien? We just aren't use to seeing monoliths of rock rise out of the landscape naturally like this. Trees, yes; mountains, yes; giant pillars of rock, no.

How to Get There:

The Garden of Eden is found at a small parking lot just off the road to the Windows Section. It is easy to stop and see it either on your way to the Windows and Double Arch or on your way back from them. Just take the turn east at Balanced Rock and drive about a mile. If you are headed towards the Windows it will be on your left, if you are coming back it will be on your right.

What You Will See:

The main thing to see at the Garden of Eden is the towers of rock and a few more complete fins. It is more of a look out than a trail, although you can go a little ways in. When we were there we saw some rock climbers on Ham Rock which is located just a short way from the parking lot. I love rock climbing, but I think being on top of a pillar like that would make me pretty woozy. Be aware that if you want to climb in the park you need to get permits from the visitor center.

Just off from the parking lot is a much smaller boulder that I did climb on. It is a fun boulder that children should be able to do easily. This is also a great place to get some photos of the Arches landscape. We were not able to be there for sunset but I have heard that it is a good and easy place to observe the sun setting.

Sum Up:

The Garden of Eden is any easy stop off, and since it is essentially a lookout it also accessible, which is a rare find in Arches. You can stay as long as you want but most people probably won't stay more than thirty minutes, and you can enjoy it in as little as ten minutes.

Double Arch in Arches National Park

Double Arch was by far my favorite hike in the Windows District of Arches National Park. And it was probably my second favorite hike of our whole time in Arches. (My first favorite was definitely Delicate Arch.) This is an easy hike and is really quite a sight to see. Everyone can do this hike and once you get to the arch there are definitely ways to make it more difficult if you want. After your hike, don't forget to stop over at the Window and Turret arches

How to Get There: 

Head North from the Visitor's Center and turn right after you pass Balanced Rock. As you enter the Windows District, you will pass Garden of Eden on the left and will continue down the road until you come to a parking lot that will loop around. The Double Arch trailhead is on the North side of the parking lot. But when we were there, parking was pretty terrible. We would suggest parking wherever you can find a spot and then walk to the trailhead. There are restrooms in the South side of the parking lot near the North and South Window/Turret Arch trailhead. 

Once you're on the trailhead, you follow the sandy dirt path to the arch. You can see the arch pretty much the entire way on the trail. The trail is half a mile round trip, perfect for families with all ages of children. 

What You Will See:

Once you get to the base, you will see the tallest arch located in the park. You can climb right up inside of it. When we were there, it was a pretty toasty afternoon and Double Arch provided plenty of shade relief. One of our favorite things to do was to lay down underneath the arch and look straight up at it. It is really quite the sight. 

If you are feeling more adventurous (like Ben was) there are places inside the arch where you can boulder your way higher up for pretty spectacular views. I was not feeling up for the steeper climb, so I just sat underneath the arch in the shade. 

Sum Up:

This is a super easy family hike that we suggest everyone do. It is easily accessible to pretty much everyone and once you get to the arch, there are areas to challenge yourself if you wish. With only a half mile round trip distance, it can be a quick hike to see the tallest arch in Arches National Park. But you can also spend quite a bit of time hanging out and climbing underneath the arch.

Windows Section in Arches National Park

On the eastern side of Arches National Park there is an area that is almost magical in the imagination it inspires. This is the Windows Section. And while not as iconic Delicate Arch, or as massive as Landscape Arch, it does deliver the most arches for your trip of any stop in the park. Three arches can be seen between the two windows and the turret, and since Double Arch is actually three arches that brings the total to six arches for one stop. In this post I'll focus on the North and South Windows and Turret Arch. Meagan will cover Double Arch in another post.

How to Get There:

Balanced Rock is your landmark when navigating to the Windows Section of Arches National Park. Just make sure that you take a right just after passing this acrobatic monolith as you head North and you will be on the road that terminates in this amazing section of the park. 

The end of the road will bring you to a large parking lot loop, which when we got there in the early afternoon was almost completely full. The loop consists of an upper area nearer to the Windows and Turret Arch, and a lower area nearer to Double Arch. The two sections of the loop are connected by a fairly steep stairway path. Unless you get there early, or have accessibility concerns, I suggest parking wherever you first see a space. You will probably want to visit both areas anyway, so it really doesn't matter which you are closer to. Just make sure that when you want to go to the North and South Windows and Turret Arch that you go through the upper side of the parking lot.

What You Will See:

There is one very important thing to take note of when hiking the Windows and Turret Arch, that is there are two trails that will take you around the Windows, an easy trail and a primitive one. The primitive trail is significantly longer and more difficult than the easy trail. 

They way we went was to take the easy trail, and when it forked we went right to Turret Arch.

Turret Arch:

This arch is a lot of fun because it is quite large and you can get right inside it. If you can't make it to Delicate Arch then Turret can be a nice substitute. There are basically two routes you can take to get inside it from the trail. The first is to walk along a ridge and shimmy around an outcropping. The second is to just go down from the trail into a small basin and cross it over to the arch. The second option is much easier, but not as apparent to us or most people that we saw there. 

Meagan in Turret Arch

Inside Turret Arch you will have to climb a small wall to get up to the other side. Its not particularly difficult but small children may need some help on the way down. On the other side of the arch there is a pretty expansive basin with some cool ridges and towers.

Looking out from inside the Turret Arch gives you an awesome view of the Windows and lets you see why they are called the Spectacles. 

South Window:

After Turret Arch we came around the trail to the South Window. It was easy to see that we could not get into the window without rock climbing gear, which would probably have been illegal and we didn't have it anyway. But I saw people up in it, so I concluded that if we went around the rock fin that houses  both Windows we would be able to get inside it. 

That turned out to be correct, sort of. Going around the fin to the south put us on the primitive trail, which is still pretty flat. It took us a few minutes to get around and when we did we saw that the South Window was not a cliff on this side, but did have a pretty steep scramble to get to it.

Ben in the South Window

Meagan opted not to try and get up there. But of course I had to. I went up the right hand side and came down the left and I think that is probably as good a route as any. It was pretty steep in places, and the arch itself is not that wide. It was pretty windy when I reached it and so I laid down to look at it. 

North Window:

When I came down from the South Window we decided to continue on the primitive trail to see the North Window. The climb up to the North Window looked considerably easier than the South one, but still not super easy. Meagan stayed down again while I went to explore. When I reached the arch I found that I had come to it in a much more difficult way, if we had stayed on the easy trail we would have just walked straight into the arch with almost no scrambling. 

North Arch seen from below

I went back down and had Meagan come up so that we could just go out on the easy trail rather than going all the way back on the primitive trail. 

Suggested Route:

Based on our experience in the Windows Section we don't suggest you follow our route to the arches especially if you are coming with children or have accessibility issues. Instead we suggest that you take the left fork on the easy trail and come into the North Window first, then just view the South Window from the trail, then proceed on the trail to Turret Arch. The Windows Section hike is quite easy if you go this route. 

Sum Up:

The Windows Section is a fantastic and easy hike. Even the part of the primitive trail that we were on was not very difficult. We highly suggest this and the neighboring Double Arch as great family hikes. There are pit toilets located in the middle of the parking loop, but if it is a busy day you may need to wait in line for them. The excursion in the Windows Section should take you anywhere from 1 to 2 hours depending on how long you spend in the arches.

Hiking Landscape Arch in Arches National Park

Landscape Arch is the longest arch in Arches National Park. It is a beautiful arch with two side trails to see other arches along the way. A flat, easy hike that everyone in your family can enjoy.

How to Get There:

Located in the Devil's Garden district, take the main road into Arches and follow it to the end of the road. You will end up in the Devil's Garden parking area loop. On the Northwest side of the loop, you will find the trailhead for Landscape Arch, Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch. Located at the trailhead are restrooms and water. 

From the trailhead, you will follow a well defined trail that is quite sandy in some parts. Early into your hike, you will come to trail markers that will show you some off-shoot trails that will take you to Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch. We took both of these side trails and it didn't add any significant distance or time to our hike. Of the two side arches, we would definitely suggest going to see Pine Tree Arch. It is a neat arch that you can go right up underneath and it offers beautiful views. And if you are going to make the effort to see Pine Tree Arch, you might as well see Tunnel Arch too. Tunnel Arch you cannot get close to see because it is high up towards the top of a mountain, but the trail leads to a pretty cool view point for the arch. 

Pine Tree Arch

Tunnel A

Once you get back up to the main trail, Landscape Arch is easy to get to. You will stay on the main trail that is relatively flat with no major elevation changes. It is a 1.6 mile round trip hike and will take anywhere from 50-90 minutes depending on your stops and how fast your family moves. 

What You Will See:

As you approach Landscape Arch, your breath will be taken away. You can see it all along the tail end of the trail. When we were hiking towards it, we didn't know how close we would be able to get so we started taking pictures from pretty far out. They look pretty good, but we found out that you can actually get quite close to it. In the past, you were able to hike right up underneath. But there was a large collapse of part of the arch that lost quite a lot of rock all along the right side of the arch. Since then, they have closed off that part of the trail. But you can still quite enjoy the beautiful arch from a distance. 

You will come to a plaque that gives information about the arch and the collapse. We thought that that would be the end of the trail but discovered that it actually winds for a little bit after that where you can get different angles and views of the spectacular arch with plenty of good photo opportunities. 

We went in the relative early morning and didn't encounter many other hikers, but as we were leaving we started seeing quite a few more heading into the hike. If you do go in the morning, make sure to bring a sweatshirt and possibly a hat and gloves because most of the hike is in chilly shadows until the sun comes up over the canyon. 

Sum Up:

This is a beautiful, easy hike that allows you to see the longest arch in Arches National Park as well as two other neat arches. It is 1.6 miles round trip on a flat dirt and sandy trail. With lots of opportunities to view the arch and many different angles, there are plenty of spots for photo opportunities.