Are you stuck at home like me, or in your car this year doing the commute? Well, get your feet wet and take a listen to National Park Adventures, one of the Road Trips audios from NPR and HighBridge Audio.

Noah Adams is the friendly, familiar voice. I know him from All Things Considered. The stories seem so familiar. Have I heard these reports before? Perhaps some, but not in such a rich collection of travel possibilities.

I love nature and have experienced our national parks as a youngster on family road trips. Yes, I have my favorites in mind before I listen to this audio, walking through my local Loring Park on a beautiful fall day in Minneapolis. As I listen, I discover some great new points of interest. I want to go to all of these places. Thank you, Noah Adams! Thank you, NPR.

If you want a great travel experience, try listening along with Alex Chadwick as he takes a tour of Death Valley National Park, along with the park ranger; they discuss the once lost Lake Manly, a salty lake that forms from the sudden downpour of rain that takes place during the broadcast. They talk about a low landscape – actually below sea level- turned into a flower lover’s paradise, desert mariposa, larkspur, lupine. It’s the color of life, full of green, green views for miles around. At three million acres, the park is the largest in the country, outside of Alaska. I enjoy imagining the beautiful yellow flowers that park visitors call daisies, but are actually a species called, desert gold flower. The sweet smell is astounding to the visitors, the ranger and to the NPR reporter. I want to go there and see this, experience it in person. The beauty of this recording is that, the scene they describe is most likely gone, dried up in the arid park. All the more enjoyable then, you get to capture the moment on this audio.

National Park employees protect all kinds of resources. How about hymns and dirges? This audio features a snapshot of a special musical resource. New Orleans National Jazz Historical Park is something I had never heard of before listening to this audio. From jazz funerals, to a discussion of a local jazz great, Benny Jones Sr, the reporter invites me back to the great city of New Orleans. Listening, learning, dancing, and finger snapping. All are waiting for you as Noah Adams discusses a place that some visitors say, where is the park? Well, the music is the park in this case.  Park ranger Bruce Barnes says the snappy tunes jolt the visitor and listener back into reality after experiencing a jazz funeral, saying: we are still here, life is to be loved and enjoyed with the music; pass it on by listening to these tunes.

I encourage you to visit this historic music park, but first listen to this audio to see what’s in store.

Gettysburg, Zion, Everglades, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon. All of these and more are featured on this nifty collection of audio reports, taken from the NPR broadcasts and made available as a cd or download to listeners who want to travel more, but maybe don’t have the chance right now to get to these parks (especially now during the government shutdown). We have the time now to listen, in our cars, or on a lunch break, so do like I do and put on your headphones, go for a walk in the park, and enjoy some National Park audio keepers. You won’t regret the time spent, and maybe you will find yourself planning a trip to a new park, or an old favorite, that is calling you to visit.