Traveling Huntleys

Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.

Road Trip

Eminence, Missouri: Blue Spring, Alley Mill and the Country’s First Scenic Riverways

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Last Updated: September 3, 2026

Eminence is in the center of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. It’s one of the nation’s first protected waterways — in fact it was the first of them, established in 1964, four years before the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act existed at all. The park encompasses the Current and Jacks Fork rivers. These rivers are known for their clear, calm and cool water which is ideal for swimming, fishing, paddling and tubing. Eminence is a small town, less than 600 people live here. The post office was established in 1844. We knew this because we needed it to mail our taxes on time.

A rainbow over the Jacks Fork River seen from our RV site in Eminence, Missouri
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Cumberland Falls, Bowling Green & Hardin, Kentucky: A Corvette in a Sinkhole, Elk on the Prairie and the Mayfield Scar

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Last Updated: September 3, 2026

Hardin was our last westward stop in Kentucky on our way to spring in the Rocky Mountains. From the Red River Gorge to Corbin, it was a couple hour drive in the rain. It was also our last chance to see elk again until the Rockies. Three stops across the width of the state — Cumberland Falls in the east, Bowling Green in the middle, Hardin out on Kentucky Lake — and between them a sinkhole that ate eight Corvettes, a fenced prairie with elk in it, and the scar of one of the worst tornadoes in American history.

Two bull elk grazing on the Elk and Bison Prairie at Land Between the Lakes near Hardin, Kentucky
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Red River Gorge, Kentucky: 100 Sandstone Arches, the Nada Tunnel and the Dam That Was Never Built

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Last Updated: September 3, 2026

Red River Gorge is in eastern Kentucky, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains about an hour east of Lexington. The gorge is a canyon system cut by the Red River through Daniel Boone National Forest, and it has more natural sandstone arches than anywhere else east of the Rocky Mountains. Hikers, rock climbers, kayakers and mountain bikers are attracted to the area throughout the year. We came in early spring, before the trees leafed out, which is the season when you can actually see the rock.

Looking up at the underside of Natural Bridge, a 78-foot sandstone arch at Natural Bridge State Resort Park near Slade, Kentucky
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Hanna Park, Jacksonville, Florida: Oceanfront Camping, Boneyard Beach & the Historian Behind the Name

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Last Updated: August 2, 2026

Hanna Park is about 450 acres of mature coastal hammock at Mayport, in the Jacksonville Beaches area of northeast Florida. Its full name is Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park, and the name is worth pausing on rather than skimming past — more on her in a moment. Winthrop Bancroft donated the first five oceanfront acres to the City of Jacksonville in 1967 on the condition that the park carry her name; the city bought up adjoining land and the park opened in 1972.

Wide Atlantic beach and surf at Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park, Jacksonville, Florida
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White Springs, Florida: The Suwannee River, a Sacred Spring & Florida’s First Tourist Town

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Last Updated: August 2, 2026

White Springs grew up around a sulphur spring, and the spring has a longer history than the town. The Suwannee River here was the boundary between the territory of the Timucua to the east and the Apalachee to the west, and the spring on its bank was regarded as sacred healing ground — neutral territory where even nations at war observed a truce in order to bathe in it. Spanish explorers recorded the custom. Later the Americans built on it: Bryant Sheffield put up a hotel and a spring house in 1836, a multi-storey bathhouse followed, and White Springs became, by most accounts, Florida’s first tourist attraction. The town was a refuge during the Civil War. The spring eventually stopped flowing — by around 1990 it was finished — and the surrounding country never developed the way the rest of Florida did. What is left is the river, and the quiet.

The tea-colored Suwannee River running between wooded banks near White Springs, Florida
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Nation’s Oldest City: St. Augustine, Florida — Spanish Roots, Pirate Treasure & the Dade Pyramids

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Last Updated: August 2, 2026

St. Augustine is called the Nation’s Oldest City, and the claim holds up with one careful qualification. Founded in 1565 by the Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the mainland United States. San Juan, Puerto Rico is older still, founded in 1521. Either way, St. Augustine was already two generations old when the English landed at Jamestown. Spain ceded Florida to the United States under the Adams-Onís Treaty, signed in 1819 and taking effect in 1821; St. Augustine served as capital of the Florida Territory until 1824, when the seat of government moved to Tallahassee — chosen, sensibly enough, as the midpoint between here and Pensacola.

Sandy Huntley walking Jake the dog along the sand at St. Augustine Beach, Florida
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