The ROAMies Podcast
This travel and inspiration podcast will motivate you to explore the world, make a positive impact, and live your best life. Award-winning musical duo The ROAMies—Rory and Alexa—share insights, resources, and products to make travel and life on-the-go easier and more enjoyable.
Whether you're a frequent traveler, super busy and always on-the-go, or simply dreaming of more adventure, you'll find practical tips, helpful info, Rory’s infamous "dad jokes," and plenty of laughs. The ROAMies dive into where to travel, why to travel, and how to travel, sharing personal stories, favorite brands, and tools that support a busy, travel-filled lifestyle. Along the way, they welcome insightful guests who bring fresh perspectives and expert advice.
It’s the perfect mix of practical guidance, motivation, and inspiration—designed to spark your own adventures, fuel your creativity, and seamlessly integrate travel into your lifestyle.
The ROAMies Podcast
Beyond the Folliage: Ancient Stories and Best National Parks for Autumn Adventures with guest, Jennifer Broome
Jennifer Broome; sweptawaytoday.com
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Mentioned in this episode: Mesa Verde Motel https://mesaverdemotel.com/
Fall's golden light transforms America's national parks into magical landscapes begging to be explored, and this episode serves as your ultimate autumn adventure guide with national parks expert Jennifer Broom.
The conversation begins with Acadia National Park, where the fiery fall foliage creates a spectacular backdrop against Maine's rugged coastline. Jennifer highlights Cadillac Mountain's distinction as the first place in America to see sunrise during fall months, along with unique features like Thunder Hole's dramatic water displays and Sand Beach's rare geological composition. For those seeking the quintessential leaf-peeping experience, the Blue Ridge Parkway connecting Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks offers an epic drive showcasing every autumn hue imaginable.
The discussion then shifts westward to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, where golden aspens complement the incredible ancient cliff dwellings. Jennifer's enthusiasm is palpable as she describes Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in North America, and shares insider tips about the park's two scenic loops and hidden unmarked ruins that reward observant hikers on the Petroglyph Point trail. Her recommendation to use the charming town of Mancos as a base adds local flavor to the travel planning.
By November, Jennifer suggests heading to the Grand Canyon, where cooler temperatures and thinner crowds create ideal visiting conditions. She reveals Flagstaff's value as a strategic home base, not just for canyon access, but for exploring three distinct national monuments and discovering the area's surprising connections to lunar exploration and astronaut training.
Throughout the episode, Jennifer's passion for fall's transformative beauty shines through - from her descriptions of crisp "October skies" to observations about how autumn colors extend beyond tree leaves to ground vegetation, especially in desert landscapes. Practical advice about layering clothes, bringing headlamps for shorter daylight hours, and taking advantage of ranger-led tours rounds out this comprehensive guide to experiencing national parks during nature's most colorful season.
What are you waiting for? Grab your camera, pack some layers, and hit the road to experience these national treasures during their most spectacular season!
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Hi, I'm Alexa.
Speaker 2:And I'm Rory and together, we are the. Romies, we are married.
Speaker 1:To each other.
Speaker 2:Right, we are a touring musical duo.
Speaker 1:And our music has taken us to all kinds of places all around the world and keeps us always on the go.
Speaker 2:So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while running around working to keep all your plates spinning.
Speaker 1:And we hope to facilitate your busy lifestyle and feed your inner travel bug. Hi everyone, welcome back. We are so excited again to introduce you to Jennifer Broom. If you haven't listened to the previous two episodes yet, we are talking about which national parks to visit during which season of the year, and so Jennifer is our national parks expert. And, jennifer, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2:We are so glad to have you, yeah, and I'll say, if you hadn't listened to the last two episodes yet, what are you waiting for? It's Jennifer Broom.
Speaker 3:Thanks guys, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Well, let's dive into fall. Where do we need to go in the fall.
Speaker 3:Okay well, you can't talk about fall without talking about leaf peeping and one of the best places to do that of course going to be up in the northeast and we are heading to Acadia National Park. It is such a spectacular spot to go to and if you love being on the water, this is also a spot that you can really enjoy. I love a couple of things about this park. First of all, cadillac Mountain. That is the iconic spot in the park to go catch either sunrise or sunset. When you're talking about sunrise, with that, as you get into early October through early March, it is the first place in the US to get to be able to see sunrise, so that's kind of a cool fall fact for there. You do need to be permitted to do that if you want to see it at sunrise or sunset. That's from mid-May through mid-October. So just letting you know they are still doing that. Make sure you get that permit before you show up and go. Oh, yeah, yeah, but also too, I mean I can tell you I've learned at some of the other places everybody goes at those prime times. You know that the spots are known for, but they are just as spectacular. If you go midday, you're still going to enjoy if you go. If you go up on Cadillac Mountain midday, you're still going to enjoy. If you go up on Cadillac Mountain midday, you're still going to get a great view. You're going to get an incredible experience. So if you're not an early bird or don't want to deal with driving in the dark after sunset, then you can still go during the day and see it.
Speaker 3:But a couple of things I really do like about this park. In addition, of course, to the incredible fall colors that they have, they have their old carriage roads, which just kind of adds a little bit of history to it. That makes it fun when you're in this just absolutely gorgeous scenery that rides the coastline. There are several areas in particular like natural areas, that I love. Jordan Park I'm sorry, jordan Pond is just a beautiful serene spot that you can go and enjoy. They also have a beach there, sand Beach, which is very unusual because it is one of the few shell-based cold water beaches in the world. So geologically it's a really really really rare and unique there, and then they have one of those is just kind of it's like a blowhole. I'm almost certain it's called Thunderbolt, but it's it's a blowhole, where it is very close to the beach, where you can go and you can just listen to the water come in and then it just goes whoosh. So you know, you see water shoot everywhere.
Speaker 3:Sound effects courtesy of jb.
Speaker 2:There you go nice, very nice, very nice yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's kind of like for me. I'm kind of like okay, that's an iconic one. If you just want to do a spectacular scenic drive, then I'm going to encourage you to go to shenandoah national park, going through virginia and going into north carolina to hit the blue ridge parkway out of shenandoah national park, hit the Blue Ridge Parkway out of Shenandoah National Park, hit the Blue Ridge Parkway and then extend that on and go into Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Speaker 3:So you can kind of like do if you want to do an epic full fall day drive you can hit both of those national parks in a day, but that is just, you know, two areas and of course it being three states of Virginia, north Carolina and then the Great Smoky Mountains, going on into Tennessee as well, so you can get all of those beautiful fall colors that the East Coast and the Southeastern are known for, where you get from the beautiful vivid yellow and orange to the bright red, to the rust. You can get all those colors there.
Speaker 3:so that's kind of like the epic drive, I mean skyline drive, is it's?
Speaker 3:there's certain drives that should be on, like your top 10 list of what are my, you know, top 10 drives that I must do in my lifetime in america, and that that's absolutely one of them yeah so then we'll kind of go and let me take you into color, which, by the way, also has incredible falls, a little bit different, because it is the golden aspens that take the stage in Colorado and in the Rockies. But one of my favorite national parks to do in the fall is Mesa Verde National Park. It was the first park dedicated to the works of man. It is home to Cliff Palace, which is the largest cliff dwelling in North America, and it is like you have that, like you really do have that audible and really almost a full body experience when you stand and see it from the overlook, how impressive it is, with multiple kivas, which are large ceremonial circles where they would have a fire in the middle and the ancestral Puebloan people would do some type of ceremony.
Speaker 3:But to see multiple ones of those, and then you see what could really be, I guess, classified as ancient apartments, because they're built up and it's not just one level, it is a multi-level and you may see in spots that it's two levels, it might be three, four, five of what's left. Oh, it is absolutely spectacular. They do offer ranger led tours and I strongly recommend, if you are okay, going up and down ladders, cause it does require. I believe it's four ladders. If you are okay, going up and down ladders because it does require, I believe it's four ladders. If you are okay doing that with the full exposure because they are wooden ladders, that just adds to the excitement and the adventure.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But if you do a ranger-led tour they do offer them going up to Cliff Palace. You get up close so it's cool to see it from the overlook. So it's cool to see it from the overlook but then also to be able to go down and you feel so tiny standing next to these incredible ancient structures. They do have two loops, so with Mesa Verde it is on top of a mesa so it's about a 45 minute drive. I believe it's 21 or 22 miles but it takes about 45 minutes. I believe it's 21 or 22 miles but it takes about 45 minutes. That takes you and it is basically between Durango and Cortez in Southwest Colorado. It's.
Speaker 3:Colorado's quadrant of the Four Corners, and so it's very close to a town called Mancos, which I love. You know, it's just kind of a cool. I got to give a shout out to Mesa Verde Motel. Friends of mine own it. So if you can snag a room there. Yes, we'll add that to the show notes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they actually. It's completely one of those. They took an old property and modernized it and it's got a real cool vibe Got a great coffee shop, oh I love that that also serves cocktails later in the day.
Speaker 3:So there you go. But when you go into Mesa Verde, the drive itself is phenomenal, and then you get up top and there are two loops, driving loops to do. You can do both in a half day. And so just to give you an idea like, give yourself, I suggest going in the morning because it can even in, especially like early October, it can get still hot in the afternoons. But I would give yourself at least a half day, but do the Cliff Palace loop first, so that you can experience that, and then go do the second one.
Speaker 3:And the second one gives you a little bit more background of going and seeing pit houses, seeing the period before they actually built the structures in the cliffs. I mean they went, they were underground, then they came above ground, then they went, you know. So it's kind of like looking and seeing those different ways that people lived, then also seeing the Sun Temple. It's a beautiful, beautiful ruins that you're able to walk into and experience and just wonder what life would have been like, you know, I mean many moons ago. And I would also say the museum up on the top is highly worth going in and my favorite hike in that park takes you to Petroglyph Point.
Speaker 3:It does start below the museum and so and I believe that one opens at 8.30 in the mornings it is one of those where, again, you know you have to sign in for it, but you go through and get to experience kind of very different scenarios that make up all elements, in the best worlds, of Mesa Verde National Park. So you get canyon views, you get to see petroglyphs, which it's a huge rock art. So it is just a huge panel. That is the highlight of that one. A huge panel. That is the highlight of that one. But as you're walking along that trail, you kind of want to make sure you're looking behind and looking up as well, because there are cliff dwellings that are not marked, and I kind of like that they do that because it means the curious ones are the ones that spot it, and there are multiple and there are multiple ones, and I think it's nice to not necessarily mark every single ancient site.
Speaker 3:You know that when you look at Mesa Verde National Park and then very close to Canaan's of the Ancients National Monument, which has the highest density of archaeological finds in North America, they have something like I believe it's over 6,000. Wow, and it's incredible. So if you love ancient history, you really do want to spend some time in southwest Colorado, but I love that there's just. You know they leave it to let you be a little bit of that explorer.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And you have that opportunity on that petroglyphs panel trail to look around and if you spot it, you know it's kind of like, well, are you the only one seeing it that day? You know, I mean, there is that element to it. So and then you get up and you get back up on top of the Mesa, so you get the canyon views, you get the top of the Mesa views, but it is truly it's special and realizing what life was like, you know, so many years ago. So Mesa Verde is another one.
Speaker 3:Plus, the weather is fantastic, especially in October, fantastic in Southwest Colorado, and then as you get into November, I think that's the time to go experience the Grand Canyon. You know you've definitely lost the heat there will be, I will say, november is still a time that you do have across the Southwest some of the auto tour buses and so you will see a little bit of that on the South Rim. But if you go early in the morning you can have huge sections of the South Rim, which is the most popular part of the Grand Canyon. Yeah, you can have parts of that without a lot of people around. A lot of folks don't necessarily realize you can also bike. I know out of Flagstaff that there are a couple of outfitters that provide the opportunity to go and bike the rim, so if you're a cyclist, by all means check that out.
Speaker 2:That'd be spectacular.
Speaker 3:Yeah, use Flagstaff as your base for the Grand Canyon. It's a 90-minute drive and super easy. But Flagstaff in and of itself is just an amazing city and a great base because you can go to the Grand Canyon during the day, then experience some of the lunar legacy of Flagstaff and go to you can go to the observatory, which was where they found Pluto. But a unique thing about yeah, a unique thing about Flagstaff is that every astronaut that has stepped foot on the moon trained in Flagstaff, and that includes the Grand Canyon. It also includes three national monuments that you can do in a day. So give yourself that, or even well, you need a little bit more than a half day to do all three, but give yourself that time to also explore the three national monuments of Walnut Creek, sunset and Wupatki. Each are unique and different and you know you go from cliff dwellings and Walnut Creek to Sunset, being a volcanic landscape, and that's where you really feel like maybe this is what it.
Speaker 3:You know it's as close as we can get on earth to walking on the moon. So you know, and kind of feeling like you're stepping in the same footsteps as astronauts. And then Wupatki has these just incredibly beautiful pueblos in the desert landscape, and to see those ancient pueblos and be able to walk through those, you know, it is kind of almost a as you go and you do, kind of out of this world landscapes, you also get almost kind of an out of body experience too when you're walking through, if you'll give yourself that chance to let the imagination run wild and imagine what life would have been like if you lived, lived in one of those Pueblos, so you know so there you go.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think I got you covered pretty good from leaf peeping on the East Coast to enjoying the grandest landscape of them all in the United States, and one of is amazing, I mean it's the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 2:It was absolutely spectacular. So the mornings, great time, get out there early.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Get up and go catch that sunrise. I'm a huge proponent of look, I'm a sunrise. I feel like I'm a sunrise lover and a sunset chaser. I love both timeframes for very different reasons, and I feel like in the fall you just get the benefit of great weather, so you get those crisp mornings where you need to layer up a little bit and it's really clear.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, it's the October sky. There is something to it of just getting that bright, vivid blue sky with the sun and it just feels so nice. And then you throw in there. You know when you can get, whether it be the golden aspens in the Rockies or you know, I mean throughout the southeast, going into New England, and you get all of you. You get those maples that are just spectacular. If you can't tell, fall happens to be my favorite season. It's a good one. It's one of those that.
Speaker 3:I feel like people either love or hate.
Speaker 3:Some people are like, oh, when fall comes, I know it's coming, we're going into winter and it's going to get so cold. But there is something beautiful about everything changing colors and really that season of letting go and releasing and going into a season of rest. And I just think nature does it so beautifully of allowing us to enjoy the patchwork of many, many different colors and a variety of different landscapes. And it's not just the trees. Especially as you get into some of those more desert and drier landscapes, then you really can see like the vegetation itself changing colors. You get it some, you know, when you are in, you know in the Appalachian Mountains, but I think it's a little bit more obvious when you're in, say a you know southwest Colorado, or going into northern Arizona, that you can really see. You know it's kind of like pay attention to how the ground cover and really you should be doing it everywhere but pay attention to how the ground cover itself is also changing colors. It's not just the leaves on the trees that are changing colors for fall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And for me it's funny when we get toward the end of the summer, instead of me thinking oh, fall leads to winter, I'm thinking fall's coming. It's nearly the end of summer, Fall's coming soon. It's more an excitement for me. Yeah, I think it's soon. It's kind of it's more an excitement for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's too. It's like if you live in a really hot place, you're just craving. When am I going to get that first morning?
Speaker 2:That may be part of it.
Speaker 3:I mean I can remember when I was doing weather for a decade in San Antonio, texas, and we would go months and not get below 70 degrees. And so when it did drop for that first time, even if it was 68 degrees, you know it's like finally getting a break and you know so I think it is if you were in those hotter climates. You're craving to get that chance to those cool mornings coming. Plus, I mean, it's also the season of football and I really like college football a lot so that's a big bonus right there.
Speaker 1:I like wearing sweaters and stuff too. Just you know that whole the wardrobe thing too. But anyway.
Speaker 3:Well, speaking of wardrobe, as you you know, when you are going to national parks in the fall, definitely make sure that you do plan to layer up. Also, make sure that you have you know a set of at least light gloves. You always want to make sure to take those along and then to have some type of you know lightweight beanie to really kind of layer up and then to have some type of you know lightweight beanie to really kind of layer up. And if you are going to be hiking in the afternoons, because it does start to get darker earlier, make sure you take along a headlamp because you might need it. It's just a good idea. When the sun starts to even drop behind in the mountains, you know, it can start getting a little dark. So it's not a bad idea, if you're going to be a late afternoon hiker, to have that.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool. One other little quick practical question. When you talked earlier about the ranger tour, is that something that you pay for?
Speaker 3:You know it does vary. Many of them, many of them are free. I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say every tour, you know, ranger led tour, or just tour in general in national parks or in any of the unit, any of the 433 units of the National Park Service. Sometimes there is a small fee to some of them. The majority of them are free, but they do require a reservation. So, you know, make sure you do that and I strongly recommend those because you get so much insight and you get the chance to ask questions. You know you get somebody who's well versed in the location, in the landscape, in the subject matter, but then, you know, you also get that opportunity to ask questions as you're going along and to get that little insight and learn a lot.
Speaker 2:You know, it's.
Speaker 3:I try to jump on one any chance I get. I just think it's it's that opportunity to take advantage of, you know, that tap into somebody's wealth of knowledge, which so many rangers, you know. I always say I'm like in my next life I'm coming back as a, as a park ranger.
Speaker 2:It's not too late, I might still do it. I might still do it at some point.
Speaker 3:I mean, I shouldn't knock myself out yet.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I love, like, you know, when you're going along different places and the retirees that are that are volunteering in the national parks or working, because you know there are some people that are that are working seasonal, and then some people that are volunteers that are leading some of the tours, are leading some of the tours. You know, I mean it's just actually just did that up in Montana at Grant Coors Ranch National Historic Site and it was volunteers, and but what? Then they also get housing. So they go and make a commitment of, okay, you know, driving in their RV all over the country and then they get a free spot to put their RV for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3:And all they have to do is volunteer a certain number of hours per week. You know, it's kind of a sweet deal. So who knows, maybe, maybe that'll be me. I would love it, I think.
Speaker 2:I'll have a good time. We might join you there. Yeah, the pivot for you is much, much shorter than for most people, so hey, I'm already traveling and checking them out.
Speaker 1:Yep absolutely Well. Thank you so much for telling us where to go in fall. Yeah, we'll be back to our next episode with you, where you're going to tell us where to go in winter. So we will see you guys on the next one. We hope we've inspired you this episode, so join us next time. Please subscribe to rate and share our podcast with your friends. Or you know whomever, and please like and follow us on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.
Speaker 2:We're also on X and on all social platforms. We are at TheRomies, that's T-H-E-R-O-A-M-I-E-S, and our main hub is our website.
Speaker 1:At wwwtheromiescom, that's right, that's D-H-E-R-O-A-M. I-e-s dot com. We'll be there until next time. Yeah, thanks for listening, bye, bye, bye. No-transcript.