As an adult I have some great memories as well and have been fortunate to have travelled to some of the most incredibly beautiful places in the western United States and Canada. I have been to almost every major National Park in the west at least once and most of the beautiful State Parks here in California. Although I have become somewhat jaded having been to so many spectacular places over the years I still get a rise everytime I go back to visit even though the initial enchantment has somewhat wore off over the years. There is still something magical about going to Yosemite Valley and seeing El Capitan, Half Dome and the waterfalls...and... standing at the top of Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park...and...sitting in my lounge chair atop Minaret Summit peering across at Banner and Ritter Peaks...and...walking through the magnificent Redwood forest near Eureka Ca.,...and...feeling the chill of the winter winds on my face at Joshua Tree National Park...and...scaling the slopes of Mt. Jefferson in Oregon...While I love all these places that I have been there are some special moments and places that are etched in my memory and heart forever...like...the time I stood atop Cascade Pass in Cascade National Park. Mountains on all sides of me, El Dorado Peak on one side and Torment Peak on the other. There were glaciers, ice and snow everywhere and a meadow of flowers bursting with all the colors of the rainbow...or...the first time I went hiking in the Ansel Adams Wilderness near Mammoth Mountain. I'll never forget the feeling of seeing Ediza, Garnet, and Thousand Island Lakes for the first time and the incredible sight of a hanging glacier that emptied it's ice into the waters of Iceberg lake...or...the sound of the crashing ice rumbling it's way down the face of Edith Cavell on a warm summer day in the Canadian Rockies...or walking on the sand while hiking the "Lost Coast" of California with no sight of humans anywhere...or...hiking through Titcomb Basin in the Wind River Range in Wyoming. I still can see the Milky Way and the millions of stars one night as I camped at 11,000 feet before the face of Fremont Peak. It was magical... These were magical places and magical times.....