Travel with Rolando Chang Barrero

Cuyahoga Valley National Park  The National Park Nobody Told Me About Travel with Rolando to our 🇺🇸 U.S. National Parks by Rolando Chang Barrero Google Local Guide and LGBTQ Traveler America's State Parks & National Parks I'll admit it. Before beginning my journey to visit all of America's national parks, I knew almost nothing about Cuyahoga Valley National Park . Ohio wasn't the first place that came to mind when I imagined towering mountains, dramatic deserts, or iconic landscapes. I couldn't have been more wrong. Cuyahoga Valley doesn't overwhelm you. It quietly wins you over. Nestled between Cleveland and Akron, this is a national park that doesn't rely on grand spectacles. Instead, it invites you to slow down, wander a little, and discover beauty hidden in places many people would otherwise drive right past. Bella and I spent the day exploring waterfalls, wooded trails, peaceful wetlands, and historic sites connected by winding country roads. Th...

  B ig Bend National Park Where the River Divides Nations Peacefully Travel with Rolando to our 🇺🇸 U.S. National Parks by Rolando Chang Barrero Google Local Guide and LGBTQ Traveler America's State Parks & National Parks There are places that impress you with their beauty. Then there are places that quietly challenge everything you think you know about borders, wilderness, and the relationship between people and the land. Big Bend National Park is one of those places. For me, Big Bend wasn't just another national park to check off my list. It was one of the destinations I had dreamed about for years. After days of driving across West Texas, the landscape slowly transformed into one of the most remote and breathtaking places I have ever experienced. Bella and I had finally arrived. The first thing you notice is the silence. Not the absence of sound, but the presence of it. The wind through the desert grasses. The distant call of a bird. The Rio Grande quietly carving its...

The Badlands Don't Welcome You... They Challenge You! Some places throw open their arms and invite you in.  The Badlands aren't one of them. Travel with Rolando to our 🇺🇸 U.S. National Parks by Rolando Chang Barrero Google Local Guide and LGBTQ Traveler America's State Parks  & National Parks From the moment I drove into Badlands National Park , I felt as though I had crossed into another world—one shaped not for comfort, but by millions of years of relentless wind, water, and time. Jagged ridges rose from the prairie like the weathered bones of the Earth itself. Every overlook tempted me to stop, yet every step reminded me that this landscape has never belonged to us. The Badlands don't try to impress you. They challenge you. They challenge your sense of scale, your understanding of time, and your place in the natural world. As I stood there with Bella by my side, I found myself thinking less about the dramatic scenery and more about the countless lives tha...

El Malpais National Monument & Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano! By Rolando Chang Barrero Travel with Rolando and Adventures with Bella More National Parks https://travelwithrolando.com/ That was my overwhelming feeling while exploring El Malpais National Monument and nearby Ice Cave & Bandera Volcano in western New Mexico. "El Malpaís" means the badlands , a name early Spanish explorers gave this rugged landscape of ancient lava flows. But after spending a day here, I'd call it anything but "bad." Millions of years ago, volcanic eruptions transformed this region into a dramatic landscape of black lava rivers, lava tubes, cinder cones, sandstone cliffs, and resilient forests. Today, it's a place where geology, history, and nature come together in spectacular fashion. One moment you're standing inside a cool volcanic cave looking up through a collapsed skylight at the brilliant New Mexico sky. The next, you're staring into the surreal green wa...

The Journey I Thought I Was Taking Looking Back at Day One — May 18, 2026 Written July 30, 2026- Travel With Rolando Blog and Notes Date: May 18, 2026 Route: West Palm Beach → Clermont → Micanopy, Florida Miles Driven:  280 miles Overnight: Vollama Acres Farm (Harvest Hosts) Lesson of the Day: Sometimes peace is found in the places we almost overlooked. "Sometimes we spend weeks planning a destination, only to discover that the real journey begins the moment life changes the itinerary." - Rolando Chang Barrero Now that I'm home again—several months earlier than I had expected—I find myself thinking about the morning this journey began. I've discovered that the beginning of a trip often makes far more sense once you've reached its end. When I backed my RV out of my driveway in West Palm Beach on May 18, I believed I was beginning another months-long adventure that would eventually take Bella and me across the United States and into Mexico, ending in Puerto ...

   "People Make Choices" -Rolando Chang Barrero, USA Tour #5  Some places are visited. Others are experienced. Today was the latter.   I left my Harvest Host stay at Doggone RV in Palestine, Arkansas , before sunrise and headed east to Memphis, Tennessee , determined to visit one of the most significant places in the history of the American Civil Rights Movement—the National Civil Rights Museum , built around the Lorraine Motel , where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. From the moment I stepped onto the grounds, I knew this would not be an ordinary museum visit. The museum does far more than recount historical events. It takes visitors on a powerful journey through centuries of slavery, segregation, racial violence, and the long struggle for equality and justice. Walking through the exhibits, reading the firsthand accounts, seeing the photographs, hearing the voices, and eventually standing outside Room 306—where Dr. King spent the fin...

  Experience the Crystals of Petrified Forest National Park Walking Through 225 Million Years of History with Bella More National Parks Welcome to Travel with Rolando! Google local Guide Review Subscribe to YouTube      Su pport me at Patreon Some National Parks overwhelm you with towering mountains. Others leave you speechless with waterfalls, glaciers, or endless forests. Petrified Forest National Park offers something entirely different—it invites you to slow down and walk through a world that existed more than 225 million years ago. Bella and I entered through the Painted Desert Visitor Center , beginning a journey from the colorful badlands of the Painted Desert to one of the world's richest deposits of petrified wood. I expected to see fossilized trees. Instead, I discovered a park where geology, archaeology, history, and art seem to exist side by side. Our first stop was the beautifully restored Painted Desert Inn , perched high above the vast desert below....

Celebrating 63 Among Oregon's Waterfalls There are birthdays you celebrate with candles and cake, and then there are birthdays you remember because they remind you how fortunate you are to still be exploring this incredible country. For my 63rd birthday, I found myself deep in Oregon's Umpqua National Forest , surrounded by towering Douglas firs, emerald moss, crystal-clear rivers, and some of the most spectacular waterfalls I've ever seen. It was the perfect place to pause, reflect, and celebrate another year of life on the road with Bella faithfully by my side. I made my home for a few days at Umpqua's Last Resort , a wonderful LGBTQ+-friendly campground tucked into the forest near Idleyld Park. Hidden along the North Umpqua River, it offers peaceful RV sites, cozy cabins, and easy access to one of Oregon's greatest natural treasures—the famous Highway of Waterfalls. It was one of those unexpected discoveries that makes traveling the back roads so rewarding. Eve...