You may not have to travel far to find fascinating sites from a thousand years ago.

Try effigy mounds National Park in Iowa.

There is a mound in the shape of a bear facing the direction of the Mississippi River.

Prayers held, bones buried, protected.

Coming up, Terry Tempest Williams introduces us to her favorite national parks.

In the American Southwest, history is still very much alive.

You don't have to find out how Native people lived a long time ago

to learn other ways, you know, other cultures of the United States.

You can find out how native people are living now.

Flannery Burke explores what the Great Southwest represents to the rest of the country.

And Christopher Solomon describes a hot, dusty week crossing the wilds of Utah on a mountain bike.

Some really adventurous outings that mix exhaustion with beauty.

The views are magnificent in the hour ahead.

Come along.

It's Travel with Rick Steves.

Mountain bikes were made for the kind of rugged trip

Christopher Solomon recently got back from.

He spent a week crossing the desert and mountain wilderness

of southern Utah on a bike tour designed to taste

the almost feral spirit of the Wild West, like a modern-day Edward Abbey on fat tires.

Chris joins us a little later in the hour today on Travel with Rick Steves.

And Flannery Burke explains what Arizona and New Mexico represent to the nation and to each other,

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