During our travels of the 48 contiguous United States, we have had many interesting and informative times taking walking tours. Each one has been unique. Some tours have involved food, some have immersed us in history, some have taken us to places we would not have gone otherwise and some have been purely relaxing. All have entertaining.

While some walking tours can be generic, some have been outstanding. What is the difference? The tour guides. We have had some phenomenal guides. Some that quickly come to mind:

• Betty at the Wings and Wheels Museum (Poplar Grove, IL)
• Desiree at the Evergreen Plantation (Edgard, LA)
• Lolia at the Waveland Ground Zero Hurricane Museum (Waveland, MS)
• Wayne at the World Museum of Mining (Butte, MT)

In this blog we have only included the walking guided tours we have found to be excellent or exceptional. All we would recommend. We have NOT received monetary compensation from any of these companies, nor will we receive a commission if you book with them using our name.

Arizona

Winslow, Az https://meteorcrater.com/
Meteor Crater is a privately owned national landmark about 30 minutes west of Winslow. It is a HUGE crater, measuring 550 feet deep and a mile wide. The crater was formed 50,000 years ago when a meteorite careened to earth. It is privately owned within a 282,000-acre ranch. There is a museum where you can watch a 15-minute film and then take a 45-minute guided tour (part of your admission fee) around the east rim of the crater. NASA used the Meteor Crater for training of astronauts.

Iowa

Forest City, IA
https://www.winnebago.com/discover/factory-tours
One of the best things to do in Forest City is to go on a tour of the Winnebago Factory tour. It was very interesting to see “Big Bertha”, the RV assembly plant and to watch the workers in the fabric shop make everything that is fabric in an RV (chair cushions, curtains, bed blanket, etc.) The tour is free and takes about 2 hours. Make sure you stand close to either the guide or the bus driver while you are in the plant. We were impressed to see the assembly lines where our Winnebago was built!

Illinois

Poplar Grove, IL https://www.wingsandwheelsmuseum.org/
One of our favorite walking tour was at the Wings and Wheels Museum. Betty, a volunteer, was knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide about the artifacts in the museum. We learned more about early aviation from Betty than many books and museums we have been to in the past! There are both paved and grass landing areas for small and vintage planes. Many houses near the airport have plane hangars. Homeowner/pilots can taxi out to the strips and be air born in minutes of leaving their dooryard!

Louisiana

Edgard, LA https://www.evergreenplantation.org/
Evergreen Plantation is a working planation in Wallace Parrish is southern Louisiana. It is temporarily closed, but hopefully it will reopen to the public again. Desiree, our walking tour guide was very knowledgeable about the history of the buildings and the life on the plantation owners and slaves. Thirty-seven buildings on the plantation are on the National Register of Historic Places, including 22 slave cabins. Many movies have been filmed here: Antebellum, Django Unchained, Free State of Jones and Roots.

Mississippi

Waveland, MS https://www.wavelandgroundzero.com/
The Waveland Ground Zero Hurricane Museum is housed in the old Waveland School, the only building on Coleman Street that was not decimated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. As you walk into the building there is a blue line painted on the walls of the school, about ¾ of the way up to the very tall ceilings. This is the water line for how far Katrina’s waters rose. Walking tours of the museum are given by volunteers who lived in Waveland and experienced Katrina. Lolia was our knowledgeable walking tour guide.

Montana

Butte, MT https://miningmuseum.org/
The World Museum of Mining was chartered in 1964 as a museum, memorial and tour in the inactive Orphan Girl silver and zinc mine. All the tour guides are people who have actually worked in the mine. Wayne, our tour guide, worked in the mine during the summer of 1974 and 1975. Going down into the mine was an extraordinary experience, especially when Wayne had us all turn off our headlamps and just use candles to demonstrate how difficult it would be to see and mine in the very early years! Wow!

Missoula, MT https://www.fs.usda.gov/science-technology/fire/smokejumpers/missoula/center
The Smokejumper Center is home to the largest of eight smokejumper facilities in the country, most in the northwest. Smokejumpers are the brave men and women who parachute out of planes into remote areas to fight wildfires. We were able to see their suits, their equipment and where their parachutes are repaired and repackaged. We were able to tour the actual planes used by the Missoula Smokejumpers. Guiding walking tours are offered every day during the summer.

Whitehall, MT https://fwp.mt.gov/stateparks/lewis-and-clark-caverns/
The Lewis and Clark Cavern State Park was the first state park in Montana. You cannot go into the caves without being part of a guided walking tour. There are two tour options: one more physically strenuous with a mile hike and 500 steps, one a less strenuous .5-mile hike to the caves and then maybe 10 stairs. It was amazing to see the formations in the cave. Our tour guide, was very knowledgeable about the history of the caves.

Take-away Points

For the longest time we never understood how pleasurable, informative and relaxing tours could be. Once we took our first tour, we were hooked! Hopefully reading our blog has piqued some interest in exploring this option of seeing an area. If you do, be sure to ask for our exceptional tour guides!

Since beginning our full-time journey to discover the country, we have found something to appreciate in every city and town we have passed through. We hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we have enjoyed discovering them!

Your partners in travel,
Kathryn and Dave
RVing Nomads

It’s a lifestyle

Thank you so much for reading this blog. If you enjoyed the content, please check out my other blogs at:
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No person, business or attraction has paid us for an endorsement. AI has not been used to create any of the content in this blog or website. All of the photos in this blog and website were taken by Dave or Kathryn Harrington.