Doggin' America: Take Your Dog To The Beach It is hard to imagine many places a dog is happier than at a beach. Whether running around on the sand, jumping in the water , digging a hole or just lying in the sun, every dog deserves a day at the beach. But all too often dog owners stopping at a sandy stretch of beach are met with signs designed to make hearts - human and canine alike - droop: NO DOGS ON BEACH. Below is a quick traveling tour of America's beaches with each state ranked from the most dog-friendly (****) to the worst (*). Doggin' America's Colleges For many, fall means back to school. And it should for dog owners as well. A college is a great place to look for a canine hike when you are traveling. You will find many a campus to be dog-friendly. The best time to visit with your dog is early on a weekend day or when school is not in session. At smaller colleges you can maneuver your dog unobtrusively around campus most any time. Here are some of our favorite campus canine hikes: Doggin' The Blue Ridge Parkway Begun as a Depression-era public works project, the Blue Ridge Parkway was America's first rural parkway. When ultimately completed it was also the nation's longest - 469 miles of uninterrupted mountain roads linking Shenandoah National Park in the north to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in the south. The Blue Ridge Parkway is far and away the most popular destination in the National Park System - more than 19 million recreation visits per year. One of the explanations for its enduring popularity could be that the Blue Ridge is also one of America's most dog-friendly destinations. Doggin' America's National Parks Wherever you travel this summer chances are good that you will find yourself with your dog on land owned by the federal government at some point. Every state in the Union has at least one national park or forest or shoreline or wildlife refuge beckoning summer adventurers. With that mind here is a quick primer on what to expect when taking your dog to our national lands. Doggin' America's Rooftops My high school was built next to the highest point in the state. The exact spot was in a trailer park out beyond the football field, just over the visitor's grandstand. Don't worry, we didn't get winded climbing the stairs and kids weren't lined up at the nurse's office complaining of nose bleeds. The exact elevation was 448 feet. We were in Delaware and of all the states only Florida has a lower "high point." Doggin' Nigara Falls Of all the crown jewels in America's natural tiara - Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite - none is as dog-friendly as Niagara Falls. Save for special guided tours, your dog can walk anywhere you walk to view the world-famous falls in both New York's Niagara Falls State Park and Ontario's Queen Victoria Park. Doggin' Presidential Footsteps "Any man who does not like dogs and want them about does not deserve to be in the White House," President Calvin Coolidge said. Coolidge himself had at least 12 dogs. Future office holders have taken the 29th American President's words to heart - every single one has shared the Oval Office with a canine friend. Doggin' The Outer Banks Aviation enthusiasts from around the world make the pilgrimage to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on Cape Hatteras to celebrate the birth of powered manned flight. If you go, make sure to take the dog. Doggin' Baltimore, Maryland Doggin' Baltimore: 13 Cool Things To See When You Hike With Your Dog around Charm City. Doggin' Colorado Springs, Colorado Doggin' Colorado Springs: 10 Cool Things To See When You Hike With Your Dog Around Little London Doggin' Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Doggin' Philadelphia: 10 Cool Things To See When You Hike With Your Dog Around The City Of Brotherly Love Doggin' Shasta And The Rogue River Take your dog to the only known Bigfoot trap in the world. Take your dog for a swim in front of a waterfall pouring from a wall of moss. Take your dog to the site of historic gold strikes. Take your dog up some of the most magnificent mountain trails in America in northern California and southern Oregon. Doggin' The Black Hills The Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming have entranced visitors from Presidents to Hollywood location scouts. Hiking with your dog in the Black Hills area will take you from the open, dry, windswept plains into the cool, pine-covered mountains with beautiful valleys that are home to large spruce trees and long memories. Doggin' Reno And Lake Tahoe Whether it's a canine hike through the stark beauty of the desert around Reno or the magnificent splendor of one of the world's greatest alpine lakes at Tahoe, there is a lifetime of wonderment for your dog here. Your dog can even trot in the footsteps of Hoss, Little Joe, Adam and Ben Cartwright from Bonanza or visit the one-time richest hill on the planet in Virginia City. Doggin' El Paso, Texas The El Paso region can be a great place to hike with your dog. Within an hour's drive you can hike on sand trails, climb hills that leave you panting, walk on some of the most historic grounds in America... Doggin' White Sands National Monument Dogs have long been welcome on the mystical white sands of southern New Mexico. When America's space age began at White Sands Missile Range with the firing of a Tiny Tim test booster... Doggin' Valley Forge National Historic Park The most famous name in the American Revolution comes to us from a small iron forge built along Valley Creek in the 1740s. After a disastrous campaign in the Fall of 1777 George Washington had left Philadelphia in the hands of the British and retreated... Doggin' Toadstool Geologic Park America's badlands received their ominous name when early settlers found it impossible to safely roll a wagon through the cracked lunar landscape in the Upper Midwest. Our most famous badlands are preserved in national parks in the Dakotas - and off limits to canine hikers. Doggin' Freedoms Foundation At Valley Forge Adjacent to the Valley Forge National Historic Park outside Philadelphia, although not affiliated with it, nestled in the wooded hills above the Schuylkill River, is a unique, little known living memorial dedicated to... Doggin' Saratoga National Historic Park Saratoga National Historic Park preserves 3200 acres of battlefield where American Revolutionaries, behind General Horation Gates, prevented British control... Doggin' Morristown National Historic Park Morristown, a village of 250, was a center of iron supply for the American Revolution and even though it lay only 30 miles west of the main British force in New York it was protected by a series of parallel mountain ranges. It was the twin luxuries of... Doggin' Gettysburg National Military Park Experienced canine hikers are all too aware of the prohibitions against dogs on national park trails but not so many know about the hidden gems the national park service reserves for dog owners... Doggin' Guilford Courthouse National Military Park With the Revolutionary War stalemated in the North in 1778, the British strategy to win the war shifted to the South. Georgia and South Carolina were completely under British control by 1780. Nathanael Greene, an ironmaster by trade, self-taught in the art of war and George Washington's hand-picked commander of the Southern Department, was determined... Doggin' Jacksonville, Oregon Gold was discovered in Oregon's Jackson Creek in 1851 but it brought neither fame nor fortune to the prospector, a lone miner remembered today only as "Mr. Sykes." Gold fever ignited soon enough and within two years... Doggin' Ketchum, Idaho In 1879 a tall, wiry prospector named David Ketchum built a small shelter along the Trail Creek to use as his base of operations in the area. He didn't stay long. By 1880, when mining operations began... Doggin' Kings Mountain National Military Park Revolutionary War buffs will certainly want to make the effort to take your dog to Kings Mountain, site of some of the most vicious American vs. American fighting... Doggin' Moab, Utah Most of us have seen the spectacular scenery around Moab without realizing it - the landscape has often been used as the setting for Hollywood westerns. Before that, popular Western novelist Zane Grey stoked the imaginations... Doggin' Steamboat Springs, Colorado James Crawford is the father of Steamboat Springs, Colorado having settled in a cabin on Soda Creek in 1874. Instead of becoming "Crawfordville," legend has it... Doggin' Chesapeake & Ohio National Historic Park George Washington was one of the early American speculators who dreamed of the riches an inland American waterway could bring that would... Doggin' Cumberland Gap National Historic Park Wandering animals, buffalo and deer, were the first to discover this natural break in the daunting Appalachian Mountains. These migratory mammals blazed the trail that... Doggin' Redding, California The California & Oregon Railroad built a temporary supply center here in 1872 and named it Redding after B.B. Redding, its railroad land agent. The settlement took hold and in 1874... More Articles on hiking with your dog... An index for how-tos, destinations and tips for canine adventurers