Results tagged “National Parks” from Intelligent Travel Blog

Who says industrial companies and national parks can't be friends?  Boeing and Washington's Mount Rainier National Park certainly think they can. On Monday, Boeing presented the park with a $75,000 check to help it become more carbon neutral.

According to the Boeing Charitable Trust, the money will go toward Washington's National Park Fund and be used to fund projects like analyzing the park's vehicles to find ways to reduce emissions and to continue a visitors' shuttle that cuts down on weekend traffic. The goal is for these and other projects to reduce the park's greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2016.

This grant is in line with the goal of the Boeing Charitable Trust: funding projects that "reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, inspire environmental citizenship, and protect and restore critical natural habitat." I think this partnership is a magnificent example for other industrial giants and hope we continue to see unlikely friendships formed for the good of the earth.

[nationalparkstraveler.com]

Photo: Jeannette Kimmel

To mark Veterans' Day, here's a bit on the Civil War-themed camping trip I took last weekend with my husband and our goofy dog. It was our last camping trip of the season. Smoke inhalation (we had a little trouble with the cabin's stove) and frozen digits aside, we had a great time. It's amazing how much history and wildness is so close to Washington, DC.

About 60 miles out of DC we arrived at the Treehouse Camp at Maple Wood Campground in Roehersville, MD, just outside historic Burkittsville, home of the fictional Blair Witch. We'd booked a cabin for two nights. It was rustic but clean. We headed to Boonsboro (founded in 1792 by cousins of Daniel Boone) for food and beer before night fell. The campground's owner recommended Palettie, a cozy Italian restaurant offering hearty food, much of it organic and locally sourced.

The next morning we woke early; cold and eager for the sun to rise. We headed to tiny Weversville to hook up with the Appalachian Trial. Fifteen minutes on the trail, dodging sections of Highway 340 above us, we arrived at the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Towpath. We hiked along the Potomac River, remnants of the old canal, and the rail line, three miles west to the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. We coaxed our horrified dog across the old railroad bridge into the historic town and explored. Site of abolitionist John Brown's raid of the federal garrison there in 1859, Harpers Ferry is also significant for the range and quantity of weapons it produced, outfitting even the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1803. The hilly town features a lot of quaint places to eat though most are pricey and crowded with day-trippers.

As the sun began to sink, we hustled back along the towpath to the Appalachian Trail and our car. Another trip to Boonsboro for provisions, this time pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, and fries from The Mountainside Deli. The darkness and the chill in the air made for an early (and smoky) night. If camping isn't your thing, check out the recently renovated eight-room Inn BoonsBoro, part B&B, part boutique hotel owned by novelist Nora Roberts and her husband, bookseller Bruce Wilder. The inn is housed in the town's first stone building, likely from the 1790s. Its rooms are named after literary couples who found their happy endings: Jane and Rochester, Nick and Nora, and even Westley and Buttercup from The Princess Bride.

The following morning we headed off to the Antietam National Battlefield, site of the bloodiest single-day battle in American history during which 23,000 of the 100,000 men fighting were killed, injured, or went missing. We opted for the self-guided 8.5-mile, 11-stop tour of the expansive battlefield in the car, hopping in and out as we desired. Antietam impressed me; its topography is carefully preserved and provides a sense of the battle's stages and scale. The signage was meticulous and everywhere.

Next time you're in DC, consider moving beyond the city's monuments and checking out historic and beautiful sights beyond its borders. Living in DC for over six years, I'm constantly finding new and authentic places to explore.

On December 5th, Antietam will put on its annual Battlefield Memorial Illumination, during which 23,000 candles will be lit starting at 6 pm, one for each of the soldiers, Confederate as well as Federal, who died at Antietam on September 12, 1862.

Photo: courtesy NPS

We've got leaves on the brain today, and frankly, that's not such a terrible thing, particularly when the National Park Foundation and Olympus just announced the ten most photogenic parks for fall foliage this season. Feeling inspired? You can submit your favorite photos to the Share the Experience contest, put on by the Federal Recreation Lands, for the chance to win trips, camera gear, and other prizes. You've watched the Ken Burns documentary, now get out there this weekend and see America's "Best Idea" in all its splendor. Complete list after the jump.

JT Blatty, a former Traveler photo intern, has been spending the last month traveling through Sweden, and sends us a dispatch from their swath of national parks.

During an impulsive, two-week road trip through the less populated landscapes of Sweden, it only took a few nights for my friend and I to realize that our spontaneous agenda was becoming quite predictable - but in a good way. A few hours before dusk, a quick look at the map would indicate a picture-perfect location to camp for the night and explore the next morning, whether forest, lake, beach, or mountain peak. In other words, there was no way of avoiding the 7,000 square kilometers of Sweden's 28 national parks.

At the time I didn't realize that 2009 is "Nature's Year" in Sweden, a 100-year milestone celebrating Swedish national parks and the successful measures taken to preserve their diverse ecological landscapes. 

So I'm just back from lunch with Ken Burns. Ok, so maybe it was me, Ken Burns, and a room full of other journalists at the National Press Club, but the man is such a captivating speaker that it's as if he's sitting across the table from you, instead of across the room.

Burns was there to speak about the launch of his six-part, 12-hour documentary series, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," which began airing on PBS last night and will continue throughout the week. It was a ten-year process to create, and Burns explained that its focus is not on the majesty of the parks themselves, but the individuals who worked incredibly hard to create the parks in order to protect these "still wild places." His aim was to celebrate both the "love of place and a love of nation" that the parks have come to stand for.

After his presentation, the room full of journalists was ready with questions, and Burns continued to be as articulate in his off-the-cuff remarks as he had been in his speech. He said he'd love to see Dinosaur National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument receive full national park designations, and that his "fervent wish" was for more families, particularly families of color, to begin to go out and experience the parks.

America's national parks are all the rage these days--the First Family visited Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon earlier this month, Ken Burns's six-episode PBS series on "America's best idea" premieres September 27, and your very own Traveler is putting together some handy guides to the parks. Here's yet another novel and authentic way to travel some our country's best natural places: with Native American guides on Native American land at Native American-owned and -run lodges.

Bonnie Tsui reports in the New York Times that a new generation of Native American entrepreneurs are updating and upgrading tours and accommodations of and on native land while preserving native heritage and staying pretty green in terms of the ventures' environmental practices.

The Thunderbird Lodge in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, is one such native-run enterprise. A historic trading post, the lodge is now a modern hotel run by an all-Navajo staff. It offers tours of the back country led by native guides, the only way to access this expanse of bluffs and valleys made famous by John Wayne westerns and Ansel Adam's photos of the 13th-century White House ruins. Guides provide visitors a first-person account of the historic, cultural, and personal significance of native lands.

In the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, nestled between Arizona and Utah, check out the View, a sleek hotel opened in October 2008 that melts into the landscape. Built to eco-friendly specs, the View is owned by a Navajo family and its young chef reinterprets his grandmother's recipes, serving fry-bread tacos and stews.

Another option is to visit the Sky City Cultural Center at Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, perched on its 367-feet-high mesa. Take a guided tour of the mesa, still home to some of the Acoma's spiritual leaders, catch a cultural demonstration, or shop for traditional pottery.  Stop by the Yaak'a Café for a traditional Acoma breakfast of blue-corn pancakes.

Not sure where to start? Consider a tour operator that specializes in small-group trips led by indigenous guides and interpreters such as Go Native America, mentioned in our October 2007 installment of Tours of a Lifetime.

Photo: courtesy The View, Monument Valley

Lynda Bird Johnson packs her camp trailer prior to her western trip. From the December, 1965 issue of National Geographic Magazine, by David Boyer/NGS.

This weekend President Obama and the First Family are heading to Yellowstone and Grand Canyon National Parks, in part to promote this summer's final fee-free weekend at over 100 parks that usually charge admission. With his visit, the President hopes to continue the tradition of Presidential visits to the parks, and encourage the preservation and conservation of our natural landscapes. If this trip sparks anything like the mass crowds now flocking to the Obama-visited burger joints here in Washington, D.C., the President will have done his job.

This will be the first visit to either park for Obama's daughters Sasha and Malia, but not the first time a First Daughter has made such a trip. In 1965, Lynda Bird Johnson, daughter of LBJ, caravanned across America's interior taking National Geographic Magazine along for the ride. Here's an excerpt from the article, "I See America First: Diary of the President's Daughter," that we dug out of our archives.

Our Ancestors saw the West in a covered wagon. I saw it in the covered wagon's successor, the travel trailer.

In late June we rolled away from the Grand Canyon with the keepsake memory of a sunrise Sunday worship service beside its awesome rim. For two days we lingered in Monument Valley, an American Stonehenge sculptured by nature. We climbed amid the cliffside homes of ancient Indians at Wetherill Mesa, celebrated Fourth of July with a parade at Laramie, and in Jackson Hole floated down the Snake River on a raft.

We applauded Old Faithful at Yellowstone, parked for the night among tombstones where Custer, his men of the 7th Cavalry, and his stubborn foes--the Sioux and Cheyenne--died at the Little Bighorn River, and paused in homage at Theodore Roosevelt's crude cabin in his memorial park. We waded the Mississippi River where it trickles out of Lake Itasca, and canoed on the inviting waters of northern Minnesota.

Though our trailers covered 2,900 miles--about the distance from Paris to Jerusalem--we had hardly begun to see America. To see it all would take a lifetime.

There is perhaps nothing I love more than poking through the National Geographic photo archives. Which is why I adore the two galleries we currently have on our website, featuring classic images from Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks. The shot above, which has never before been published, depicts the snowmobile vehicle tours available in Yellowstone park in 1967. The caption reads:

"Along the Lower Geyser Basin we waved at sightseers standing beside the tanklike snowmobiles that had brought them over the snowbound road from West Yellowstone. The day is perhaps not far off when large number of visitors, bundled up in snowmobiles, will see much more of the park's winter beauty. When that day comes, fleets of steel-treaded half-tracks will rumble across a land that once knew only the snowshoes of Indians and trappers."

For more on the parks, and to see other classic photo galleries, visit our National Parks guide. Want more images from the National Geographic vault? Let us know what you'd like to see and we'll dig through the archives to find them.

Photo: William Albert Allard

• Lots of folks will make a national park their firework-watching destination this weekend (I'm heading to the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial), and the National Park Service has launched a website to give updates on events happening at national parks across the U.S.
  
  
• One ring to rule them all... or to see Italy, at least. Italian jeweler Damiani is offering round-trip airfare and a week in a hotel in any Italian city with the purchase of one of its Gomitolo rings. The rings start at $7,700.
  
  
• Amsterdam's got free music, and EuroCheapo breaks down the best places to groove on weeknights.

Photo: National Park Service

Are you a fan of polar bears? (Who isn't?!) Well there's some good news from our friends over at the NatGeo News Watch blog:

Russia will create a new 3.7 million-acre (1.5 million-hectare) park in the Arctic, a central area for the Barents and Kara Sea polar bear populations, WWF said today.

Announcing the park, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he hoped it would be a major attraction for tourism, and announced that he personally plans to vacation there, WWF said.

The new Russian Arctic park is located on the northern part of Novaya Zemlya, a long island that arcs out into the Arctic Ocean between the Barents and Kara Seas, WWF said. It also includes some adjacent marine areas.

Check out the entire post for more info on the park.

Photo: NGS photo of polar bear in the Russian Arctic by Gordon Wiltsie

It's been a while since I've had a Tina Fey travel moment ("I Want to Go to There") but the combination of danger, beauty, and the sheer isolation that Big Bend National Park offers has me dreaming of nights spent under an ocean of stars. The park stretches over 800,000 acres along the twist of the Rio Grande in southwest Texas, and offers amazing hiking, incredible vistas, and a significant adventure factor that has the potential to bring out the Bear Grylls in each of us. So much so that National Geographic writer Nick Patosi introduces what is perhaps the counterpoint to the "IWTGTT" impulse -- the "You Can Die" factor. He writes in the February 2007 issue:

The You Can Die possibilities are endless, which keeps some visitors--350,000 a year to Big Bend National Park--from coming back. Those who do return are left to ponder the remarkable grit of the hardy few who have managed to survive in this spare, unforgiving environment. Not to mention the roadrunners and kangaroo rats, so adapted to the arid climate they don't even need to drink.

Fortunately for all of us, the National Park System has prepared a short list of ways to counter the "You Can Die" factor, aptly called "How Not to Die in the Desert." Check them out after the jump.

Why not do some good while enjoying the great outdoors? This Saturday, June 6th, is National Trails Day, so there will be ample opportunities to repair and/or hike your favorite trails, learn more about hiking and hiking gear, dedicate new trails and get to know other hikers in your area.

As we've said before, the National Mall here in D.C. has been in disrepair for some time. Despite hosting some 25 million visitors a year, the national park has only 100 toilets and three places to buy water. The Reflecting Pool is old and grimy, and the Mall's grass just hasn't been the same since millions of people visited D.C. for the Inauguration in January.
 
But finally, after much deliberation, the Department of the Interior announced yesterday that Washington, D.C. will get more than $70 million to restore these "eyesores." The Washington Post reports $30 million will go to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool and $7.3 will go to the District of Columbia War Memorial, which has seen very little upkeep in decades.

But the aid doesn't stop at District lines. Twelve million will go to the C&O Canal, which has more than 180 miles of hiking and bike trails, $3 million will go to Arlington Cemetery's historic Custis-Lee mansion, and nearly $10 million will go to Skyline Drive, one of the country's most popular fall foliage drives.

The funding is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which awarded $750 million to the country's national parks. The money will fund some 750 projects around the U.S.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that work on the National Mall will begin immediately, and hopes to have the projects complete by September 2010. He told the Post:

"With respect to the National Mall . . . this is but the beginning," he said. "This is a down payment on the challenges that we face on the Mall. . . . This is not Washington, D.C.'s Mall, this is the Mall that belongs to the people of the United States of America. . . . This is part of the best of what is America."

Photo: StacyN - MichiganMoments via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool