Parkography

Dust of the Earth

 
Known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks," legendary naturalist John Muir was far ahead of his time, holding ideals that many are just coming around to.
Muir undertook a daring adventure in 1867 that led him to the path of natural enlightenment. He decided that he wanted to explore the world. He left his life in Indiana and walked one thousand miles to Florida. Muir trekked south through Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida with little more than a map, a compass, a brush, soap, and a change of underclothes. 
Muir later penned his adventure in "A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf," which has become a classic naturalist text set against the backdrop of the post-civil war south. In it, he makes loads of prescient observations, but none more arresting than his denunciation of the idea that God mad nature as man's personal resource factory. That perhaps, the creator mad nature for nature's sake, and the lives and feelings of every plant and animal matter just as much as our own.

Angel of the Battlefield

In this difficult time in the world, we look to heroes from our past as inspiration to help us find the resolution to possess even a small fraction of their helping spirit. Clara Barton's life's work has rippled through the generations, and, in fact, the response to today's pandemic crisis might have been very different were she never born.
Today, one of the most decorated women in American history, and the Clara Barton National Historic Site.

The Return of the Wolves

In the battle for conservation and the protection and reinvigoration of endangered species, one animal serves as a symbol to remind us of what we've done as a human race, and how we have the responsibility to fix our mistakes. And it all played out in America's first and most famous National Park.
Today on America's National Parks, Yellowstone, and the 25th anniversary of the return of the Grey Wolf.

Oh Shenandoah

Just 75 miles from the bustle of Washington, D.C., is an escape to recreation and re-creation. Cascading waterfalls, spectacular vistas, and quiet wooded hollows - 200,000 acres of protected lands are a haven to deer, songbirds, and the night sky. But the history of this land is also the history of the people who gave up their homes for a great national park in the East.
Today on America's National Parks, Shenandoah, and the livelihood of the people who called the mountains their home.

News from the Parks | March 2020

As travel restrictions, shelter-in-place orders, and closures to all but the most essential services sweep the country, the National Park Service has been caught in the middle of wanting to protect people and places, while providing recreational opportunities for Americans to get out and free their minds in nature.

Going to the Sun

Only a few miles of rough wagon roads existed within Glacier National Park when Congress established the park on May 11, 1910. Many people, including the first Park Superintendent, William R. Logan, wanted to build a transmountain road across the park. Supporters argued that a good road system would enable people to reach the interior of the park even if they could not afford the rates of the Great Northern Railroad and its chalets. And enthusiasm for good roads and automobiling had infected National Park Service officials as much as the rest of the country. But sheer cliffs, short construction seasons, sixty foot snow-drifts, and tons of solid rock made the idea of building a road across the Continental Divide a unique challenge.
Today on America's National Parks, Glacier's Going to the Sun Road.

Wilderness of Rock

337,598 acres of colorful canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches, and spires in the heart of southeast Utah's high desert. A land where water and gravity are the prime architects, sculpting layers of rock into the rugged landscape we see today in Canyonlands National Park.

Prometheus

In the far west, you can find one of the oldest living organisms in the world. A tree that can live for thousands of years due to its ability to survive whatever is thrown at it. 56 years ago, the oldest tree ever was found, containing nearly 5000 years of growth rings. It germinated before the Egyptian Pyramids were built. Unfortunately, nobody knew it was the oldest known tree until it was gone.
Today, Great Basin National Park, the Bristlecone Pine, and how one man accidentally killed the oldest tree in the world.