I’m guessing that a trip to Alaska is on your life list. It’s one of the few places left on earth where you can go deep into the wilderness and wander among bear, caribou, moose, Dall sheep, and other animals in their mostly untouched natural habitat. As we enter the temperate summer travel season, now is the ideal time to head north and get a glimpse of the many wonders my home state has to offer.

I’ve lived and worked in the Land of the Midnight Sun for more than three decades and love to introduce both new and experienced travelers to its beauty and history. Despite some common misconceptions, getting off the beaten path and exploring Alaska’s backcountry is relatively easy and it’ll take you where the geology is breathtaking and varied, the cultural history is fascinating, and the opportunities for adventure are limitless. Here are a few of my favorite trip ideas, with a few tips on getting the most out of your experience.

1. Marvel at mountains and mining history in the country’s largest national park. One of my favorite Alaska drives is heading east out of Palmer on the Glenn Highway to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve. As you travel alongside the Matanuska River and the Chugach Mountains, stop at the Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Site for a great overview of the glacier and a short hike to stretch your legs. The further east you travel, the more the mountains of Wrangell-St. Elias will emerge from the horizon, so you’ll want your camera fully charged before you start this drive!

The highway stops in Glennallen and you have to turn. Head south towards Valdez and start looking for the signs to McCarthy, the “party town” (think whiskey and women) for miners who worked at the Kennecott Copper Mine until it shut down in 1938. For almost 60 years it sat idle until the National Park Service began restoring and interpreting the mine in the late 1990s. Before you turn off for McCarthy, stop at the Park Service visitor center for an introduction to both the cultures and natural wonders of America’s largest national park; Wrangell-St. Elias is six times the size of Yellowstone!

Both the mine itself and McCarthy are must-see destinations for anyone visiting the park. I took my mom here a few years ago on one of her many trips to Alaska, and we stayed at the Kennecott Glacier Lodge where we enjoyed sharing our meals with visitors from around the world in their family-style dining room. For those who don’t want to stay by the mine, the McCarthy Lodge and the Ma Johnson Hotel offer food and lodging on McCarthy’s rustic main street. Regardless of where you stay, be sure to give yourself enough time to explore the mining history, walk on a glacier, and enjoy a “flightseeing” adventure with one of the local air taxi services.

2. Take an unforgettable boat tour of Glacier Bay. Another of my mom’s favorite national park lodges is Glacier Bay Lodge—the only accommodations available inside Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve. Built during the 50th anniversary of the National Park Service in the 1960s, Glacier Bay Lodge is one of Alaska’s undiscovered gems. You’ll need to get yourself to the small town of Gustavus by either state ferry or airplane and the lodge will pick you up for the 11-mile drive to the park. The majesty of Glacier Bay is unveiled every day from the deck of the lodge’s day boat—the must-do trip for every visitor. You spend all day exploring the park’s tidewater glaciers and keeping your eyes peeled for sea otters, sea lions, puffins, mountain goats, humpback and orca whales, and, if you are lucky, a brown bear feeding along the coastline.

3. Get up-close with Alaska’s coastal brown bears. If you want to spend time up close and personal with brown bears, I can’t recommend enough taking a trip to either Katmai or Lake Clark National Park & Preserve. Flying to Katmai from Homer to spend a day with one of that city’s seasoned bear guides involves a float plane ride over Cook Inlet. Mom went with me on an early summer trip before the salmon started running and we watched brown bears in coastal tidal flats feeding on grass (which made me think of cows). You land in the ocean, wade ashore (they provide the hip-waders), and spend the day watching all kinds of bear behavior (warning: this is also mating season!). Later in the summer, you’ll land on small lakes near salmon streams and spend the day watching bears fish and eat—and eat, and eat! If you have more time and want to spend several days watching bears, try one of the lodges at Silver Salmon Creek in Lake Clark National Park & Preserve.

4. Go wild, with a guide. I mention hiring a guide to see brown bears. Don’t be shy about hiring someone to show you the sights, sounds, and smells of Alaska (yes, rotting fish is pretty smelly!). Guides know where the best wildlife viewing is, they know the most efficient way to get there, and from a safety perspective, there’s nothing like traveling in Alaska with someone who’s been there before. This is especially true if you want even more of a wilderness experience in one of Alaska’s more remote parks, like Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve, the park system’s premier wilderness park. Here you can run rivers, hike along alpine ridges, and even do some climbing. If backcountry travel is on your bucket list, there are several companies that provide guided trips to Gates. Be sure to take plenty of mosquito repellant and don’t be surprised if the sun never goes away!

Planning your trip to Alaska can be a daunting task. Here are a couple more resources, whether you’re looking for a backcountry experience or seeking out lodges and day trips. Either way, a trip to the Last Frontier will provide you with a lifetime of memories.

If you liked this story, you might also like

• Alaska: Reflections from a Guest in the Wilderness (August 23, 2012)
• Friday Photos: Happy Anniversary ANILCA (December 14, 2012)
• Getting Close to Katmai’s Bears in the Hopes of Protecting Them (July 31, 2012)

I love spring! You see more and more people getting outside enjoying our parks. I have a few things to help get you outdoors this week, including tips for your next trip to Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, an excuse to take the kids out, and a new perspective of some of the trails in Sequoia National Park.

1. Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park has a new FREE audio tour app! This app is a self-guided walking tour that is intended to educate visitors of the history, geology, and social and cultural importance of this park. Did you know the Great Falls pours roughly two billion gallons of water into the canyon each day?
2. What animal do you think you’ll cross paths with when hiking the trails of our national parks? Bison? Elk? Fox? Birds? Alligators? Everglades National Park offers a unique wildlife experience where this is just an everyday occurrence. Photo courtesy of Everglades National Park Facebook page.
   
   
3. Our national parks are starting to bloom. It is National Wildflower Week and beautiful images of our national parks’ flowers are popping up on Pinterest. Here is a beautiful image of Desert Tissue Spring Flowers found in Joshua Tree National Park, CA. What park is your favorite to watch bloom?
4. The granola gurus at Nature Valley have shown their commitment to our parks  over the last four years by funding exciting projects with their Preserve the Parks campaign (including numerous restoration work days around the country in partnership with NPCA). A really innovative extension of this campaign is “Nature Valley Trail View” where their staff have set out to create a 360-degree “street view” of some of our national park trails. The newest addition are trails from Sequoia National Park. Check it out!
5. May 18th is National Kids to Parks Day, organized by National Park Trust. More than 100,000 people have already pledged to take kids to a park. Make your pledge today! This campaign’s mascot is “Buddy Bison” and we love his quote: “Explore outdoors, the parks are yours!” So get outside and enjoy our national parks!

Find something fun about national parks on the ’net? Let me know!

-Megan Cantrell, Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement

Imagine boating to paradise and then—without meaning to—causing it harm. Thanks to more than a decade of work in the Virgin Islands, a national park visit by boat is now gentler on the marine environment.

The spectacular coastal scenery, crystal clear waters, reliable winds, and beautiful bays of Virgin Islands National Park and the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument have made them popular destinations for boaters. In the past, these visitors had to use anchors to secure their vessels, causing considerable, albeit unintentional, damage to sea grass beds, coral reefs, and other  benthic (seabed or seafloor) resources. To combat this problem, the park embarked on a mooring program to provide a safe and reliable alternative to anchoring with the long-term goal of creating an anchorless park.

Moorings are permanent installations that allow boats to stay in one place without using anchors. In our case we drive heavy-duty augur-like devices about 15 feet into the seabed and then connect a line to a buoy on the surface (see a diagram of how this works). Boats attach to the buoy and are secure. Anchors are a more temporary solution, disturbing the seabed every time they are dropped and then retrieved. Just imagine the damage that could be done by 50 boats dropping anchors and then pulling them up day after day.

Park leadership and the Friends of Virgin Islands National Park finally achieved our long-held goal of an anchorless park in February 2013. Since the beginning of the program, the Friends group has installed 340 moorings and invested more than $663,000 in this program.

Starting back in 1999, the Friends installed 180 moorings for overnight use in ten bays around St. John. These white mooring balls along the north and south shores of St. John have played a significant role in protecting coral reefs, allowing the recovery of sea grass and protecting other benthic resources. The sea grass beds had been seriously depleted due to anchoring, but now if you snorkel in the mooring fields you will see a rich carpet of sea grass–much to the delight (and survival) of the myriad of marine creatures that make the sea grass their home.

In 2004, the Friends embarked on a program to install moorings in the recently designated Coral Reef National Monument. As a marine protected area, anchoring was prohibited within the monument. But, while we supported the conservation policies of the monument, we felt that the prohibition on anchoring precluded many of the traditional uses of the monument’s waters.  Installing moorings was the perfect answer and a “win-win” for both the users and the environment: allowing users to continue to enjoy this unique marine environment while providing needed protection to the natural resources. In this case, the Friends installed two dive moorings at popular dive sites in the monument, six moorings for blue runner fishing, and 125 storm-mooring berths and 11 day-use moorings in Hurricane Hole, a traditional refuge here for vessels during tropical storms. These moorings were installed in four phases between 2004 and 2008.

All of the moorings mentioned above were for boats up to a maximum of 60 feet in length. Vessels larger than that still had to anchor. Earlier this year, we installed 14 moorings for boats between 60 and 100 feet in six bays, finally making the park anchorless.

The protection of the park’s marine resources was obviously the principal objective of the mooring installations. However, the moorings also have a significant impact on the visiting boaters’ experience by providing a safe and convenient means of securing their boats while enjoying Virgin Islands National Park and the Coral Reef National Monument.

This week, we celebrate Death Valley at night, enjoy another top 20 list, get a good reminder to slow down and take things in, and catch a couple of celebrities showing their support for one of America’s amazing landscapes, among other things.

1. Sunchaser Pictures did it again. They created another great timelapse video in Death Valley National Park, Death Valley Dreamlapse 2. Death Valley is not only the lowest point in North America, but this past February the International Dark-Sky Association also designated Death Valley as the world’s newest and largest “Gold Tier” International Dark Sky Park. This three-minute film celebrates how special the park is after the stars come out.
2. It’s smart to be slow. Facebook national park supporter Shari S. posted this to Yellowstone National Park’s Facebook page. Slowing down is always a good safety reminder, but John Muir said it best when asked about the word hike: “I don’t like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains—not hike!” Don’t forget to slow down for the wildlife, but also to enjoy what the national parks can show you.
3. I love lists. More importantly, I love checking things off of my lists. But an ever-growing list of mine is my “amazing places to visit in my lifetime” list. CNN just published “20 of the world’s most beautiful World Heritage Sites,” and it wouldn’t be an accurate list without one of our most iconic national parks. What national parks have you yet to cross off?
4. Baby animals can help you on the job. I read a study once that taking a minute of each day to look at baby animals will increase productivity. Here is your dose of cute baby bison in Yellowstone National Park. I hope this improves your productivity.
5. I have a confession to make: I am addicted to infographics. REI just came out with a great one for Hiking the Beautiful USA. This infographic illustrates the scale of these amazing trails and shares tips for packing, too. Check it out and plan your next hike!
6. Celebrities pose for the canyons. Neil Young and Daryl Hannah were spotted in Moab, Utah, where they happily took this picture supporting the protection of Greater Canyonlands.

Let me know what you have found on the ’net, and it could be in next week’s blog post!

-Megan Cantrell, Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement

Related post

If you enjoyed the new video by Sunchaser Pictures, read our interview with director Gavin Heffernan and his five tips for creating your own time-lapse film: “Behind the Scenes of Death Valley Dreamlapse.”

Chicago’s south side is home to some of America’s most fascinating and important stories. The Pullman Historic District is where, in 1880, George M. Pullman built the country’s first planned model industrial town. It was also home to the nation’s first African-American union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the pivotal “Pullman Strike” of 1894. These important “firsts” speak to Pullman’s national significance and why so many Chicago leaders have come together to work to establish it as the city’s first national park.

Last week, NPCA led a group of Chicagoans to Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts to see some of the possibilities for Pullman.

For more than 30 years, the people of Lowell have worked to preserve and interpret the history of this New England mill town, once known for its “mill girls” and immigrant laborers. The sights and sounds of Lowell would lead you to believe that you’ve set foot in the mid-19th century. The old brick mill buildings, the flowing waters of the Merrimack Canal, and the humming of century-old looms make Lowell a living exhibit telling the stories of what was once America’s booming textile industry. Riding the trolley through downtown Lowell and speaking with business and community groups about the spirit of cooperation provided the Pullman group with the ability to see what we are working toward together.

Imagine the possibility to breathe life into Pullman’s large factory shops, to hear the tick-tock of the administration building’s large clock tower, and to pave the way for hundreds of thousands of visitors to come each year and experience the history of labor and industry. Pullman shares an important piece of American history and establishing a national park there will ensure these many stories are told for years to come.

We gained a ton of knowledge from our visit to Lowell and can better envision a national park at Pullman. Now the real work begins.

Related posts

• “Chicago’s Pullman Partners See Possibilities for Pullman’s Future at Lowell Massachusetts Historical National Park,” PR Web, May 6, 2013.
• “Can Pullman’s Planned Community Become Chicago’s First National Park?” Park Advocate, February 8, 2012

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is one of five parks that NPCA studied in-depth in our new report, National Parks and Hydraulic Fracturing. Learn more about the effects of fracking on this and other parks on NPCA’s website and tell President Obama to protect our federal lands from the dangers of this controversial oil and gas extraction method.

Each month, NPCA puts together a slideshow exploring one of the 401 amazing sites in our National Park System. To get the featured park delivered to your inbox each month, sign up for Park Lines, NPCA’s newsletter, at www.npca.org/join.

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

If you liked this story, you might also like

• On the Edge: Fracking and the Fate of Theodore Roosevelt National Park (June 19, 2012)
• National Parks Deserve to Be Protected from Oil and Gas Development (April 25, 2013)
• Energy Development on Public Lands: The Next Four Years (December 5, 2012)

It’s here! As National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said earlier this week, “National Park Week provides an opportunity to appreciate the landmarks, monuments and historical landscapes that define our national identity.” There are a few days remaining in National Park Week 2013, which means if you haven’t yet visited one of the 401 national park units–you still have time.

1. Today is National Arbor Day. Huffington Post put together this great slideshow of some of the famous trees around the world, and you can be certain America’s Sequoia trees are among them.
2. Park Service Director Jon Jarvis wrote this story about National Park Week on the White House blog reminding us that our national parks (natural, historical, and cultural) are great places for recreation, learning, volunteering, and exploring.
3. This Kickstarter project asks a tough question: “What will happen to the public lands in this country when the majority of Americans don’t feel a personal connection to the outdoors?” This project’s end goal is to produce a feature-length documentary of the first African-American expedition to summit North America’s highest peak, Denali’s Mt. McKinley. The expedition takes place this summer.
4. The earthquake that rumbled the DC area two years ago left the Washington Monument in need of repair. Over the last month, DC residents have watched the scaffolding slowly build to the top of the monument. Check out these FAQs (and cool photo) from the National Park Service about the scaffolding and projected timeline of completion.
5. April 21 was John Muir’s 175th birthday. Sierra Club has a great online John Muir exhibit celebrating Muir and the important work he did protecting our most unique of landscapes.

Did you explore a national park unit this week? Tell us about it—or take our poll!

-Megan Cantrell, Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement

Theodore Roosevelt was our greatest conservation president. President Roosevelt’s boundless vision and determination resulted in a system of national parks that is the envy of the world, and has been called “America’s Best Idea.” Ironically, his namesake national park, which includes his North Dakota homestead, is currently facing a threat that could permanently degrade a patch of land that was supposed to be protected in perpetuity.

Across the nation, an oil and gas boom is taking place, largely through the utilization of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract oil and natural gas from shale formations buried deep beneath the surface. Wells have sprouted up on the outskirts of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and many more are planned there and across the nation, including near other National Park Service-managed lands like Glacier National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. But with this rapid boom, the negative impacts of large scale oil and gas development on national parks has largely been ignored. That is why the National Parks Conservation Association has released a new report on how fracking for oil and gas near national parks is already impacting these treasured places, and how impacts could increase unless we act now.

National Parks and Hydraulic Fracturing: Balancing Energy Needs, Nature, and America’s National Heritage is a comprehensive report on what large-scale oil and gas development adjacent to national parks does and could mean for these parks and the people who love and visit them. It details the known and suspected impacts of fracking on the environment, including harm to air, water, and wildlife—the things that make our national parks so special. It also provides five case studies that analyze national parks that are already in the middle of the oil and gas fracking boom: Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Glacier National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, and Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and Obed Wild and Scenic River.

Fort McHenry is a source of fierce pride for the residents of Baltimore. It is here that our citizens stopped the British Navy from attacking the city during the Battle of Baltimore in September of 1814. The flag that flew over the fort the morning after the battle not only signaled a defensive victory, but inspired a young lawyer, watching from a nearby ship, to compose a poem that would eventually become our national anthem. I visited that exact same flag this past weekend. It’s currently on display at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. I grew up in this area and have taken many trips to the museums in Washington throughout my life. I’ve seen this flag several times. This one object, more than any other, inspires a personal sense of patriotism and continues to make me reflect on the events that happened at Fort McHenry in Baltimore almost 200 years ago. 

Now, I get to visit Fort McHenry several times a month. It is the location of the National Aquarium’s urban field station. Adjacent to the fort is a ten-acre wetland created by the Maryland Department of Transportation as mitigation for constructing the I-95 tunnel that runs just offshore of the park. After years of inattention, the National Aquarium took over stewardship of the wetland in 1998 for use as an urban outdoor classroom and site for community-based stewardship activities and citizen science. We’ve hosted thousands of local students at the wetland site. Sometimes, it is the first time Baltimore City students get a chance to make a meaningful connection to the natural world. Students may have a chance to seine for fish (up to 20 species have been identified using the wetlands), bird watch (more than 250 species have been documented at the fort), plant native plants in the wetland or demonstration rain garden, or study wetland ecology. They may also have a chance to observe any of the large variety of animals that use the marsh for food or shelter. The list includes river otter, muskrat, deer, fox, and many species of turtle and snake. 

Every spring, the National Aquarium partners with the National Park Service, NPCA, and others to recruit volunteers to restore this vital habitat. Volunteers represent the diversity of the Baltimore community and come from local community associations, corporations, schools, churches, civic groups, social clubs, and other venues. Like us, our volunteers see real value in creating a healthy habitat for local wildlife and a much-needed outdoor classroom space for students. Since volunteer efforts began, citizens have helped plant native trees and marsh grasses, install bird boxes, and collect nearly 600,000 pieces of debris from this urban wetland. This work all adds up to create a valuable green space in the heart of Baltimore City.

Our next event will be held April 27, 2013, in celebration of Earth Day and Arbor Day. If you would like to help support our restoration and environmental education efforts at the fort, check out our ioby project page. If you are interested in joining us as a volunteer, please register here.

If you liked this story, you might also like

• “A Gift of the Whole People”: How Crowdfunding Can Help Revitalize National Parks (February 25, 2013)
• Want to Feel Happy and Appreciated? Help Out at a National Park (November 30, 2012)
• O Say, Can You See the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail? (August 7, 2012)

On a bus in Montgomery, a lone woman refused to be sent to the rear. In the dry desert east of Yosemite lie the foundations of an internment camp where thousands of Americans were imprisoned simply because of their ancestry. In a small, drab bar on Christopher Street in New York City, a handful of young men refused to be harassed by the police. These sites were all turning points in American history. They may not be as beautiful as the Tetons, or have the cachet of Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace, but they are each, in their own way, as important in our nation’s unfolding history. 

Originally built as stables in the 1840s, the small two-story building had multiple lives until it was opened as the Stonewall Inn in 1967. Soon it was the largest gay establishment in New York City, if not the nation. Frequently the target of harassing police raids, patrons erupted in rebellion on a hot June night in 1969. Dozens of gay youths refused to be picked on anymore. Rallying hundreds more, they turned the tables, trapping a handful of police officers inside the bar.

Sadly, not long after the riot, the bar closed, and over the next few decades the building languished in various guises, including a shoe store. But in the ensuing decades, a more enlightened society, growing gay pride, and an increasing appreciation of its iconic value led the bar’s stature as a symbol to grow. In 2000, the building was included with Christopher Street as part of the area’s National Historic Landmark designation. In 2007, the building was renovated again and re-opened with its old name, the Stonewall Inn.

Inside the bar today, a small mahogany countertop extends along the west wall facing just a dozen stools, another half-dozen booths line the opposite wall, and a small mirror-ceilinged gathering room remains in the back. It’s just a quarter the size of Boston’s famous bar from the television show Cheers, and when I last went in, it was still a neighborhood hang-out. At midday, a sole bartender was plying her trade to two locals. Stonewall could not be farther from the grandeur of the Grand Canyon. 

Yet, this unlikely site is more than worthy of being a national park. Stonewall Inn is the iconic anchor of a great arc of history that passes on through Harvey Milk, the proliferation of gay rights marches and parades in 1970s, the Rainbow Coalition, the incredible losses of the AIDS epidemic, and the profound shift toward the acceptance of same-sex marriage today. Like the history behind many sites, from Custer’s Last Stand to Manzanar, you don’t have to agree or disagree to recognize it. 

In this light, I urge you to email your Congressman and Senators (find them on our website) and ask that the Stonewall Inn be incorporated into our National Park System. For as then-Assistant Secretary of the Interior John Berry (now Director of the Office of Personnel Management) said in 2000, ”Let it forever be remembered that here—on this spot—men and women stood proud, they stood fast, so that we may be who we are, we may work where we will, live where we choose, and love whom our hearts desire.”

This story is reprinted from the most recent Northeast Regional Field Report. Read the rest of the issue on NPCA’s website.