Uh-oh.
    Someone from the Federal Communications Commission has been checking out my blog. I don't think I broke any communications laws. But then, I'm not an attorney in that line of work.
    But wait!
    Perhaps the FCC employee who came for a visit was simply interested in our national parks. You know, wondering what kind of shape they're in, how they're being managed, maybe wondering about my take on a visit to Mesa Verde.
    That's understandable and downright reasonable. I get thousands of visitors a month from all walks of life and most continents of the globe.

    Visitation to my blog has been growing steadily since I launched it back in August. And that's gratifying, because it shows you folks out there in cyberspace are concerned about how the parks are being tended.
    You have come from near and far. Along with traffic from right here in Utah, I've had folks peer at National Parks Traveler from afar. Way afar, in fact. Viewers have logged on from China, the Netherlands, Canada, Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico and even Iran. Heck, I've even had visitors from Nike and the New York Times!
    And in addition to FCC employees, I've had viewers from the National Park Service itself, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Census Bureau (for reasons I can't fathom), the Interior Department (for reasons I can fathom), and even the Justice Department (for reasons I don't want to fathom).
    Some have stumbled across the site via Google, some have come from other blogs, and others have dialed my url directly. You've come to learn about the ongoing NPS Management Policies debate, to get my take on visiting specific national parks, to check out my booklist, and even to learn about death in the parks.
    I hope those of you who stumble upon the site and those who come for a specific reason take some time to browse through the entire blog's content and find something interesting about the parks.
    Most of all, I hope you come away energized about some aspect of our national park system, whether it's concern over how the proposed revisions to the Management Policies would impact the parks as we currently know them, to learn the latest on Yellowstone's ongoing snowmobile debate, or simply to find a good lodging deal.
    What the parks need most these days are advocates. People who care deeply for the national park system and want to see it improved, not degraded, people who don't want to see it commercialized or turned into a themeland.
    A colleague recently passed on a quote attributed to Ansel Adams, that incredible photographer of natural landscapes, and I think it's particularly fitting these days. Carry it with you as the debates over how we manage our national parks and forests continue in the weeks, months and years ahead.

    "Generations to come will suffer from the embezzlement of resources, practical and spiritual, that were our heritage."--Ansel Adams.