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The First Family Plans to Visit Two Western National Parks Next Weekend

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Published Date

August 7, 2009
President Obama and his family on a trip to Accra, Ghana

President Obama and his family on a trip to Accra, Ghana, earlier this summer. Official White House photo by Pete Souza.

If you plan to be in either Grand Canyon or Yellowstone National Parks next weekend, you may want to count on a little extra traffic. The first family plans to join you.

A White House spokesman said President Barack Obama and his family will visit both parks during a weekend trip that will also include stops in Bozeman, Montana; Grand Junction, Colorado, and Phoenix.

The weekend trip is meant to "highlight" the national park system and "encourage all people…to go to and visit the national parks," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. The visits will coincide with the final "fee-free" weekend for parks this summer.

Park supporters hope a trip by the first family to two national parks next week will boost visibility of parks in general.

Details of the trip have not released, but according to the White House press office, the Yellowstone visit will occur on August 15; Grand Canyon is scheduled for August 16.

Such visits are always a mixed blessing for the staff and visitors at the parks involved. There's always the hope that a Presidential visit will raise the level of his appreciation--and therefore support--for the parks, and both employees and visitors who actually get to see the VIPs will remember the event.

The flip side is that the logistics and security arrangements that inevitably accompany any such visits will create a few interruptions in the usual routine. Visitors to both areas on the dates in question should plan to include some flexibility in their travel plans.

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Comments

Submitted by jsmacdonald on August 10, 2009 - 4:18pm.

Anonymous,

There are numerous articles on the yearly bison slaughter and hazing on this site (including one fairly recently); for a lot more information, you should check out http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org .

Jim Macdonald
The Magic of Yellowstone
Yellowstone Newspaper
Jim's Eclectic World


Submitted by admin on August 10, 2009 - 5:32pm.

I was planning on going to Yellowstone and the Tetons this week but just cancelled. Knowing "Bill" would be there would ruin it... I'll be arriving on the 15th instead.


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