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Reader Participation Day: What's the Most Important Part of Your National Park Trip?

Published Date

November 11, 2009
Arches National Park, copyright Kurt Repanshek

Is the scenery in a national park more important to your visit than the comfort of your lodging? NPT file photo of Arches National Park.

There are so many components that go into a successful national park escape. Travel to the park of your choice, comfortable and reasonably priced lodging, well-marked trails to explore, good interpretive programs, and nutritious, tasty meals are just some of the most obvious aspects. What's most important in your estimation to a successful park trip?

Do you put more emphasis on a clean, comfortable room to return to at day's end than on an interesting ranger-led program? Do you want to be able to lose yourself in a park museum, or down a trail, and everything else is secondary? Do you go home disappointed if the interpretive staff is made up of volunteers who are a little shaky on their presentations?

Let us know what makes the perfect national park trip, and we'll pass on your thoughts to the NPS.

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Comments

Submitted by admin on November 12, 2009 - 7:57pm.

To Lee Dalton & y_p_w: Based on the picture you posted, that "privatized" personnel at Bryce Canyon were quite the opposite of that. On the right side of that shirt, you'll see the SCA logo. The Student Conservation Association provides internships and seasonal jobs for (mostly) college students at parks and natural areas across the country. They do everything from trail work to invasives managment to interpretation on about $60 a week! Essentially, they are volunteers!

Most of the SCA interns you see at visitors centers and giving programs have done the same training at the paid staff. Just because that particular year, the shirts that all of the SCA interns had to wear were corporately sponsored, doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Shouldn't you be happy that an American company like Ford is supporting conservation efforts in our country?

http://www.thesca.org/

Furthermore, I started my career in interpretation as an intern (not as an SCA, but many of my colleagues did) and I would have been disappointed if people avoided my programs or told me they felt "cheap" because I wasn't a "real" ranger. Sure, the next season I was happy to put on my flat hat with the green and gray. But I was also proud to serve our nation's parks as an underpaid yet well-trained intern and volunteer.


Submitted by admin on November 14, 2009 - 11:09pm.

Nope -- I know the difference between SCA folks and Ford Motor Company. SCA interns are real volunteers. Ford Motor Company didn't come free. The real problem with the Ford folks was that it was one of the Cheney administration's attempts to demolish the parks as we know them. It went right along with the idea of corporate sponsorship of facilities in parks -- like the Blackwater Boardwalk or the Haliburton Visitor Center.


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