Great Basin National Park publishes an annual Year In Review booklet to discuss successful projects and events/NPS

There always is something going on in the National Park System, some good, some not so good, and some interesting. Come along and let me explain.

* What became of Caneel Bay?

That's a question I've been asking for about two years now. Back in March 2018, Traveler filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking answers to why the National Park Service and CBI Acquisitions were apparently unable to come to agreement on a long-term lease for the Caneel Bay Resort at Virgin Islands National Park.

I requested copies of all correspondence, including emails, written letters, phone records, and pertinent internal documents relating to National Park Service efforts, both through its Washington, D.C., concessions office as well as the concessions staff at Virgin Islands National Park, to comply with Public Law 111-261, passed by Congress in 2010, to enter into a long-term lease with the holder of the Caneel Bay Resort RUE at Virgin Islands National Park for continued resort operations upon relinquishment in 2023. This request spans the years from 2010 up to present-day (2018) efforts to negotiate a lease with the RUE holder, CBI Acquisitions, and its parent company, and seeks specific information relating to the Park Service's efforts to negotiate a lease, including any draft terms and conditions presented to CBI by the Park Service and any responses from CBI and its parent company, including CEO Gary Engle and his legal team.

The battle hinges around CBI's desire for a 60-year extension of its current operating agreement, while the Park Service wants to turn the operation into a more traditional concession. The FOIA request was filed to learn exactly what, if any, negotiations had seriously been held since Congress told the Park Service in 2010 to look at transitioning the resort into a concession. If you're unfamiliar with the story, this article from Traveler's archives should provide context.

Now, not quite two years on, I'm still waiting for answers to all the questions. To recount exactly why the FOIA hasn't been fulfilled would be tedious, but in short there have been some bureaucratic issues that involved not fully comprehending the request above, and misplaced trust that emails would be successfully sent and read. The last "deadline" for the request to be completed was January 21, 2020. That was three weeks ago.

I raise this matter because of a story in Sunday's New York Times Travel Section. The headline and subdeck are riveting:

5 New Standout Resorts in the Caribbean
In the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria, many hoteliers in the Caribbean have regrouped and rebuilt — and are ushering in a new age of hospitality.

Not surprising is the fact that Caneel Bay Resort is not among the five. That's because there's been no apparent rebuilding effort in the wake of the two hurricanes back in 2017. Ironically, one of the resorts profiled is the Rosewood Little Dix Bay resort at Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. Laurance Rockefeller, who provided the land on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands for Virgin Islands National Park and created Caneel Bay Resort there, built the Little Dix resort in 1964. 

In the Times article Christian L. Wright notes that the Little Dix resort, "closed in 2016 to undergo some updates. Just before reopening in 2017, hurricanes Irma and Maria hit, devastating the entire resort. This month, it’s back in business — the ultra-deluxe business — after a complete renovation led by the New York design boutique Meyer Davis.

Caneel Bay Resort as noted also was trashed by the two hurricanes, but there hasn't been any sign of rebuilding, though CBI has received $32 million in insurance proceeds. Which begs the question of whether CBI will simply walk away with its $32 million and the Park Service will be left with a hefty repair bill.

* Great Basin National Park does PR.

Most park travelers, I'm guessing, don't pay much more attention to the parks they're visiting other than the comfort of the facilities, the quality of the interpretation, and the beauty of the landscape or richness of the culture or history. Which is perfectly fine.

And then there are the true park junkies who want to know as much as possible about what goes on in the parks. Some parks list this sort of detailed information on their websites, though for some large sites it can be difficult to find. At Great Basin National Park in Nevada, they produce a full-color printed annual report that runs a handful of pages to explain what goes on behind the facade. The latest report from Great Basin just came out, and here's a glance at some of the things it highlights:

* The park last year received the go-ahead to spend $9 million on backlogged maintenance projects. One of those will rebuild the Lower Lehman Campground, another will replace aging infrastructure in Lehman Caves, and the Bristlecone Recreation Area and Summit Trailhead park areas will be reconstructed.

* The Great Basin National Park Foundation last year helped make the park's 10th Annual Astronomy Festival possible, much to the delight of more than 1,000 who attended. The foundation also was able to secure grants to pay for the exhibit for that 1880s Winchester rifle found in the park's backcountry back in 2014. 

* Under the "Who knew?" category, the park since 2015 has partnered with the Nevada Northern Railway to bring passengers out into the desert so they can "gaze up to the heavens using telescopes and the naked eye. The Star Train has now become the Nevada Northern Railway's most popular event."

* Park archaeologists and historians are working to have Lehman Caves recognized in the National Register of Historic Places by recording artifacts and inscriptions made inside the cave.

Kudos to Great Basin! And if any other parks produce such reports, please send one to the Traveler at P.O. Box 980452, Park City, UT, 84098.

* Big Thicket's Flash Mob

Flash mobs are not always embraced by the National Park Service. Some years ago the former superintendent of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area told me these spontaneous gatherings were detrimental to some areas of his park, as they attracted more people than some areas could reasonable accommodate and so there would be resulting resource damage. Well, at Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas staff hopes to leverage a flash mob into a cleanup crew.

Join our volunteer team and show Big Thicket some love at the February Flash Mob clean-up on Saturday, February 15, 2020. This month’s clean-up will start at along Gore Store Road, at the Turkey Creek Trailhead on the northwest side of the creek. This trail head is in Village Mills, 3.5 miles east of Highway 69. In addition to cleaning up trash in the area, volunteers will undertake a number of housekeeping tasks around the site to help revitalize both trailheads along Gore Store Road.

* Breakfast At The Bluffs Restaurant

No, you can't stop at the charming restaurant at milepost 240 on the Blue Ridge Parkway just yet for breakfast, but there are plans for a grand reopening this summer.

The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation (a Traveler supporter) has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of raising money to pay for the restoration work needed to bring the popular restaurant back to life.

Completed in 1949, Bluffs Restaurant was the first concession facility to provide meals on the parkway. For 60 years, Bluffs Coffee Shop remained a favorite destination for travelers as well as community members who came for the pan-fried chicken, ham biscuits, and friendly service. The restaurant served as an economic engine for Alleghany County, North Carolina, and nearby towns, including Sparta, N.C.

In 2010, the operator, Forever Resorts, decided not to renew its concession contract with the National Park Service. Due to the high cost of repairs needed at the facility, a new concessionaire did not come forward and the building was shuttered. 

Working with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, members of the community began fundraising in 2017 to rehabilitate and reopen the restaurant. With support from individuals, a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, and funding from the North Carolina General Assembly and National Park Service, almost $1 million has been invested in restoring the facility and outfitting the restaurant with new equipment. 

One of the many people who have been waiting for The Bluffs to come back to life is Ellen Woodruff Smith, who worked at the restaurant from the day it opened on May 31, 1949, to the day it closed on November 1, 2010. For so many people who enjoy fond memories of Bluffs Coffee Shop, the stories go beyond the ham biscuits, pan-fried chicken, and berry cobbler. A big part of the charm was the welcoming staff.

“I never met a stranger,” says Ellen, who greeted tourists from all 50 states, loyal locals, and visitors from around the globe. (Read about Ellen’s time at The Bluffs)

While the restaurant is close to reopening, the Foundation needs to raise $60,000 more dollars to cover the remaining costs of the renovations. Consider a contribution at this site.

* Concerning Statistic...If True

A colleague who long has run in national park circles passed on two interesting statistics the other day. Well, one interesting, the other curious, if not downright disconcerting.

The first is that there are 1,300-1,400 campgrounds in the park system. The second is that only about 50 have amphitheaters where rangers can give talks.

Really? Can anyone fact-check that?

* There Are Explosives In The Parks, And There Are Bombs

There was much hue and cry this past week over word that explosives were being used at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona by contractors building a towering border wall there. The story on our Facebook page reached more than 29,000 folks, and more than 300 felt the need to weigh in with an opinion, many of which went beyond PG descriptions of the work and some of the other commenters. There also was a nasty little back-and-forth going on on Traveler's Instagram channel.

Would there be similar outrage raised at the prospect of a park using a 105 mm howitzer to, in effect, bomb its landscape?

Fellow travelers, it's been going on for decades in Yellowstone National Park, where the artillery rounds are intended to do avalanche control on the mountainsides that tower above Sylvan Pass. Since there is over-snow traffic coming in the park's East Entrance and over the pass, the Park Service conducts the control work to ensure safe passage below the 20 avalanche chutes.

Sometimes the bombs don't explode, though. 

In May 2006 a construction worker came across a 55-pound artillery shell on Sylvan Pass. This explosive obviously didn't explode, and the park had to call in crews from Malmstrom Air Force Base to safely detonate it. And then there was the time in 1995 when a visitor came across another unexploded shell and, not knowing exactly what it was, took it all the way to a visitor center, oblivious to the very real possibility that it could have detonated at any time.

So crazy is this bombing work that back in 2010 Yellowstone staff sought contractors to go out and look for unexploded ordnance in the area. The "scope of work" that surrounded this detail was quite open-ended. Under the straight-forward job title of Unexploded Ordnance in Sylvan Pass Avalanche Zone, prospective bidders were told that:

* Park officials really didn't know how large an area needed to be searched;

* The successful bidder would be using "handheld instrumentation to detect below surface UXO (unexploded ordnance)":

* How deep under the ground UXO might be found was an unknown;

* Park officials have no idea how many UXO might be in the area (although, a May 2006 story in the Billings Gazette stated that, "There may be as many as 300 unexploded shells in the hills around Sylvan Pass, according to park rangers.")

You can read more of this history from Traveler's archives.

When I wrote that story back in 2011, it received two comments.

Now, when you consider that the ground at Organ Pipe Cactus where the explosives work is being conducted long has been disturbed and checked for archaeological remains and artifacts, while the Yellowstone landscape involved is was a pristine, rugged mountainside that has been shelled year after year after year, is it worth wondering whether the animus expressed over the Organ Pipe Cactus situation is largely politically motivated?