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National Parks Traveler Podcast

National Parks Traveler Episode 177: Following The Oregon Trail At Scotts Bluff

Traveling the Oregon Trail Through Scotts Bluff National Monument
The Oregon Trail stretched roughly 2,170 miles from Missouri to Oregon’s Willamette Valley. It rambled across prairie, sagebrush desert and mountains. From the 1840s into the 1880s, hundreds of thousands of immigrants made the challenging journey, and not all survived. Today more than 120 historic sites, auto tour routes, and markers show us where the Oregon Trail traveled.

National Parks Traveler Episode 176: Exploring National Parks In America's Heartland

Exploring national parks in the heartland of America
There are many lessor known parks and historical sites in the National Park System that provide not just stunning landscapes but interesting glimpses into American history. This week, we catch up with Kurt Repanshek, the editor of the National Parks Traveler, during his exploration of these lessor known spots in the heartland of America, Nebraska and Kansas.

National Parks Traveler Episode 174: Listening To Park Sounds

As much as a national park’s scenery catches you, the sounds you can pick up during your park visits are just as memorable. And, in the case of a howling wolf, bellowing grizzly, or bugling elk, I would suggest that they’re more memorable. This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at the National Parks Traveler. This week, we’re doing away with talking and focusing on listening.

National Parks Traveler Episode 172: What Parks Will You Visit This Summer?

Memorial Day Weekend is the traditional kickoff to summer. Where will you go in the National Park System?

Memorial Day Weekend is the official kickoff to summer. Now, there’s no doubt that many of us have already been to a unit of the National Park System in 2022, but this weekend is the traditional start to venturing into the park system.

If you don’t know where to go, or what to do, I’ve invited Kim O’Connell, a contributing writer at the National Parks Traveler, and Lynn Riddick, the Traveler's masterful podcaster, to help sort through the options. 

National Parks Traveler Episode 171 | Battling Politics In The Parks

National Parks probably have never been entirely immune from political influences, whether they came out of Washington, D.C., or close to a park’s boundaries. But there’s an argument that can be made, one backed up by evidence, that the past 50 years have seen the most attempts to subvert the mission of the National Park Service to preserve and protect natural resources unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

National Parks Traveler Episode 170| The National Park System's Crippling Maintenance Backlog

National Parks Traveler podcast
In today's podcast we’re taking time to take a look out across the National Park System, and at the National Park Service, to explore how things are on the ground, literally and figuratively. To help me with this discuss, I’ve invited Kristen Brengel, the senior vice president for government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, and Phil Francis, the immediate past chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, to discuss recent events, including a new, somewhat shocking, deferred maintenance figure for the National Park System.

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