Welcome to National Parks Traveler 2.0, which is a significant upgrade from the original version launched in August 2005 that we believe will provide you with even more value from the site.

Overall, the bottom line remains the same: National Parks Traveler works to educate the public about the national park system, increase awareness and understanding of issues affecting the national parks and the National Park Service, and build a stronger advocacy for protection and sound stewardship of the parks.

Along the way to fulfilling that mission, we hope to build a community, for in truth there are countless national park travelers with many experiences, points of view, and interests in the park system. While the primary focus of the Traveler will continue to be to shine a light on the National Park Service and the system it oversees and encourage debate and discussion, we hope you’ll come to view the Traveler as a cyber-lounge of sorts where you can share your park experiences with others who love the parks.

National Parks Traveler takes a conscious effort to avoid the ranting and raving of typical blogs and focus instead on thoughtful debate about management issues that affect the places we love to visit.

Rather than try to squeeze everything – posts, links, resource materials – onto the home page, we offer a Visitor Center that allows you to reach out to other park travelers in our forums, dive into our archives, find helpful and interesting links and blogs pertaining to the parks, and read book reviews. There are plans for park-specific pages -- a place to get the latest details on travel, news, maps, discussion, and other resources all related to a specific park.

The Traveler is built around the idea of community, and we invite you to join. If you'd like to, take a minute and create an account through the “log in” button in the upper right-hand corner. It’s free, and your info (like email) will remain tucked safely away from Internet robots.

As a member, you’ll be able to upload a photo of yourself, create a small bio for others to view, use a form to email other members directly, and enable others to read your collection of comments across the site. That said, you need not be a member to comment. We allow you the ability to comment anonymously.

As we move forward, we welcome your comments, thoughts, and suggestions on how we can all work together to ensure that America’s national park system remains the global leader in the national parks movement.

- Kurt Repanshek