Walking out of the visitor center at Capitol Reef National Park will be one of the most surreal experiences of your life, as you pass through a portal not only into a red-rock cathedral but also back into the past. The park is a pure slice of heaven in the desert, seemingly waiting for Irma to open up a pie stand.

For longer than the National Park Service has been in business, capitalists have pulled at national parks, looking for a way to get their financial cut of natural resources. Should we be surprised at this behavior? Of course not. Disappointed? I'd like to think so.

A funny thing seems to have happened to U.S. Senators Max Baucus and Mike Crapo on their way to fighting to keep public lands in the public's hands: They overlooked the 84 million acres of the national park system.

In an effort to encourage the presidential candidates to pay attention to national park issues, the National Parks Conservation Association has launched its own candidate, Teddy Mather, a bear named for national parks champion President Teddy Roosevelt, and Stephen Mather, first director of the National Park Service.