In the early 1900s, there were plenty of ideas for ways the new agency called the National Park Service could "improve" the parks. Here are a couple whose time never came, perhaps in part due to the "bad times" during World War I and the Great Depression.
Have you ever had the itch to fly over the Grand Canyon in a helicopter? Do you want a bird's eye view of Crater Lake? Or do you believe the airspace over national parks should be reserved strictly for, well, the birds?
An aviation company that offers helicopter tours of central Oregon wants to add Crater Lake National Park to its flight plans, but opposition to the proposal is mounting.
Lady of the Woods is the figure of a woman carved from a large volcanic boulder in Crater Lake National Park. The carver was Dr. Earl Russell Bush, a physician working for the Corps of Engineers, in October of 1917.
In the early 1900s, some national parks existed, but getting to them was problematic. Then was born the idea to develop a "National Park-to-Park Highway," one that would run through 11 states and connect 13 national parks.
Perhaps one of the most attempted photographs taken at Crater Lake National Park is of the curious formation in the lake known as Phantom Ship. This shot, by Rob Mutch, executive director of the Crater Lake Institute, illustrates why.
But what is the Phantom Ship? Here's the National Park Service's explanation:
You could call it a postage stamp-sized history of the National Park System, but the history of park scenes on U.S. postage is really quite colorful and carries a few stories with it.
The Pacific Crest Trail ranges from Canada to Mexico, running through Washington, Oregon, and California along the way, traversing not one but seven units of the National Park System in the process. While mountain bikers are not supposed to use the trail, recently some have been poaching sections in California.
This week’s quiz will find out if you are a winterwise park visitor. Answers are at the end. If we catch you peeking, we’ll make you explain why the Bergeron-Findeisen process grows snowflakes only because the equilibrium vapor pressure of water vapor with respect to ice is less than that with respect to liquid water at the same subfreezing temperature.
MSNBC has compiled a Top 10 National Park Lodges list for the purpose of helping us choose where to “sleep in style on a summer escape to our nation's national parks.” They might want to re-state that. Two of the lodges aren’t in the United States and another is said to be in a park that, technically speaking, doesn’t exist yet.