What is it about grizzly bears that intrigues us, or scares us? They are magnificent apex predators that long have been vilified by some while admired by others.

Enter the National Park System and you often will find yourself in a landscape with bears. In the East you’ll find black bears in Great Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah, and Acadia national parks, just to name three destinations with the bruins.

Head west and many parks have black bears roaming the countryside, with a few parks also being home to grizzlies.

There is so much rich history across the National Park System, from chapters of the Revolutionary War held in parks in the eastern half of the country to stories from the gold rush that stampeded through Alaska during the late 1890s.
 
This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at The National Parks Traveler. I’ve always been fascinated with history. And when you look at parks in the eastern half of the country, the reservoir is so much deeper than in the western half if only for the reason that more was written down.